Glory of the Cross

From the Glory of the Cross to the Glory of Easter
Fr. John Corapi, SOLT 2/9/2004
"Rejoice, O earth, in shining splendor, radiant in the brightness of your King! Christ has conquered! Glory fills you! Darkness vanishes for ever!" So echoes the church all around the world at the Easter vigil, as we joyously proclaim the "Exsultet." Easter is the great victory of light over darkness, good over evil, life over death, Christ Jesus over sin, Satan, and eternal death. We are indeed a "resurrection people."
The third chapter of the book of Genesis recounts the fall of man; how the pride ("you can be like gods.") that led to disobedience ("So she took some of the fruit...and gave some to her husband...") resulted in all of the pain, suffering, and death the universe has been enduring ever since.
Original sin is an essential truth of the faith (Catechism #388), for "The Church, which has the mind of Christ, knows very well that we cannot tamper with the revelation of original sin without undermining the mystery of Christ" (#389). The consequences of Adam's sin affect all humanity, and constitute the reverse side of the "Good News" of the Paschal mystery (#402). The fathers of the church referred to Jesus as the "New Adam," for as St. Paul teaches: "...as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man's act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men" (Romans 5:18).
Since the original sin mankind had been estranged from God our Father and the gates of heaven were closed. Certainly God never stops loving his creation, but we in a sense were distanced from the One we should have loved. We were in need of someone who could reconcile the fallen universe with the Creator, who had been rejected through our sins. Only God himself could effect an adequate reconciliation, and, yet, only one like us could pay the price in justice for the offense to God. So, in God's infinitely wise plan, "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us," like one of us in every way except sin.
The eternal Word, the second person of the Blessed Trinity, assumed a human nature in order to effect reconciliation with God our Father. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, became like one of us in order to overturn the reign of sin that had so enslaved the human race. As the Catechism teaches us directly from Scripture, "Man's sins, following on original sin, are punishable by death. By sending his own Son in the form of a slave, in the form of a fallen humanity, on account of sin, God 'made him to be sin who knew no sin,' so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (#603).
The Paschal mystery is a strict unity: the Passion and death of Christ cannot be separated from the Resurrection. We are "resurrection people" because we are united under the banner of love: the cross of Christ. It is at the cross of Christ where all roads cross. The intersection of the beams of the cross is the exact point where wisdom is to be found, for where incarnate Wisdom, Jesus Christ, is "lifted up." It is there that we come to know both God and man, for Jesus the Christ is true God and true man. In this age of the "identity crisis" it is by looking long and hard at the cross that we can find out who we are as human persons, and who this mysterious God really is.
On the cross we see unfurled the infinite merciful love who is our heavenly Father, for as Jesus says, "He who has seen me has seen the Father." Likewise we see the meaning of our own mysterious life displayed for us, for Jesus is "the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creatures..." (Colossians 1:15). We are baptized into Christ, and so share in his priestly, prophetic, and kingly life and mission. "The servant is no better than the Master," the Master said, and "where I am, there my servant will be." We see in the life and mission of Jesus Christ the true and transcendent meaning of our own human life. Indeed, as the Second Vatican Council taught, "the man who follows Jesus Christ, the perfect Man, himself becomes more of a man."
Jesus Christ laid down his life that we might have true life in him. "Dying He destroyed our death, rising He restored our life, for, indeed, "There is no greater love than this: to lay down your life for one's friends" (John 15:13). It is in following Christ in his life and death of total self-sacrifice that we truly find ourselves. So many people today are lost and frightened, wandering about without a clue as to the true meaning of human existence. The world shouts its siren song of the way to glory, "Look out for #1," "Assert yourself," and "Do your own thing," but the Word whispers to our hearts of the way to real glory: "I solemnly assure you, unless the grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat. But if it dies, it produces much fruit" (John 12:24).
"On the third day He rose again from the dead." This is what we celebrate on Easter--the real, historic, physical rising of Jesus Christ from the dead. As the Catechism teaches and firmly asserts: "The mystery of Christ's resurrection is a real event, with manifestations that were historically verified, as the New Testament bears witness..." (#639). "...Christ's Resurrection cannot be interpreted as something outside the physical order, and it is impossible not to acknowledge it as an historical fact" (#643).
Two thousand years ago some said He didn't rise from the dead, after all, "that's impossible." Today some continue to say it in various ways: That it has only an allegorical meaning; it is only in the realm of signs and merely spiritual in meaning; or the disciples made it all up afterwards. However, "If Christ has not been raised [bodily, historically, and absolutely], then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain" (1 Corinthians 15:14).
The truth is that the Son of God suffered and died through his human nature, liberating us from the slavery to sin, Satan and death. The truth is that He rose again on the third day--bodily, historically, absolutely! The truth is that He is alive! Jesus lives, and He invites us to pass with him through darkness to light, and from death to eternal life. "The Lamb was slain, yet lives!" And we sing with the angels on this Easter vigil: "O happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam, which gained for us so great a Redeemer! This is the night when Jesus Christ broke the chains of death and rose triumphant from the grave. Rejoice, O earth, in shining splendor, radiant in the brightness of your King! Christ has conquered! Glory fills you! Darkness vanishes forever!