THE TURNING POINT

What is that red pink in the sky, could it be the sign of a volcano in the process of erupting; of spluttering fire, hot lava threatening to wipe out one and all, or could it be the sign of a new day, the promise of a bright new future ?

“If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” (1 Cor. 15: 14). This is the fulcrum, the keystone, the ‘be all and the end all’ of our Religion. Paul must have been Divinely inspired to talk and write those words, because much was at stake. He must have been convinced, he must have had guts to utter such words, or he must have had strong faith of conviction. The Christian faith ‘stands or falls’ with the truth of the testimony that Christ IS risen from the dead. Paul was shouldering a huge responsibility, because this was not a declaration simply made for the Corinthians, he must have realised that this was a ‘universal’ declaration.

Admittedly if such an event, Christ’s Resurrection from the dead, did not take place, as Benedict XVI puts it, ‘a kind of religious world view, because of Christian Tradition and ideas about God, and about man’s obligations towards God’,  would still have existed, BUT, the Christian faith would be dead. Jesus would have been a failed religious leader, notwithstanding His greatness, but ... He would have remained purely human. Christ would not have been a ‘criterion’, the criterion would have been our own personal judgement. 

But the fact that Christ IS risen, a really new thing, an event has occurred that changed the world, changed world History and the situation of mankind. NOW Christ became the ‘criterion’ on which we can rely, because God has truly revealed Himself. This is the crucial point, the turning point.

That is why it is necessary, it is imperative to listen to, and understand with particular attention as the New Testament  bears witness to the Resurrection. The testimony, considered from a historical point of view, is presented in a complex form. It was not easy for the ‘witnesses’ who encountered the Risen Lord to confront what for them was a ‘new reality’, far beyond the limits of their experience. Even the three apostles coming down from the Tabor experience asked what “rising from the dead” really meant.

This was different from Lazarus’ raising from the dead, different from Jairus daughter’s, and also different from the son of the widow of Nain. Ultimately, these three persons; Lazarus, Talitha and the son died at some time later on. Christ’s was a different case altogether. Jesus after resurrecting from the dead, did not die again as all mortals do. Here we have as already declared by St.Paul a ‘universal event’, the opening up of a new dimension of human existence. This is the correct understanding of the New Testament Resurrection testimony.

Christ’s Resurrection from the dead was, and still IS an overture of a new day, a new beginning, the promise of a bright new future, of life after life.