The resurrection of Jesus is an event for every day

Easter Sunday is the most important day of the year. Pope St Paul VI said that the resurrection is the unique and sensational event on which the whole of human history turns. It is so central to our Christian belief that St Paul wrote: “If Christ has not been raised then our preaching is useless and your believing is useless” (I Cor. 15:14).

Beginning with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday evening up to Easter Sunday we celebrate what is called the Paschal Triduum. Paschal comes from a word meaning a journey or a passing and triduum means three days. So, in plain English this means a three-day journey through death and resurrection. “He was raised to life on the third day.”

If you think of it, the third day is part of the storyteller’s stock in trade. On the first day the problem arises: on the second day, there is no way out of it: but on the third day, the unexpected happens and all is changed.

Three-day Celebration

Nowadays we hold that a new day begins after midnight, but back in Jesus’ time a day was measured from sundown to sundown. As the Last Supper was held after darkness had fallen, what we call Thursday night was the commencement of Friday for the Jews of that time, the first day of the three-day story. At the end of the meal, Judas allowed Satan to enter him and he turned his back on Jesus, the light of the word to walk out. Night had fallen. Then followed the agony in Gethsemane, the arrest and trial of Jesus, his crucifixion and death. Jesus died at the ninth hour – 3pm on our clock. It was just before sundown when his burial took place. And so ended the first of the three days.

The second day is when all seems lost. The Apostles’ Creed says the Christ descended into hell. This is not suggesting that he experienced the state of damnation. Hell originally meant the hiding place of the dead. Christ who came down to save all people, embraced all who lived and died before his time on earth. We call this day Holy Saturday.

After sundown, the third day has begun. The Easter Vigil commences in darkness. A fire is lit, the Paschal Candle receives the light, it is passed on to the congregation and the Exultet proclaims that Christ broke the prison-bars of death and rose victorious from the underworld. The ceremony reaches its climax when we renew our baptismal promises, renouncing Satan’s evil ways and committing ourselves to Jesus Christ.

Mystery of faith

When we are invited to proclaim the mystery of faith, one formula expresses it as an event of past, present and future. “Christ has died”, an event of past history: “Christ is risen”, in the present tense: “Christ will come again”, looking with hope towards the future of joining Christ in heaven. Christ has conquered sin and death, and he invites us to walk the road of life as a risen people. The resurrection of Jesus is an event for every day.

Resurrection continues

Pope Francis has written: “Christ’s resurrection is not an event of the past; it contains a vital power which has permeated the world. Where all seems to be dead, signs of resurrection suddenly spring up. It is an irresistible force” (The Joy of the Gospel, 276). Yet the struggle goes on and the dreadful lies and violence which Jesus experienced continue today in the sufferings inflicted on the people of Ukraine as well as other, less publicised, warzones. Pope Francis is aware of the ongoing machinations of Satan, identified by Jesus as the father of lies and a murderer from the beginning. His apostolic exhortation continues: “often it seems that God does not exist: all around us we see persistent injustice, evil, indifference and suffering.”

Yet, even in the present-day repetition of Calvary, Pope Francis could see glimpses of the resurrection. “But it is also true that in the midst of darkness something new always springs to life, and sooner or later, produces fruit. However dark things are, goodness always re-emerges and spreads.” Because of the war in Ukraine, virtually every country in the world is suffering because of spiralling inflation. Migrants are welcomed, regardless of the cost. The fruits of goodness are to be seen in the generosity, hospitality and sacrifices shown by other nations to those forced to migrate.

Jesus is in solidarity

The quotation from Pope Francis continues: “Each day in our world beauty is born anew, it rises transformed through the storms of history. Values always tend to reappear under new guises, and human beings have arisen time after time from situations that seemed doomed. Such is the power of the resurrection, and all who are evangelised are instruments of that power.”

Perhaps we thought that the horrors of two world wars in the Twentieth Century would ensure that human beings would never again engage in such evil.

This Easter, let us all put extra energy into the renewal of our Baptism as we renounce the evil ways of Satan and commit ourselves to the ways of Jesus. The kingdom of God, proclaimed by Jesus Christ, is one of justice and peace, truth and kindness, respect and reverence. The resurrection is not just an event of the past but it is the source of power to transform humanity. In a sense, Christ is not fully risen until he is risen in us. And one weapon at our disposal is constant prayer for peace.