Happy Easter, everyone!
Here are instructions on making eggs like that.
Showing posts with label Easter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Easter. Show all posts
Sunday, March 27, 2016
Christ is risen!
Sunday, April 5, 2015
Happy Easter!
Happy Easter to all my readers! Christ has indeed risen, turning despair into hope, shining light where there was none.
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Christ has risen!
Indeed he is risen!
Here is an interesting question. Why is Easter the greatest liturgical celebration of the year for Christians rather than Good Friday? One might, after all, imagine someone reasoning thus: "On Good Friday we celebrate Christ's bearing our sins, and this payment of the penalty for our sin is what frees us from the debt that we cannot pay. So the Good News is in fact the events of Good Friday, and the Easter event's main role for us is merely evidential--it is evidence of our future resurrection." But that is not how the Church thinks.
I think there are at least three responses to this reasoning.
1. The evidential and symbolic is of great existential importance to our lives, and to celebrate the event central to the evidence of Christ's prophetic (and hence divine, given that he said things that in an Old Testament context are claims of divinity) status as the central liturgical event of the year is very appropriate.
2. This is very speculative. One might ask: When did Christ's payment of the penalty come to a completion? Was it when he died on Good Friday? Or was it only after the descent into sheol? If the latter, then the resurrection marks the completion of Christ's payment, and thus the celebration of Christ's bearing of the penalty for our sins fits well with Easter. On the other hand, I do not think the Tradition sees Christ's descent into sheol as a part of his sufferings. For instance, in the Odes of Solomon, the descent is present triumphantly.
3. Imagine that Christ's penalty was paid, and resurrection for us was won, but Christ did not rise again, either because he remained a disembodied soul or because the Incarnation terminated. Then we wouldn't we have nearly as good evidence of our resurrection, as point 1 says. But also, there would no longer be bodily communion with Christ. Think of it from the point of view of the Apostles. There was their friend who died. If they rose but he did not, they might be able to commune with him spiritually, but never again in an embodied way. The resurrection makes bodily communion with Christ possible. This bodily communion takes place in two ways. First, in the Eucharist. And thus one reason for the centrality of the Easter event is that if Christ were not risen, we could not receive his present human flesh and blood. Easter, thus, grounds the Eucharist. Second, eventually in heaven through human fellowship. The Easter event, works not only our individual resurrection, but our corporate resurrection as the Church, including centrally Jesus, the head.
Let us rejoice with the Apostles and Mary that he whom they loved above all creatures is risen!
Here is an interesting question. Why is Easter the greatest liturgical celebration of the year for Christians rather than Good Friday? One might, after all, imagine someone reasoning thus: "On Good Friday we celebrate Christ's bearing our sins, and this payment of the penalty for our sin is what frees us from the debt that we cannot pay. So the Good News is in fact the events of Good Friday, and the Easter event's main role for us is merely evidential--it is evidence of our future resurrection." But that is not how the Church thinks.
I think there are at least three responses to this reasoning.
1. The evidential and symbolic is of great existential importance to our lives, and to celebrate the event central to the evidence of Christ's prophetic (and hence divine, given that he said things that in an Old Testament context are claims of divinity) status as the central liturgical event of the year is very appropriate.
2. This is very speculative. One might ask: When did Christ's payment of the penalty come to a completion? Was it when he died on Good Friday? Or was it only after the descent into sheol? If the latter, then the resurrection marks the completion of Christ's payment, and thus the celebration of Christ's bearing of the penalty for our sins fits well with Easter. On the other hand, I do not think the Tradition sees Christ's descent into sheol as a part of his sufferings. For instance, in the Odes of Solomon, the descent is present triumphantly.
3. Imagine that Christ's penalty was paid, and resurrection for us was won, but Christ did not rise again, either because he remained a disembodied soul or because the Incarnation terminated. Then we wouldn't we have nearly as good evidence of our resurrection, as point 1 says. But also, there would no longer be bodily communion with Christ. Think of it from the point of view of the Apostles. There was their friend who died. If they rose but he did not, they might be able to commune with him spiritually, but never again in an embodied way. The resurrection makes bodily communion with Christ possible. This bodily communion takes place in two ways. First, in the Eucharist. And thus one reason for the centrality of the Easter event is that if Christ were not risen, we could not receive his present human flesh and blood. Easter, thus, grounds the Eucharist. Second, eventually in heaven through human fellowship. The Easter event, works not only our individual resurrection, but our corporate resurrection as the Church, including centrally Jesus, the head.
Let us rejoice with the Apostles and Mary that he whom they loved above all creatures is risen!
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