“God hath given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. He hath raised us up together with Christ and hath made us sit together in the heavenly places.”[1]
Surrexit Christus hodie!
This day is one of unfettered joy, of glorious triumph, of exultation! For Christ, who we have mourned these last two days, and have sojourned with for the last forty, has triumphed over sin and death. He “who overcame by a tree, by a tree also might be overcome,”[2] and has overcome for all time. He “hast conquered death, and thrown open to us the gate of everlasting life.”[3] How could we not rejoice at these tidings!
The organ, long subdued and silent, breaks forth in triumphant song. The bells, which were hushed during our Lord’s ignominious Passion, ring out in jubilation once more. The Gloria and the Alleluia, so long suppressed, break forth from their fetters, the latter of which occurs incessantly in the Church’s prayers on this day. The Paschal Candle, the Lumen Christi, is given pride of place in the sanctuary, and the altars are bedecked in the finest flora that can be procured. The Sacred Ministers, who for so long have garbed themselves in violet sobriety, now clothe themselves in rich white and gold. The fast, so long kept, is indeed over, for the feast of Our Lord’s great triumph has begun!
This triumph should give us pause, however. Why did Our Lord need to rise from the dead? For what purpose did Our Lord rise from the dead? What blessings does Our Lord shower upon us by this Resurrection? Such questions should naturally arise in us, who have only a few days before beheld Our Lord transfixed between heaven and earth on the wood of the cross.
The necessity of Our Lord’s Resurrection is fourfold, as laid out in the Roman Catechism. Firstly, as a manifestation of Divine Justice. He who was obedient to Divine Providence, even unto death, ought to be exalted also, as is told to us by St. Paul.[4] Secondly, to sustain our faith, since by rising from the dead, Christ indisputably proves His Divinity. Thirdly, to nourish our hope, since we, who died with Christ in His Passion, may now also hope to rise with Him in His Resurrection. Fourthly, to complete the mystery of our salvation and redemption, for “by His death Christ liberated us from sin; by His Resurrection, He restored to us the most important of those privileges which we had forfeited by sin.”[5]
The ends of Our Lord’s Resurrection are twofold. First, we acknowledge in Christ’s Resurrection that “God [is] immortal, full of glory, the conqueror of death and the devil; and all this we are firmly to believe and openly to profess of Christ Jesus.”[6] Second, the Resurrection of Our Lord effects our resurrection also, firstly due to Christ being the efficient cause of our own resurrection, and secondly due to our obligation to imitate Our Lord in all things, including in His Resurrection. In this, He provides us a most perfect model.
The blessing Our Lord showers upon us through this Resurrection is newness of life. While Our Lord defeats death and sin through His death, He bestows on us life through His new life. This overflowing of grace, this thrusting open of the heavenly gates, forms the greatest of gifts laid for mankind by the Triune God.
From this, we may draw two lessons, though I feel I may add one to those so eloquently laid out in the Roman Catechism.
First, that having washed away the stains of our sins, and robing ourselves in the new life Our Lord has purchased for us, that we ought not to fall into our vicious habits, but lead new lives of virtue.
Second, that we should, having thus been redeemed, persevere in this new life, and resolve never again to stray from the life of virtue.
Third, in the spirit of what has been said above, to take heart, and remember that we, as individuals and as a Church, ought to model Our Lord in all things, especially the Resurrection.
There must indeed be a Good Friday for there to be an Easter Sunday, but a Good Friday is always followed by an Easter Sunday. Our lives, and indeed the life of the Church, seem to be oft mired in doubt and uncertainty. The worries of the world may easily overpower us, and the troubles in our midst may appear to turn over our cenacles in an instant. Yet no matter how dark the valley may appear, the Christian must remember that this day gives us the ultimate source of hope, for all things. As G.K. Chesterton so aptly put it: “Christendom has had a series of revolutions and in each one of them Christianity has died. Christianity has died many times and risen again; for it had a God who knew the way out of the grave.”[7]
So it is with ourselves. We too have died to sin many times. Indeed, we have just meditated on our role in the Passion of Our Lord only three short days ago! Yet we cannot forget that, by the Divine Grace so exemplified on this day, we rise again also. For we boast of a God who knows the way out of the grave. He has shown us how to. All we need do is follow the way He has prepared for us. Let us rejoice and be glad! Our Lord has provided us with the ultimate school of love; let us ask for the humility and grace to be instructed in it.
From all of us at The Brownson Record, a blessed and joyous Easter! May God bless you.
Surrexit vere,
Nolan Williams, Editor-in-Chief
[1] Eph 2:6 (Douay-Rheims)
[2] Preface of the Holy Cross, Missale Romanum 1962
[3] Collect of Easter Sunday, Missale Romanum 1962
[4] cf. Phil 2:8-9
[5] Catechism of the Council of Trent, 70
[6] ibid.
[7] Chesterton, The Everlasting Man.
