Automatic translation from Italian, under review.
MAY 2022
Dearest sisters and brothers,
we are still in the midst of the Easter season, so it seems fitting to me to dedicate this Point of Light to the contemplation of the Risen Jesus, the foundation of our faith and of our hope; through him we have obtained the forgiveness of sins. He, who died for us, did not undergo corruption and, glorified by the Father, became the principle of resurrection and new life for all of us and for the entire cosmos.
The resurrection of Jesus is the beginning of the New Creation, in which matter too will be ordered to the spirit in perfect harmony. The Risen Christ is our future and that of the universe; he is forever the bread given for us, the Love of the Son of God expressed even humanly in the supreme gift of himself on the cross, the death that gives life, made eternal in the glory of the resurrection. The glorified humanity of Jesus is made a sharer in the divinity of the Word of God.
The resurrection involves the whole history of humanity and of the universe.
Let us try, then, to enter into the contemplation of this great mystery, letting ourselves be guided by the Word of God.
“If Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain” (1 Cor 15:17), Saint Paul says, immediately placing, precisely in the certainty of the resurrection, the foundation of our faith in Christ Jesus.
The appearances of the Risen One to the few witnesses whom God chose in order to manifest himself show us clearly that we are not before someone “brought back to life” who will die again, as in the case of Lazarus, but before a person who lives in another dimension: the Risen Jesus passes through closed doors, yet lets himself be touched, he is not a ghost; he sits at table with the disciples of Emmaus, yet vanishes at the breaking of the bread; no one recognizes him when he appears, Mary mistakes him for the gardener; only when the interior light of faith that he himself awakens is kindled does he let himself be recognized.
Everything shows that we are not dealing with mystical experiences of the various protagonists, but with real encounters with a living person, who surprises and overwhelms them.
The resurrection of Jesus is not a miracle, however extraordinary, but a mystery that involves all of humanity and the whole of creation.
If Christ is risen, we too will rise, because in him we shall all receive eternal Life (cf. 1 Cor 15:22).
We must ask ourselves with what body we will rise.
On this point Saint Paul explains in the first letter to the Corinthians: “What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that will be, but a bare kernel of wheat, perhaps, or of some other kind; but God gives it a body as he chooses, and to each of the seeds its own body” (1 Cor 15:36-38).
For Paul, the resurrection of each of us implies a creative act of God, who will give to each seed its own body, now free from earthly constraints, as he himself specifies: “It is sown corruptible; it is raised incorruptible. It is sown dishonorable; it is raised glorious. It is sown weak; it is raised powerful. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body” (1 Cor 15:42-44).
The personal identity of each of us remains, and the glorious body, in its transformation, becomes a spiritual body, but not a mere spirit devoid of matter; rather, matter is purified of every imperfection in order to share in the divine life. The resurrection is the divinization of the whole human person taken integrally.
Only in the mystery of the Risen Jesus, however, is it possible to explain, or to stammer, something of this sublime reality.
The resurrection of Jesus is his entry into a new dimension, not subject to space and time.
The death of Jesus, taken on by him, does not put an end to life, but makes death die, becoming the gateway of the resurrection, which does not occur after death, but in death itself.
It is the same Jesus crucified, dead on the cross, who is glorified in the unity of soul and body, receiving a fully human existence, yet different from the earthly one. In the resurrection of Jesus, God inaugurates the New Creation, no longer from nothing, but from the reality of the historical Christ. The New Creation, beginning from the Risen Jesus, succeeds creation.
If we consider the human body in itself, it must be made clear at this point that, in its physiological and biological reality, subject to growth and decomposition, it constitutes for every person the possibility of expressing the life of the soul and of entering into relationships with God, with others and with creation.
The resurrection will restore for each of us the harmonious relationship of body and soul and the full life of relationship with God, with others and with the cosmos. In the resurrection, transformed matter will no longer be an obstacle to the human spirit.
We live conditioned by space and time; our body places us in relationship with everyone and everything, it is a center of relationships with the cosmos, of which we are a part, even as we tend to dominate it.
The Risen Jesus dominates the universe, he is no longer conditioned by space and time, but contains within himself all of humanity and the cosmos; he is bodily present everywhere, he fills all things with himself, contains all things in himself, penetrates and gives life to all things.
The body of Jesus, during his earthly existence, was never an obstacle to the life of the spirit, but took full part in the total gift of himself to the Father and to all of us, even unto death.
The sacrifice of the cross, freely accepted, transformed death into fullness of life, that of the Son of God. The loving death of the Crucified One is made eternal by the resurrection; taken on by Christ, it is “divinized” and gives life.
The Risen Jesus is also, humanly, in his bodily and spiritual being, the Son; his glorified humanity is made a sharer in the divinity of the Word.
The resurrection of Jesus is not, however, a personal event concerning him alone, but has a cosmic dimension; it is the fulfillment of the history of salvation and of God’s plan for humanity and creation.
All creation, as Saint Paul explains so well, waits with eager longing to be set free from corruption, to enter into the freedom of the glory of the children of God (cf. Rom 8:19-22); creation awaits the New Creation: the new heavens and the new earth (cf. Rev 21:1).
The Risen One is the goal of history; in ascending to Heaven, to the right hand of the Father, he does not move away from us; rather, Heaven is he himself, who contains all things in himself. He is present to the universe in a new way, he is present to us in an intimate and profound way.
In rising, Jesus takes us with him, he is with us always; the Parousia will not be his definitive coming, almost his return, but his manifestation, because Jesus is not absent from the world but present in a new way, by virtue of his resurrection.
The Risen Jesus is present to humanity of all times; he contains in himself every time and every space, he is the center of history; in his glorious body men and women of all places and of all ages can gather and find one another again in unity.
The communion of all in Christ was paid for by Jesus crucified and began with the Risen Jesus. Unity is the distinguishing mark of the new humanity.
The Risen One, however, is also the cause of the universal recapitulation of the cosmos, created by God for us; there is an indissoluble bond between us and creation.
Creation tends toward its liberation; the Risen Jesus, as the ultimate end to which the cosmos is ordered, already now exercises his influence upon the world; by ascending to Heaven, he has drawn near to us and to the cosmos in a new way.
With the resurrection of Jesus, humanity and creation have already entered into God in the body of the Risen One; thus has begun the return of creation to the bosom of the Father, which will be accomplished in the Parousia.[1]
Sr. Nunziella
SLOGAN: In the Risen One we live and move; let us seek the things that are above.
[1] Cf. G. Rossé, La risurrezione di Gesù (The Resurrection of Jesus) in Nuova Umanità I (1979) 4/5, pp. 51-72.