We’ve all had the experience of someone close dying. Perhaps they have even suffered greatly. We all know of people who are in deep pain, either physically, or more often emotionally. Suffering seems to be the natural course of life. We of course hit high points; there is joy in life, but even the moments of joy can become soured in the inevitability of pain and death. Watching the news, reading about national and international problems that seem to defy solution only tend to intensify the agony we feel around us. Despair, especially in these turbulent times, hangs in the air like smog, choking life and inhibiting growth.

       Christ is risen from the dead! What powerful words, what joy. But they’ve become such a cliché. We exchange the greeting saying: “Truly He is risen!” yet its impact doesn’t really find expression in our life. The words are charged with life. They have the power to electrify. But in a flash it’s over and we are back to the routine.

       Where do despair and depression come from? Their roots are in our feeling of helplessness, of drifting aimlessly. Our life can become an endless routine devoid of purpose. We go through the motions without any goal, or worse yet, with a bankrupt goal. We say to ourselves, “I’ll put up with this so I can get a better job,” or “We’ll keep going like this just until the kids grow up.” But if and when we reach the goal, there is little fulfillment, and an abundance of emptiness. Our life becomes meaningless because the things that we thought would give it meaning are only shadows.

       Christ is risen from the dead! Now there is something with meaning. No matter how some have attempted to cheapen, to detract from, Christ’s resurrection, the awesomeness of it continues to attract us. It has been almost 2,000 years, yet we still cling to it. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if it were true, if He really did come back from the dead? If He really did stop the interminable cycle of hopelessness? It is more than simply a “That’s Incredible” fascination with us. It assumes life and death proportions.

       But many of us, as we reflect on Christ’s resurrection, find it hard to relate it to our present condition. The words are magnetic, the concept is electric, but its meaning in 21st century America escapes us. I personally do not think that it was any easier twenty centuries ago to understand Christ. He was as difficult to accept then as now, because what He asks us to believe is contrary to all the seeming laws and principles of this world.

       Christ is risen from the dead! Perhaps the point is too obvious, but in His coming back from the dead, Christ has reversed the ‘natural’ order. He made the impossible a reality not only for Himself, but also for all those who believe in Him. He cuts through external forms, piercing the real meaning of things. Everyone was expecting the Messiah to be an earthly king. Even the disciples expected Christ to set up His rule upon His entry into Jerusalem. Who would have suspected that this same crowd that greeted Him with palms would end up crucifying Him? But even more, who would have suspected that this dead Messiah would come back from the tomb and alter the course of nature?

       What Christ did was to change the inner reality. He did establish His kingdom, but, as He said, it is within each one of us. He could have become the political King of Israel, inaugurating not only a revolt against the Romans, but also instituting all kinds of broad social programs. But He did not choose that road, because in the end that approach is bankrupt if there is no change in our internal condition, in our hearts. We change from the inside out. When we accept the truth of Christ it transforms us. And even though this truth stands in opposition to all we consider logical and normal, in the end it conquers, just as Christ, through His humiliating death, conquered Death.

       Christ is risen from the dead! Christ who rose from the dead offers this same resurrection to each one of us. He offers to share the Life which He possesses with us. All our fears, all our greed, all our anger, all our envy, every evil which we perpetrate against our fellow humans melts in the warmth of Christ’s love for us. We know that Christ is risen. We know that we too will rise. We know that no one in Christ dies.

       Our belief in this Passover from death to Life is central. It is the primary life-event for the Church and for each one of us. It changes all our relationships. In the Resurrection we celebrate life, we celebrate hope, we celebrate the love of our God for us.

       Christ is risen! Who can despair? Christ is risen! Who can fear death? Christ is risen! Who can hate their brother and sister? Christ is risen! And we are pulled up by Him. His hand is extended. Who can refuse it? Christ is risen!

Fr. Nicholas Apostola