FEAST OF EASTER

FEAST OF  EASTER

"If Jesus has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain."  (1 Cor 15/14)

 

Feast of Easter is the oldest and most important feast in the Christin tradition. The celebration of the Feast of Easter started before the celebration of Christmas.  It is the feast of the feasts.  Easter celebrates the triumphant  of Jesus over death and sin through His resurrection.The New Testament teaches that the resurrection of Jesus, which Easter celebrates, is a foundation of the Christian faith. St. Paul in his first letter to Corinthians (1 Cor15/12-22) establishes  the fact that if Jesus has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. The resurrection of Jesus is the crowning truth of our faith in Christ.The resurrection of Jesus is the faith believed and lived as a central truth by the first Christian community.This faith has been established by the documents of the New Testament and preached as an essential part of the Paschal mystery along with the cross and handed on as fundamental tradition. The mystery of Christ resurrection is a real event with manifestations that were historically verified as the New Testament bear witness. In first letter to Corinthians (1Cor 15) St Paul speaks of the living tradition of the resurrection he had learned after his conversion. The empty tomb and the interaction of Jesus with disciples in different occasions after resurrection strengthened the faith of resurrection among the first Christian community. 

The risen Jesus establishes direct contact with disciples to make them aware that he appeared to them in the same body that has been tortured and crucified yet at the same time this authentic real body possesses the properties of a glorious body not limited by space and time. In his risen body he passes from the state of death to another life beyond time and space. At Jesus resurrection his body is filled with the power of the holy spirit and shares a divine life in his glorious state. Although resurrection was an historical event that could be verified by the sign of the empty tomb and by the reality of the apostles' encounters with risen Christ, still it remains at the very heart of the mystery of faith  as something that transcends and surpasses the history.

Resurrection is a definite proof for his divine authority and the fulfillment of the promises both of Old Testament and of Jesus himself in during his earthly life.(Mt 28/6, Mk 16/7, Lk 24/6-7, 26-27,44-48, 1 Cor 15/3-4).The resurrection established Jesus as the powerful Son of God (Rom 1/4) and is cited as proof that God will judge the world in righteousness (Acts 17/31).

Paschal mystery has two aspects by death Christ liberates us from sin by resurrection he opens for us the way to a new life. This new life is the justification that reinstates us in God's grace. (Rom 6/4) Justification consists in both victory over the death caused by sin and an a new participation in grace. It brings about filial adoption so that men become Christ 's brethren.We become brethren by the gift of grace. Real share in the life of only son which was fully revealed in resurrection.

Christ's resurrection and risen Christ himself is the principle and source of our future resurrection (1 Cor 15/20-22). Christ the first born from the dead (col 1/18) is the principle of our own resurrection even now by the justification of our own souls and one day by the new life he will impart to our bodies (Rom 8/11).

Thus through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, God has given us "a new birth into a living hope  from the dead".^]We   through faith in the working of God are spiritually resurrected with Jesus so that they may walk in a new way of life.Our  lives  are swept by Christ into the heart of divine life so that we  may live no longer for ourselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

*Article is based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church