Reflections:

In 1972 Trina Paulus published a simple but profound and
revolutionary book entitled "Hope for the Flowers."  The book has few
words and simple sketches very easy to read.  The kind I like.  But
the theme as Trina puts it is "to the `more' of life the real
revolution."

It is the story of two caterpillars, Stripe and Yellow, who were
searching for real meaning in life.  "There must be more to life than
just eating and getting bigger," they thought.  In their search they
just see caterpillars crawling towards a column.  And when they got
nearer, they noticed the column was nothing but a pillar of
squirming, pushing caterpillars a caterpillar pillar.

Thinking there must be something there, Stripe and Yellow joined the
column, squirming, stepping on others, kicking their way in every
direction just pushing upwards like everyone else.  What is on top
they don't know except that every now and then they see someone being
pushed off the top of the column.

Then came the point when there were no more fellow caterpillars on
the pile they became only threats and obstacles, which turned into
steps and opportunities.

Finally, Yellow got fed up with all this striving and struggling,
pushing, and stepping on others.  She starts working her way down the
pile.

As she wandered through the fields she discovered from a butterfly
that there is a butterfly within her.  And what more, without
butterflies there would be no flowers.

But she has to go through a process of hanging upside down and
becoming motionless for a time.  Then the butterfly within her would
emerge.

Overcoming her fears, she went through the process and became a
beautiful butterfly.  When she flew into the air, she saw piles and
piles of caterpillars fighting their way to get to the top only to be
pushed off and plunge down.  She searched for her friend Stripe and
convinced him that she was the Yellow he knew.

Finally, Stripe worked his way down to follow what Yellow did.  And
he too emerged a beautiful butterfly.  And they live happily ever
after.  The Easter story is something like that.  Christ went through
his passion and death to bring us new life.  And he shows us the way
to the more and greater meaning of life.

The Easter proclamation is "Christ is risen."  Truly Christ is
risen!  But what does it mean?  On the surface it sounds simple
enough: this man from Nazareth, who had ideas is now alive and moving
around meeting with his friends.  In the Gospel of John he even
prepares a meal of fish and eats it with his disciples on the shores
of Galilee.

But other Easter stories are very strange.  This resurrected Christ,
who seems substantial enough to share a meal, is the same who
suddenly appears and disappears from the upper room.  A frightened
Mary Magdalene sees someone at the tomb, whom she mistakes for the
gardener only to finally recognize that it is the Lord.  In this
story, Jesus told Mary Magdalene, "Do not touch me, because I am not
yet ascended to my Father."  But a few verses later he invites Thomas
to place his finger in the nail holes and to thrust his hand into the
wound in his side.

The strange and confusing nature of the Easter stories is a warning: 
This is a story of resurrection not resuscitation.  In the Gospels,
Lazarus and the son of the widow of Naim were resuscitated by the
great miracle of Jesus.  They died and were brought back to life,
brought back from the dead to their former body, but they ultimately
died again.

In contrast the resurrected Christ is raised to God's life, into life
without death.  If the Gospel writers and their sources have problems
describing immortal body, we should not wonder.  The Easter message
for Christians is not we will share the mortal story of Lazarus no,
rather, we share the immortal story of Jesus.

Some skeptics argue that the whole confused set of stories, show that
these are fables made up by the disciples of Jesus.

There are two problems with mere skepticism about the resurrection. 
The first problem with outright skepticism involves the behavior of
the disciples after the trial and crucifixion of Jesus.  They were
evidently totally demoralized. 

One great problem with a direct dismissal of resurrection is how to
account for the transformation of this confused, dejected,
demoralized band of simple fishermen into fearless preachers of the
Good News of Jesus Christ.  Something transformed the disciples from
dejection into courage, courage even unto martyrdom.  This "something
that happened" they called and we call resurrection.  The
apostles went forth into the eye of the storm: Christos anesti:
Christ is risen.  The Gospel, this "good news," would be preached.

But there is more to affirming "Christ is risen" than conjecturing
historical probability about the behavior of the disciples.  The
truly strange part of the Gospel is that they should have preached
resurrection.  Suppose that the disciples felt great remorse at their
flight from Jesus, that to remove their guilt they picked up the
message of Jesus' ministry and went forth to spread that message to
the world; suppose all that what would they preach? 

There were all sorts of lessons from Jesus' ministry.  Love your
neighbor.  Forgive your enemies.  Take care of the sick, the widowed,
the prisoners at least not by Paul the great missionary.  What does
Paul preach?  Christos anesti, Christ is risen.  It is not that
message that gets preached, it is the messenger: Christ is risen.

The Easter stories are strange enough, but preaching "Christ risen!"
is the strangest turn of all.  Nothing is easier to understand than
the fact that the  message of a great man lives after him.  But Paul,
the Apostles, the Christian Church, do not so much preach the message
of Jesus.  They preach Jesus, the One who is Risen.  We tend to think
that the Church passes on truths, the message delivered by Jesus in
his life.  But Jesus does not say, "I am bringing God's truth," he
says "I am the Truth.  I am the Way, and the Life."

The prophets of the Hebrew Bible proclaim truths, they told us about
the will of God.  But Jesus to the Christians is "greater than a
prophet."  Jesus is not God's messenger, Jesus does not just deliver
God's truth, Jesus is God's truth.  More than a prophet, Jesus is
Immanuel, God-with-us, as we proclaim at Christmas.

If Jesus were just a prophet, a messenger of God's truth, then the
Apostles and the Church could easily claim that the message outlives
the messenger, the truth does not depend on the one who brings it. 
Jesus would be immortal in his message.  But Christians claim
something much more radical, much more extraordinary: the messenger
lives on Christos anesti  (Christ is Risen).  The truth passed on
is Jesus, the Christ, the Risen One.  This is clearly expressed by
Catholic tradition in the Eucharist.  We, Catholics do not look on
the Eucharist as just a reminder of Jesus' message, or a symbol of
Jesus.  We say that it is the "real presence" of Jesus.  The Church
itself is not a school of wisdom.  It is the "Mystical Body of
Christ."

The human meaning of "Christ is risen" involves my deepest need to
have a presence for my life, a presence as full as my life, a life
companion of life.

So, today we do not preach the message of Jesus as a prophet of
profound truths, we preach Jesus as Christ risen, the one who
says, "I am the Way, and the truth, and the Life."  Jesus is the real
presence, the life, which stands alongside my life "as it was then,
is now, and ever shall be."  Christ is risen.  Truly, Christ is risen!

PRAYER
"Lord Jesus Christ, you have triumphed over the grave and you have
won new life for us. Give me the eyes of faith to see you in your
glory. Help me to draw near to you and to grow in the knowledge of
your great love and power."