By Fr. Daniel Pinell
As I’m writing these words, Easter it’s just around the corner! When you read this article perhaps many of us are coming down from the highs of our Easter celebrations, with the taste of delicious Hot Cross Buns still in our mouths!
It is good to stop and reflect, however, on what we are about to celebrate (or what we have just celebrated). What is the meaning of Easter? Below are 3 things that help us explain the meaning of Easter:
1. Easter is the victory of Jesus against death: “O death where is your sting?” Begins the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:55. The resurrection of Jesus Christ, 3 days after His tragic crucifixion, it’s an unequivocal defeat of death. Death and sin are our last enemies, and they have both been defeated in the resurrection.
2. Easter is the redemption of our whole being; body, and soul: Jesus truly rose bodily from the dead. This is no metaphor or language that should be taken figuratively. No, Jesus' body was truly dead and was truly raised to life. This means that the Christian promise of eternal life it’s not just that we get to go to heaven when we die and spend eternity with God as spiritual beings. It means that our bodies will be raised to a new life as well, and we will spend our eternity with God with our whole beings, including our bodies. The Apostle Paul declares this promise to us in Romans 6:5: “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.”
3. Easter is also the redemption of our world: Revelations 21 begins with the stunning vision of a redeemed world in Christ: “Then I saw ‘a new heaven and a new earth,’ for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.” Here we see a vision of a new heaven and a new earth that will not pass away because the earth will be “God’s dwelling place.” (Rev. 21: 3). “There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Rev. 21: 4).
As we celebrate this Easter season, I hope and pray you can rejoice in these amazing promises that we have received through Christ our Lord. Christ is risen from the dead, and this means that we will be raised from the dead as well! Happy Easter!
