Happy Easter! Or in the ancient Greek: Christos Anesti (Christ is Risen). To which we make the response: Alithos Anesti (Truly, He is Risen). Nothing is more important than what we celebrate on Easter. As St. Paul reminds us: If Christ has not been raised, our faith is vain. The Resurrection is central to our faith; sin and death defeated.
Most people probably hope and do everything they can to get to heaven, but how many of us look forward to the Resurrection? One might say: “we are in heaven, what more do we need?” Answering this question brings to light the great significance and awe-filled event that is the Resurrection of Christ and the reality of heaven. Further, it makes us appreciate what we pray in the Creed every week: “I look forward to the resurrection of the dead.” Finally in these times the resurrection gives us hope that God can defeat any kind of evil or suffering in this life.
First of all, how do we know anything at all? We know things about ourselves and the world through our five senses; through our bodies. Without a body we cannot receive any new information. Many of us probably have an idea of heaven with clouds in which the saints are looking down on us, but this is only a poetic expression of heaven. The saints do not look down on us because they do not have their bodies yet. In fact, the reason why saints know what happens here and are able to intercede on our behalf is because God directly infuses knowledge into them. They too, therefore, await the resurrection at the end of time when Christ comes again so that they will be supremely perfectly happy.
In order to be truly happy we need our bodies. Contemporary society depicts the human person as a soul trapped in a body (or for the materialists, a mind trapped in a body). This anthropology may be the source of many of the false dichotomies and gender debates in many circles. For Catholics we are a body/soul composite (while this is a Catholic outlook this also avoids many philosophical problems associated with dualism). Once in heaven, before the Resurrection, all of us will have the beatific vision; we will see God as clearly as possible for a human being. Embodiment is not necessary for this vision, but this is an unnatural state for the soul. A soul in heaven is not properly human, because to be human is to have a body. So to be supremely perfectly happy we need a body in heaven.
Just some last points: At the Resurrection we will have our same bodies we had on earth (not the same in the sense of the same atoms, since even our atoms change day to day). We are not transformed in any way into angels in heaven (angels do not have material bodies). In heaven our material bodies do not become spiritual in heaven. Instead they are completely subject to our souls (e.g. no temptations) and hence able to do spiritual things.
This year we had the privilege of sharing the Sacraments with those who participated in our OCIA program here at the parish. OCIA means the “Order of Christian Initiation for Adults.” They changed the name because “rite” usually implies a different liturgical tradition (e.g. Armenian rite). It is the process by which a person becomes a Catholic or receives Sacraments that they may have missed earlier in their lives (such as Confirmation). For the past several weeks and months they have learned the truths of the Catholic faith, participated in the various liturgies and devotions, and prayed. Thanks be to God for the graces he has bestowed on them. We will continue to pray for them as a parish for their continued growth in holiness.
A word of thanks to all the ministers, lectors, ushers, sacristans, singers, musicians, altar servers, and decorators. As you can imagine, a lot happens behind the scenes to make sure that we have prayerful and holy Masses. Many parishioners helped to make this a prayerful Holy Week and Easter.