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Easter is the Solemnity of the Resurrection of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. As such, it is a mystery of faith; in a sense, so fundamentally a mystery that our entire faith rests upon it. (See 1 Cor XV, 14.) Hence, it is an article of faith, whose truth is absolutely certain but whose comprehension can grow stronger through intellectual probing as the centuries unfold. Theology, after all, is defined as "faith in search of understanding" (fides quaerens intellectum).
Christ’s Resurrection reveals multiple truths. Among them, is the credal article that reads, "He [the Son of God] was made man." As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger once expressed it in a retreat preached to Pope John Paul II and the Curia Cardinals, "humanity through him was made to enter into the very nature of God: this is the fruit of his death." (Journey Towards Easter, 1987) If God is the Eternal Other, he is also, through Christ, God bestowed. As God-with-us, Christ Jesus shows us that death itself can be overcome, albeit not from forces generated by the world – medicine – but rather forces born of the unbroken, continuous dialogue of love between Father and Son.
The primordial Biblical text on Christ’s Resurrection, Cardinal Ratzinger stresses, is, in all probability, Luke 24:34: "The Lord is truly risen and has appeared to Peter." In this tight, extremely rich declaration, we immediately learn two truths: (1) Jesus, who really died and was buried, (2) appeared to Peter – and his disciples. From this "narrative" tradition, a "credal" expression flowered; St. Paul records it in First Corinthians XV:3-8. Here, the Apostle to the Gentiles adds two truths to that of Jesus’ death: "according to the Scriptures" and "for our sins." Next, another truth is noted, Jesus’ burial. These "confessional" truths were born of St. Luke’s original "narrative." In Cardinal Ratzinger’s words, the credal phrase, "died for our sins according to the Scriptures," is "more than an interpretation." Rather it "forms part of the very event." All that was prophesied and promised following the introduction of sin to the world is now – through Jesus’ Resurrection – fulfilled, including victory over death and sin.
Thus – to cite again the theologian who is currently Pope – Easter "gives us the right to sing ‘Alleluia’ in a world overcast with the cloud of death." In Christ’s rising, God "reveals himself, his power – superior to the power of death…"
Such is the incomparable, liberating dynamic of Easter.
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