None of the Canonical Gospels in the New Testament ends with the passion story of Christ. The outcome of the passion story is His resurrection. Each evangelist fits their proclamation of the resurrection of Jesus into the style and theological perspective of one’s Gospel. And none of them described the actual raising of the body of Jesus from death. In a way, they themselves show that resurrection of Christ is something beyond what the human mind and human perception can imagine and grasp. Thus, their accounts of the resurrection of the Lord respect this mysterious aspect of the resurrection. They were very careful not to make an attempt to describe mysterious aspect of the resurrection in limited human language, terms, and their human skills.
However, though the appearances of Jesus were described in very different fashion by each evangelist and by St. Paul, there are common threads that run through these stories. One of the common elements that we can find in them is affirming of something that began to happen in the lives of early witnesses. Those early witnesses had been paralyzed in fear, anxiety, and hopelessness, before this unique event of the Resurrection of Jesus (especially when Jesus was crucified). But, as Jesus rose, they became so transformed and different. They were given new life and purpose for their whole living. Further, those weak and timid apostles became courageous enough to carry the Gospel to the ends of the earth.
That was one of the impacts of the resurrection of Jesus is transformation of the whole self; life becoming something fearless to face and hopeful in the Lord. Jesus is not simply a figure of the past, but a person in the present; not merely a memory that we can analyze and manipulate, but the Lord who can give us life and hope amidst anxiety, stress, fear, and shame. Even as Christians we may wrestle with anxiety, disappointment, and betrayal. Many times because of our own doubts and failures, we cannot feel the presence of the Risen Lord. Sometimes we tend to close our hearts, and shutting the world out, and simply become prisoners of our own self-perceptions, sins, and shame. Have A Blessed Easter!
— Fr. Niranjan Rodrigo, Ph.D.
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