The Rector writes.....
The account of the Easter Event found in "the Walk to Emmaus" recorded in the 24th chapter of the Gospel of St. Luke, is, to me, one of the most telling of the accounts of our Lord's resurrection. After having met two of His disciples on their way to the village of Emmaus and conversing with them while they walked along the road, "they urged [Jesus] strongly, saying, 'Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day in now nearly over.' So he went in to stay with them. When he was at table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; … They said to each other, 'Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?' The two disciples then went straight back to Jerusalem where they found the other disciples "and their companions gathered together. They were saying, 'The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon! Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of bread.'" (vv 28-35)When therefore we recite in the Nicene Creed that "We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come"; when we say in the Apostles' Creed "I believe in … the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting" we are affirming our belief in the cornerstone of the Christian Faith, that is, the Easter Event.
Our belief in this event is eloquently expressed in our prayers, in our liturgy, in our hymns and in our literature such as the Easter Collect
Almighty God, who through your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ overcame death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life: Grant that we, who celebrate with joy the day of our Lord's resurrection, may be raised from the death of sin by your life-giving Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
In our Liturgy we proclaim that
Christ has died
Christ has risen
Christ will come again
And in the English Hymnal 128
Paschal triumph, Paschal joy,
Only sin can this destroy;
From sin's death do thou set free,
Souls re-born, dear Lord, in thee.
Hymns of glory, songs of praise,
Father, unto thee we raise.
Risen Lord, all praise to thee,
Ever with the Spirit be.
In a short article entitled "Without The Resurrection, There is no Christianity" which appeared in The Living Pulpit (January-March 1998), William J. Carl III states very clearly that
Christianity is not merely a religion that was marketed with just the right political spin by gifted writers. It is a living, breathing, ongoing conversation between God, humanity and all creation empowered by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Without the resurrection, there would have been no Christianity, no Christendom, no hymns. No seminaries, no churches and no nativity scenes. Jesus lives, not in the sense that King Lear or Hamlet or Handel's Messiah live on in the hearts and minds of the people, but in the sense that something totally new has happened and keeps happening. The resurrection is the ultimate breakthrough of God into our world that transcends all nature and history.1
Christians also see Easter as "a hope rooted in reality". Walter J. Burghardt, S.J., tells of the "Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins" who wrote a "poem entitled 'The Wreck of the Deutschland' in which Burghardt became intrigued by one half line of the poem: 'Let him Easter in us'. Burghardt points out that it is very rare that easter is used as a verb: "but it suits this sacred season. How does Christ easter in us? Especially by a hope rooted in reality. 'I have life and you will have life' (John 14:19). Jesus Christ is alive!"`2
William J. Carl III, "Without The Resurrection, There is no Christianity" ; The Living Pulpit, January-March 1998, Volume 7 No. 1, page 6.
Walter J. Burghardt, op. Cit. Page 6.
(c)1999