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EASTER SATURDAY
THE OLD ROMAN Vol. I Issue XXXII Paschal Octave
Christus resurrexit! Resurrexit vere!
Χριστὸς ἀνέστη! Ἀληθῶς ἀνέστη!
¡Cristo resucitó! ¡En verdad resucitó!
Asréracht Críst! Asréracht Hé-som co dearb!
Atgyfododd Crist! Yn wir atgyfododd!
سيح قام! بالحقيقة قام! 
ⲠⲓⲬⲣⲓⲥⲧⲟⲥ ⲁϥⲧⲱⲛϥ! Ϧⲉⲛ ⲟⲩⲙⲉⲑⲙⲏⲓ ⲁϥⲧⲱⲛϥ!
Nabuhay muli Si Kristo! Nabuhay talaga!
"Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed!"
CONTENTS
Today is... about the office of the day
VIDEO... Act of Contrition - prayer and meaning
An Act of Spiritual Communion... various
Bivocation and COVID19... Fr Thomas Gierke OSF
The Liturgical Year... Dom Prosper Gueranger
Today's Mass... Dom Prosper Gueranger
Lessons from the Resurrection... Bishop Richard Challoner
Today's Mass Readings... Dom Prosper Gueranger
Resurrection Proofs... Dr William Lane Craig
VIDEO... What is the evidence for the resurrection - Dr William Lane Craig
Patristic Sermons... St Augustine of Hippo
VIDEO... St Augustine of Hippo
Broadcast Schedule... live worship online
Of your charity... intercessions list
TODAY IS...
Easter Saturday is the seventh day in the Octave of Easter and is also called "Sabbato in albis" referring to the neophytes baptised a week ago on Holy Saturday still wearing their baptismal robes.

Easter, which begins this Season, is the greatest Feast of the year for Christ is risen! The alleluia, which was omitted from the Mass since Septuagesima, returned at Vespers on Holy Saturday, and is now heard after every Introit, Antiphon verse, and Response. The Vidi Aquam replaces the Aspèrges, and the Regina Coeli replaces the Angelus. The Paschal candle remains lit in the Sanctuary until Ascension Thursday, and like the Christ Candle during the Twelve Days of Christmas, we have a Paschal Candle in our homes, too, until the Ascension. have already fulfilled the precept to go to Confession at least once a year, but if we haven't, we can do that now.

During the Octave of Easter, we greet each other (and even answer our telephones) with the triumphant "Christus resurrexit!" (Christ is risen!) to which comes the response "Et apparuit Simoni, alleluia" (and appeared unto Simon, alleluia!). This joyous greeting totally crystallizes the mood of this season. This triumphant attitude is also shown by the replacing of the Angelus with the Regina Coeli throughout Paschaltide.

A note on terminology: The word "Easter" is actually a word rooted in the name either of an alleged Teutonic goddess (Eostre) or, more probably, from the name "Eostur" meaning the "season of rising" and indicating springtime. It is only used in the English language. It came into use because the month of April was known in Anglo-Saxon countries as easter-monadh, and Eastur became an old Germanic word meaning springtime. Other languages have different names for Easter -- "Pascha" (Latin and Greek), "Pasqua" (Italian), "Pascua" (Spanish), "Paschen" (Dutch), Pasg (Welsh), etc. -- all of which derives from the Hebrew word "Pesach" meaning "Passover." The point is that the claim that "Easter is a pagan holiday" because of the word "Easter" is ridiculous. The English word for it might have pagan origins deriving from Eostre and/or the word for springtime, but the Solemnity is rooted in the Old Testament Pesach which was fulfilled at the Crucifixion which gave us the fruits of the Resurrection. In addition, all the names for the days of the week are "pagan" in origin, too. Sunday is named for the Sun; Monday for the Moon; Tuesday for god Tiu, Wednesday for Woden, Thursday for Thor, Friday for Freya, and Saturday for Saturn, so anyone who balks at celebrating "Easter" because of its "pagan origins" had better not refer to the days of the week by their English names!
ACT OF CONRTITION
The Act of Contrition is a prayer to express our sorrow for committing sin and desire for God's mercy, forgiveness, and help in our fight against sin. In the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation we make an Act of Contrition with a prayer expressing 1) sorry for sin,
2) hatred for sin, and
3) the resolution not to sin again.
Then the priest absolves of our sin in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This prayer can also be said at any point after making a brief examination of conscience to identify the sins that have pulled us away from God.

The Act of Contrition

My God, I am sorry for my sins with all my heart. In choosing to do wrong and failing to do good, I have sinned against you whom I should love above all things. I firmly intend, with your help, to do penance, to sin no more, and to avoid whatever leads me to sin. Our Savior Jesus Christ suffered and died for us. In his name, my God, have mercy.

Another variation of the Act of Contrition is:

O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins because of Thy just punishments, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, Who art all-good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to sin no more and to avoid the near occasions of sin.
AN ACT OF SPIRITUAL COMMUNION
Contrary to what many people may think, an Act of Spiritual Communion should not be regarded as a "second best" option in place of receiving Holy Communion. On the contrary, a Spiritual Communion should in fact be the default desire of every Christian at every moment in their lives! A Spiritual Communion is the desire to realise that union with God that the Eucharist objectively makes a reality because the Eucharist is the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Saviour, i.e. God-made-man. A Spiritual Communion is simply to manifest what is the purpose of our being - to be one with God in this life and for the next. 

St Pio of Pietrelcina aka Padre Pio, being a priest was able to offer Mass every day. Yet several times throughout the day he would make Acts of Spiritual Communion, desiring to be united with God through Jesus expressing his desire to achieve that ultimate union with God that is the whole point of our Salvation. This is what it means to "love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength..." 
An Act of Spiritual Communion
by St. Alphonsus Liguori (A.D. 1696-1787)
My Jesus, I believe that Thou art present in the Blessed Sacrament. I love Thee above all things and I desire Thee in my soul. Since I cannot now receive Thee sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. As though thou wert already there, I embrace Thee and unite myself wholly to Thee; permit not that I should ever be separated from Thee.

An Act of Spiritual Communion
O my Jesus, I embrace Thee as One who has already come, and I unite myself entirely to Thee. Never permit me to be separated from Thee. Amen.

An Act of Spiritual Communion
As I cannot this day enjoy the happiness of assisting at the holy Mysteries, O my God! I transport myself in spirit at the foot of Thine altar; I unite with the Church, which by the hands of the priest, offers Thee Thine adorable Son in the Holy Sacrifice; I offer myself with Him, by Him, and in His Name. I adore, I praise, and thank Thee, imploring Thy mercy, invoking Thine assistance, and presenting Thee the homage I owe Thee as my Creator, the love due to Thee as my Savior.

Apply to my soul, I beseech Thee, O merciful Jesus, Thine infinite merits; apply them also to those for whom I particularly wish to pray. I desire to communicate spiritually, that Thy Blood may purify, Thy Flesh strengthen, and Thy Spirit sanctify me. May I never forget that Thou, my divine Redeemer, hast died for me; may I die to all that is not Thee, that hereafter I may live eternally with Thee. Amen.

Espirituwal na Pakikinabang
Aking Hesus, nananalig akong ikaw ay nananahan sa Pinakabanal na Sakramento. Mahal kita nang higit sa lahat ng bagay at nais kong tanggapin ka sa aking kaluluwa. Subalit sa sandaling ito ikaw ay hindi ko matatanggap sa Banal na Komunyon. Nawa’y tanggapin kita nang espirituwal sa aking pagnanais na ito at pumasok ka sa aking puso. Niyayakap kita na parang naririto ka na sa akin, at pinagkakaisa ko ang aking sarili sa iyo. Huwag mong hayaang ako ay mawalay sa iyo. 
Amen.

Espirituwal na Pakikinabang
O Hesus ko, naniniwala ako na ikaw ay tunay na naririyan sa Banal na Sakramento. Minamahal Kita ng higit sa lahat at ninanais ko na Ikaw ay tanggapin sa aking kaluluwa. Bagama’t sa sandaling ito ay hindi Kita matatanggap sa paraang sakramental, pumarito ka man lamang sa aking puso sa paraang espiritwal. Tinatanggap Kita na Ikaw na naririto at buong puso akong nakikipag-isa sa Iyo. Huwag mong pahintulutang ako’y mapahiwalay sa Iyo. Amen.
Sa naka lipas na halos isang buwan na ang ating bansa ay naka lock down.  At pinalawig pa ng gobyerno hanggang katapusan ng buwan ng abril.  Maraming mga tao ang natatakot  at nagtatanong kung hanggan kailan matatapos ito.  Maraming mga tao ang walang trabaho, makain at pataas ng pataas ang  bilang ng mga nagkakasakit ng corana virus. Tila baga katulad ng paglalakbay ng mga Israelita sa ilang.  Meron ng mga tao na nawawalan ng pag-asa at hindi na alam ang gagawin.  Kaya naman ang ating simbahan dito sa Platinumville Bacoor Cavite ay laging bukas upang mag silbing lugar upang ang mga tao ay maka pag dasal sa harap ng tabernakulo, mabigyan ng payo at pag asa sa kabila ng mabigat na hamon ng buhay.

At ang Old Roman Daily Newsletter ay malaking tulong at gabay sa pang araw araw na pananampalataya at buhay ng bawat isa dito sa aming lugar. +Joash
BIVOCATION AND COVID19
Fr Thomas Gierke OSF shares an insight into his bi-vocation as a priest and an EMS
THE LITURGICAL YEAR
DOM PROSPER GUERANGER
The seventh day of the gladdest of weeks has risen upon us, bringing with it the memory of the Creator’s rest, after the six days of creation. It also reminds us of that other rest, which this same God took in the tomb; like a warrior who, when sure of the victory, calmly reposes before the final combat with the enemy. Our Jesus slept His rest in the sepulcher, after permitting death to vanquish Him: but when He awoke by His Resurrection, what a victory over the tyrant! Let us, today, visit this holy sepulcher and venerate it: it will speak to us of Him we love, and make our love the warmer. Here, we shall say to ourselves, here rested our dear Master, after He had died for us! Here was the scene of the glorious victory, when He arose again, and this, too, for us!

The prophet Isaias had said: In that day, the root of Jesse, who standeth for an ensign of people, Him shall the Gentiles beseech; and His sepulcher shall be glorious. The prophecy has been fulfilled. There is not a nation under the sun where Jesus has not His adorers. The tombs of other men are either destroyed, or they are monuments of death; the tomb of Jesus is everlasting, and speaks but of life.

What a sepulcher this, the sight of which fills us with thoughts of glory, and whose praises had been celebrated so many ages beforehand! When the fullness of time came, God raised up in Jerusalem a holy man named Joseph of Arimathea, who secretly but sincerely became one of Jesus’ disciples. He was a rich counsellor, or senator. He had prepared his own tomb, and the place he chose was on the side of the hill of Calvary. It was hewn out of the live rock, and consisted of two cells, one serving as a sort of entry into the other. Joseph thought he was laboring for himself, whereas he was preparing the sepulcher of a God. He only thought of the debt which every man has to pay in consequence of Adam’s sin; but heaven had decreed that Joseph should never lie in that tomb, and that here should originate man’s immortality.

Jesus had expired on the cross, amidst the insults of His people; the entire city had risen up against the Son of David, whom, but a few days before, it had hailed as its King. Then did Joseph brave the fury of the deicides, and ask permission from the Roman governor to be allowed the honor of burying the Body of the Crucified. He at once repaired to Calvary, accompanied by Nicodemus and, having taken down the sacred Corpse from the cross, he devoutly laid It upon the stone which he had intended as his own resting place. He felt that it was a happiness and an honor to give up his own tomb to the dear Master, for whom he had not been ashamed to profess, and that in the very court of Pilate, his devoted attachment. Right worthy art thou, O Joseph! of the thanks of mankind! Thou wast our representative at the burial of our Jesus! And Mary, too, the afflicted Mother, who was present, recompensed thee, in her own way, for the sacrifice thou didst so willingly make for her Son!

The Evangelists draw our attention to one special circumstance of the sepulcher. St. Matthew, St. Luke, and St. John, tell us that it was new, and that no man had ever been laid in it. The holy Fathers teach us that we must see here a mysterious dispensation, and one of the grand glories of the holy tomb. It marks, as they observe, the resemblance that exists between the sepulcher, which restored the Man-God to the life of immortality, and the virginal womb which gave Him birth that He might be a Victim for the world’s redemption: and they bid us learn from this how God, when He deigns to dwell in any of His creatures, would have the dwelling to be pure and worthy of His infinite holiness. Here, then, is one of the glories of the holy sepulcher—that it was an image of the incomparable purity of the Mother of Jesus.

During the few hours that it possessed the precious trust, where was there glory on earth like unto what it enjoyed? Within that silent cave, there lay, wrapped in shrouds that were bedewed with Mary’s tears, the Body which had ransomed the world. Hosts of holy Angels stood in that little rocky cell, keeping watch over the corpse of Him who was their Creator; they adored it, in Its sleep of death; they longed for the hour to come when this Lamb that was slain would arise a Lion in power and majesty. And when the moment fixed by the eternal decree came, that humble spot was made the scene of the grand prodigy; Jesus rose to life and, swifter than lightning, passed through the rock to the outer world. An Angel then rolled back the stone from the entrance to the sepulcher, thus proclaiming the departure of the divine Captive. Other Angels showed themselves to Magdalene and her companions when they came to visit it. Peter, too, and John were soon there. O truly, most holy is this place! The Son of God deigned to dwell within it; His Mother honored it with her presence and her tears; Angels adored in it; the holiest souls on earth visited, venerated, and loved it. O sepulcher of the Son of Jesse, thou art indeed glorious!

Hell witnesses this glory, and would fain destroy it. The sight of this sepulcher is insufferable to satan’s pride, for it is the trophy of the defeat of death, the offspring of sin. He flatters himself on having succeeded, when Jerusalem is destroyed by the Roman legions, and on her ruins there rises up a new and pagan city called Ælia. But no! neither the name of Jerusalem, nor the glory of the holy sepulcher shall perish. The pagans cover it with a mound of earth, on which they build a temple to Jupiter; it is the same spirit that dictated their raising an altar to Venus on Calvary, and another to Adonis over the cave of Bethlehem. But all these sacrilegious efforts only serve to tell the Christians the exact site of these several sacred places. The pagans think by this artifice to turn the respect and homage of the Christians from Jesus to their false gods: here again, they fail. The Christians abstain from visiting the holy places, as long as they are desecrated by the presence of these idols; but they keep their eye fixed on what their Redeemer has endeared to them, and wait in patience for the time when it shall please the eternal Father to again glorify His Son.

The time comes. God sends Jerusalem a Christian empress, mother of a Christian emperor: she is to restore the holy places, the scene of our Redeemer’s love. Like Magdalene and her companions, Helen hastens to the sepulcher. God would have it so—woman’s privilege in all that happened on the great morning of the Resurrection, is to be continued now. Magdalene and her companions sought Jesus; Helen, who adores Him as her risen Lord, only seeks His sepulcher: but their love is one and the same. The pious empress orders the temple of Jupiter to be pulled down, and the mound of earth to be removed; which done, the trophy of Jesus’ victory once more gleams in the light of day. The defeat of death is again proclaimed by this resurrection of the glorious sepulcher. A magnificent temple is built at the expense of the imperial treasury, and is called the basilica of the Resurrection. The whole world is excited by the news of such a triumph; the already tottering structure of paganism receives a shock which hastens its destruction; and pilgrimages to the holy sepulcher are begun by Christian people throughout the world, forming a procession of universal homage which is to continue to the end of time.

During the three centuries following, Jerusalem was the holy and free city, and the sepulcher of Jesus reflected its glory upon her; but the East became a very hotbed of heresies, and God, in His justice, sent her the chastisement of slavery. The Saracen hordes inundated the land of prodigy. If the torrent of invasion was checked, it was for a brief period, and the waters returned with redoubled power. Meanwhile, what becomes of the holy sepulcher? Let us not fear: it is safe. The Saracens themselves look upon it with awe, for it is, they say, the tomb of a great Prophet. True, a tax is imposed on the Christians who visit it; but the sepulcher is safe. One of the caliphs presented the keys of the venerable sanctuary to the emperor Charlemagne, hereby evincing not only the respect he had for this greatest of Christian monarchs, but, moreover, the veneration wherein he held the sacred grotto. Thus did our Lord’s sepulcher continue to be glorified, even in the midst of dangers which, humanly, would have wrought its utter destruction.

Its glory shone out still more brightly when, at the call of the Father of Christendom, the western nations rose up in arms and marched, under the banner of the cross, to the deliverance of Jerusalem. The love of the holy sepulcher was in every heart, its name on every tongue. The first engagement drove back the Saracen, and left the city in possession of the crusaders. A sublime spectacle was then witnessed in the church of the holy sepulcher; the pious Godfrey of Bouillon was consecrated king of Jerusalem, and the holy mysteries were celebrated for the first time in the language and ritual of Rome, under the oriental dome of St. Helen’s basilica. But the reign of Japheth in the tents of Sem was of short duration, owing partly to the short-sighted policy of the western sovereigns, which kept them from appreciating the importance of such a conquest; and partly to the treachery of the Greek Empire, which betrayed the defenseless Jerusalem once more into the hands of the Saracens. Still, the period of the Latin kingdom in the holy city was one of the glories of Jesus’ sepulcher, foretold by Isaias.

What are to be its future glories? At present, it is profaned by the sacrifices which are offered, in its basilica, by schismatical and heretical priests; it is entrusted, for a few hours each year, to the Catholics of Jerusalem, and during that brief interval, it receives the fervent homage of the true spouse of Jesus. When will the holy sepulcher be reinstated in its honor? Will the nations of the West return to the fervor of faith and emulate the holy chivalry of the crusaders of old? Or will the East renounce the schism, which has cost her her liberty; stretch out her hand to the mother and mistress of all churches; and, on the rock of the Resurrection, sign the covenant of a union which would be the death warrant of Islamism? Only God knows: but this much He has revealed to us in sacred Scripture; that, before the end of the world, Israel will return to the Messias he despised and crucified, and that the glory of Jerusalem is to be restored by the Jews who shall be converted. Then will the sepulcher of the Son of Jesse be at the height of its glory, and soon will this Son of Jesse Himself appear. Our bodies will then be on the eve of the general resurrection; and thus the final result of the Pasch will be simultaneous with the last and greatest glory of the holy sepulcher. As we rise from our graves, we shall fix our eyes upon our Jesus’ tomb, and love it as the origin and source of the immortality we shall then have. Until the time of our death comes, when our bodies must be laid in the temporary prison of the grave, let us love the sepulcher of our dear Savior; let us be zealous for its honor; and, imitating our forefathers in that earnest faith which made them its defenders and soldiers, let us get well into us that portion of the Easter spirit, which consists in understanding and loving the glories of Jesus’ sepulcher.

The name given in the liturgy to this day is Saturday in albis, or, more correctly, in albis deponendis; because it was today that the neophytes were to lay aside the white robes they had been wearing the whole Octave. This Octave had indeed begun earlier for them than for the rest of the faithful, inasmuch as it was on the night of Holy Saturday that they were regenerated, and vested with these white garments, the emblem of the purity of their souls. It was, therefore, on the evening of the following Saturday, and after the Office of Vespers, that they put off their baptismal robes, as we will describe farther on.
TODAY'S MASS
In Rome, the Station is in the Lateran basilica, the mother and mistress of all churches. It is close to the baptistery of Constantine, where, eight days back, the neophytes received the grace of regeneration. The basilica, wherein they are now assembled, is that from which they set out, during the still and dark night, to the font of salvation, led on by the mysterious light of the Paschal Torch. It was to this same church that they returned after their Baptism, clad in their white robes, and assisted, for the first time, at the entire celebration of the Christian Sacrifice, and received the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus. No other place could have been more appropriate for the Station of this day, whereon they were to return to the ordinary duties of life. Holy Church sees assembled around her these her new-born children. It is the last time that she will see them in their white garments, and she looks at them with all the affection of a joyful mother. They are most dear to her, as the fruit of heaven’s own giving; and during the week she has frequently given expression to her maternal pride, in canticles such as she alone can sing.

The Introit is composed of words from the 104th Psalm, wherein Israel gives praise to the Lord, for that He brought His people out of their exile. By this people, we must understand our neophytes, who were exiled from heaven because of original sin and of those they themselves had committed: Baptism has restored them to all the rights they had forfeited, for it has made them members of the Church.

The Lord hath led forth his people in gladness, alleluia: and his chosen ones in joy. Alleluia, alleluia. Ps. Praise the Lord, and call upon his name: publish his works among the Gentiles. ℣. Glory, &c. The Lord, &c.

Paschal week is about to close; the Church, therefore, now asks our Lord to grant to us, her children, that the joy we have experienced during this happy Octave may lead us to the still greater joy of the eternal Pasch.

Grand, we beseech thee, O almighty God, that we, who with reverence have celebrated this Paschal solemnity, may happily arrive at everlasting joys. Through, &c.

To this the Church, during this week, adds one or other of the following Collect:
Mercifully hear, we beseech thee, O Lord, the prayers of thy Church: that, all oppositions and errors being removed, she may serve thee with a secure liberty. Through, &c.

The words of the Offertory are taken from the 117th Psalm, which is, by excellence, the Psalm of the Resurrection. They hail the divine Conqueror, who rises like a bright star and gladdens us with His benediction.

Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord: we have blessed you out of the house of the Lord: the Lord is God, and he hath shone upon us. Alleluia, alleluia.

In the Secret, the Church teaches usu that the mysteries we celebrate during the year exercise a lasting influence upon us. Each Feast, as it comes round to us, brings with it fresh life and joy; and it is by its annual celebration, that the Church applies to her children the graces which each mystery brought with it at the actual time of its accomplishment.

Grant, we beseech thee, O Lord, that we may always gratefully solemnize the Paschal mysteries, and that the continual celebration of the sacrament of our redemption may be to us a subject of perpetual joy. Through, &c.

Our neophytes are to lay aside, today, their white robes; but there is a garment which they are never to put away; it is Christ Himself, who became united with them by Baptism, as the Apostle of the Gentiles here reminds them:

All you that have been baptized in Christ, have put on Christ, alleluia.

The Church returns once more, in her Postcommunion, to the subject of faith. Without faith there is no Christianity: now it is the Eucharist which has the power of fostering it in the soul, for the Eucharist is the mystery of faith.

Being strengthened, O Lord, by the sacrament of our redemption, grant that through this help to eternal salvation, a true faith may always be increased in us. Through, &c.
ON THE LESSONS WE ARE TO LEARN FROM THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST
Bishop Richard Challoner
ON PERSEVERANCE IN GOOD
Consider first, that every Christian ought at this time, pursuant to the precept of the church of God, to have made his peace with God, and to have signed and sealed it with a worthy communion. So that it is the business of every Christian now at least, to begin a new life, and to walk henceforward in the newness of life, even to the end. 'Be thou faithful until death, and I will give thee the crown of life,’ saith our Lord, Apoc. ii. 10. Alas! what will it avail us to have made a good beginning at this time, if after having been 'enlightened, and having tasted the heavenly gift, and been made partakers of the Holy Ghost' &c., Heb. vi. 4, we should quickly fall away, and return to our former darkness, and to the husks of swine, under the slavery of Satan? Would not our latter condition become worse than the former? That this may never be our case, we must consider upon the means that may effectually preserve us from relapsing into mortal sin, and that may maintain us in the happy state of the grace and love of God. In particular we must labour to establish in our souls a horror of the dreadful evil of sin, and of all the dangerous occasions of it; to keep up in ourselves a penitential spirit for what is past, joined with a lively sense of that infinite mercy that kept us so long out of hell, and so graciously received his prodigal children, when they offered to return to him; and with a firm resolution (which should be renewed every day and every hour) for no consideration whatever to turn our backs upon him any more by wilful sin. O how happy is that Christian who is ever ready to lay down his life rather than to return any more to sin!

Consider 2ndly, that another great means to persevere in good is to live by rule and order, to renounce an idle life, as the mother of all evil, and to regulate our time and all our daily exercises; to be constant in the performance of our devotions, and in frequenting the sacraments; and to take care to do well all that we do. Sanctity and perfection do not so much depend upon doing extraordinary actions, as upon doing our ordinary actions extraordinarily well; now, we shall do them extraordinarily well if we do them with a pure intention, for the love of God; and if we take care to season them with frequent and fervent aspirations to God. Thus, like the ancient Saints, shall we walk with God, and be perfect. This is the surest way to perseverance.

Consider 3rdly, that in order to perseverance in grace, it will be also necessary to set out and to continue in a full persuasion and conviction that we have not a more dangerous enemy to our souls than our own self-love, with all its branches and passions; that the gratifying our own humours is gratifying a mortal enemy; that we must deny ourselves, renounce ourselves, and hate ourselves in this life, if we would save ourselves for eternity. In a word, the mortification of our passions, and the total victory over ourselves, is the sovereign means of perseverance. In order to this, every Christian ought to study well to know himself and the true state of his own interior, that he may discover what passions are predominant there, and may turn all the forces of his soul against them, till he has quite subdued them. This warfare is one of the most essential duties of every disciple of Jesus Christ: no one shall be crowned by him, that has not fought and conquered himself. 'To him that overcometh he will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’ Apoc. ii. 7.

Conclude, in order to perseverance in good, to practise well all these lessons, and particularly to be earnest with God in prayer, that he may be thy keeper, to keep thee from sin. O beg of God every day that thou mayest rather die a thousand deaths than once commit a mortal sin!

Richard Challoner (1691–1781) was an English Roman Catholic bishop, a leading figure of English Catholicism during the greater part of the 18th century. The titular Bishop of Doberus, he is perhaps most famous for his revision of the Douay–Rheims translation of the Bible.
TODAY'S MASS READINGS

LESSON 1 Pet 2:1-10
Beloved: Wherefore laying away all malice, and all guile, and dissimulations, and envies, and all detractions, As newborn babes, desire the rational milk without guile, that thereby you may grow unto salvation: If so be you have tasted that the Lord is sweet. Unto whom coming, as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen and made honourable by God: Be you also as living stones built up, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore it is said in the scripture: Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious. And he that shall believe in him, shall not be confounded. To you therefore that believe, he is honour: but to them that believe not, the stone which the builders rejected, the same is made the head of the corner: And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of scandal, to them who stumble at the word, neither do believe, whereunto also they are set. But you are a chosen generation, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people: that you may declare his virtues, who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: Who in time past were not a people: but are now the people of God. Who had not obtained mercy; but now have obtained mercy.

INSTRUCTION The neophytes could not have received any more appropriate instruction than this, which the Prince of the Apostles addresses to us all. St. Peter wrote this first Epistle to the newly baptized of those days. He affectionately calls them new-born babes. He urges them to that virtue which so becomes the age of infancy—the virtue of simplicity. He tells them that the doctrine they have been taught will be to them a milk, which will feed and strengthen them. He invites them to taste how sweet is the Lord they have now vowed to serve.

After this, he speaks of one of the leading characteristics of Christ, namely, His being the foundation and corner Stone of God’s house. It is upon Him that must rest the faithful, who are the living stones of the spiritual edifice. He alone can give them solidity; and hence, when about to return to His Father, He chose and established upon earth another rock—a rock that should be ever visible, united with and based upon His own divine self, and partaking of His solidity. The Apostle’s humility forbids this developing the whole truth as related in the Gospel, which tells us of his glorious prerogative; but if we remember the words spoken by our Lord to St. Peter, we understand the whole doctrine implied in our Epistle.

The Apostle is silent about his own dignity as the rock, on which Jesus has built His Church; but observe the glorious titles he gives to us, who have been made members of that Church by Baptism. You are, says he, a chosen generation, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people! Oh, yes! what a difference there is between one that is baptized and one that is not! Heaven is opened to the one, and shut against the other; the one is a slave of the devil, and the other is a king in Christ Jesus, the eternal King, whose brother he has now become; the one cut off from God, the other offering Him a sacrifice of infinite worth by the hands of the great High Priest, Jesus. And all these gifts have been bestowed upon us by a purely gratuitous mercy; we had done nothing to merit them. Let us, then, offer to the Father who has thus adopted us, our humble acts of thanksgiving; let us go back, in thought, and renew the promises which were made in our name, as the essential condition of our being admitted to all these graces.

From this day forward, the Church ceases to use, during Paschal Time, the Responsory called the Gradual. She substitutes, in its stead, two versicles, with the Alleluia repeated four times: the formula is less solemn, but more joyous. During the first six days of the Octave, which bear an analogy with the six days of creation, she would maintain the customary majestic gravity of her chants; now that she has reached the day whereon the Creator rested after His work was finished, she gives free scope to the holy joy, wherewith she is filled.

GOSPEL John 20:1-9
In that time, on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene cometh early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre; and she saw the stone taken away from the sepulchre. She ran, therefore, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and saith to them: They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him. Peter therefore went out, and that other disciple, and they came to the sepulchre. And they both ran together, and that other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre. And when he stooped down, he saw the linen cloths lying; but yet he went not in. Then cometh Simon Peter, following him, and went into the sepulchre, and saw the linen cloths lying, And the napkin that had been about his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but apart, wrapped up into one place. Then that other disciple also went in, who came first to the sepulchre: and he saw, and believed. For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.

INSTRUCTION: This incident, which happened on the morning of our Lord’s Resurrection, has been reserved by the Church for today’s liturgy, because it again brings St. Peter before our notice. This is the last day on which the neophytes assist at the holy Sacrifice in their white garments; after this, there will be nothing to distinguish them, exteriorly, from the rest of the faithful. It is important, therefore, to give them a clear idea of the foundation of the Church—a foundation, without which the Church could not exist, and upon which they must rest, if they would persevere in the faith wherein they have been baptized. They cannot obtain salvation unless they keep their faith inviolate. Now they alone have this firm and pure faith, who are docile to the teachings of Peter, and recognize him as the rock on which our Lord has built His Church. In the episode related in our Gospel, we are taught by an Apostle what respect and deference are due to him, whom Christ appointed to feed both lambs and sheep, that is, the whole flock. Peter and John run together to the sepulcher; John, the younger of the two, arrives there before Peter; he looks in, but does not enter. What means this humble reserve of the disciple who was so specially beloved of Jesus? for whom does he wait? He waits for him whom the Master has placed over all, and who is to act as their Head. Peter, at length, comes to the sepulcher; he goes in; he examines the holy place; and then John also enters. It is John himself who writes this, and gives us the admirable instruction embodied in what he relates. Yes, it is for Peter to lead the way, and judge, and decide as master; it is the Christian’s duty to follow him, to listen to his teachings, to honor and obey him. How can we have any difficulty in doing this, when we see an Apostle behaving thus to Peter, and this, too, at a time when Peter had received the promise only of the keys of the kingdom of heaven, which were not really given to him until some days after?

RESURRECTION PROOFS
KINDALL NILES
Each day of the Octave we will share "proofs" by eminent scholars of Our Lord's bodily Resurrection that you may better understand and give a defence of our Faith to others...

After an appraisal of recent scholarship on the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Professor William Craig contends that "the resurrection appearances, the empty tomb, and the origin of the Christian faith - all point unavoidably to one conclusion: the resurrection of Jesus". Source: "Contemporary Scholarship and the Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ," Truth 1 (1985): 89-95.

"Man," writes Loren Eisley, "is the Cosmic Orphan." He is the only creature in the universe who asks, Why? Other animals have instincts to guide them, but man has learned to ask questions. "Who am I?" he asks. "Why am I here? Where am I going?"

Ever since the Enlightenment, when modern man threw off the shackles of religion, he has tried to answer these questions without reference to God. But the answers that came back were not exhilarating, but dark and terrible. "You are an accidental by-product of nature, the result of matter plus time plus chance. There is no reason for your existence. All you face is death. Your life is but a spark in the infinite darkness, a spark that appears, flickers, and dies forever."

Modern man thought that in divesting himself of God, he had freed himself from all that stifled and repressed him. Instead, he discovered that in killing God, he had also killed himself.

Against this background of the modern predicament, the traditional Christian hope of the resurrection takes on an even greater brightness and significance. It tells man that he is no orphan after all, but the personal image of the Creator God of the universe; nor is his life doomed in death, for through the eschatological resurrection he may live in the presence of God forever.

This is a wonderful hope. But, of course, hope that is not founded in fact is not hope, but mere illusion. Why should the Christian hope of eschatological resurrection appear to modern man as anything more than mere wishful thinking? The answer lies in the Christian conviction that a man has been proleptically raised by God from the dead as the forerunner and exemplar of our own eschatological resurrection. That man was Jesus of Nazareth, and his historical resurrection from the dead constitutes the factual foundation upon which the Christian hope is based.

Of course, during the last century liberal theology had no use for the historical resurrection of Jesus. Since liberal theologians retained the presupposition against the possibility of miracles which they had inherited from the Deists, a historical resurrection was a priori simply out of the question for them. The mythological explanation of D. F. Strauss enabled them to explain the resurrection accounts of the New Testament as legendary fictions. The belief in the historical resurrection was a hangover from antiquity which it was high time for modern man to be rid of. Thus, in liberal theology's greatest study of the historicity of the resurrection, Kirsopp Lake's The Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ (1907), Lake carefully plots the legendary development of the resurrection narratives from the root historical event of the women's visit to the wrong tomb. He concludes that it is not the end anyway: what is vital for Christian theology is the belief in the immortality of the soul, the belief that our departed friends and relatives are still alive and that in time we shall be re-united with them. Thus, the NT has been replaced by the Phaedo.

Liberal theology could not survive World War I, but its demise brought no renewed interest in the historicity of Jesus' resurrection, for the two schools that succeeded it were united in their devaluation of the historical with regard to Jesus. Thus, dialectical theology, propounded by Karl Barth, championed the doctrine of the resurrection, but would have nothing to do with the resurrection as an event of history. In his commentary on the book of Romans (1919), the early Barth declared, "The resurrection touches history as a tangent touches a circle-that is, without really touching it." Existential theology, exemplified by Rudolf Bultmann, was even more antithetical to the historicity of Jesus' resurrection. Though Bultmann acknowledged that the earliest disciples believed in the literal resurrection of Jesus and that Paul in I Corinthians 15 even attempts to prove the resurrection, he nevertheless pronounces such a procedure as "fatal." It reduces Christ's resurrection to a nature miracle akin to the resurrection of a corpse. And modern man cannot be reasonably asked to believe in nature miracles before becoming a Christian. Therefore, the miraculous elements of the gospel must be demythologized to reveal the true Christian message: the call to authentic existence in the face of death, symbolized by the cross. The resurrection is merely a symbolic re-statement of the message of the cross and essentially adds nothing to it. To appeal to the resurrection as historical evidence, as did Paul, is doubly wrong-headed, for it is of the very nature of existential faith that it is a leap without evidence. Thus, to argue historically for the resurrection is contrary to faith. Clearly then, the antipathy of liberal theology to the historicity of Jesus' resurrection remained unrelieved by either dialectical or existential theology.

But a remarkable change has come about during the second half of the 20th century. The first glimmerings of change began to appear in 1953. In that year Ernst Käsemann, a pupil of Bultmann, argued at a Colloquy at the University of Marburg that Bultmann's historical skepticism toward Jesus was unwarranted and counterproductive and suggested re-opening the question of where the historical about Jesus was to be found. A new quest of the historical Jesus had begun. Three years later in 1956 the Marburg theologian Hans Grass subjected the resurrection itself to historical inquiry and concluded that the resurrection appearances cannot be dismissed as mere subjective visions on the part of the disciples, but were objective visionary events.

Meanwhile the church historian Hans Freiherr von Campenhausen in an equally epochal essay defended the historical credibility of Jesus' empty tomb. During the ensuing years a stream of works on the historicity of Jesus' resurrection flowed forth from German, French and English presses. By 1968 the old skepticism was a spent force and began dramatically to recede. So complete has been the turn-about during the second half of this century concerning the resurrection of Jesus that it is no exaggeration to speak of a reversal of scholarship on this issue, such that those who deny the historicity of Jesus' resurrection now seem to be the ones on the defensive. Perhaps one of the most significant theological developments in this connection is the theological system of Wolfhart Pannenberg, who bases his entire Christology on the historical evidence for Jesus' ministry and especially the resurrection. This is a development undreamed of in German theology prior to 1950. Equally startling is the declaration of one of the world's leading Jewish theologians Pinchas Lapid, that he is convinced on the basis of the evidence that Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead. Lapide twits New Testament critics like Bultmann and Marxsen for their unjustified skepticism and concludes that he believes on the basis of the evidence that the God of Israel raised Jesus from the dead.

What are the facts that underlie this remarkable reversal of opinion concerning the credibility of the New Testament accounts of the resurrection of Jesus? It seems to me that they can be conveniently grouped under three heads: the resurrection appearances, the empty tomb, and the origin of the Christian faith. Let's look briefly at each.

First, the resurrection appearances. Undoubtedly the major impetus for the reassessment of the appearance tradition was the demonstration by Joachim Jeremias that in 1 Corinthians 15: 3-5 Paul is quoting an old Christian formula which he received and in turn passed on to his converts According to Galatians 1:18 Paul was in Jerusalem three years after his conversion on a fact-finding mission, during which he conferred with Peter and James over a two week period, and he probably received the formula at this time, if not before. Since Paul was converted in AD 33, this means that the list of witnesses goes back to within the first five years after Jesus' death. Thus, it is idle to dismiss these appearances as legendary. We can try to explain them away as hallucinations if we wish, but we cannot deny they occurred. Paul's information makes it certain that on separate occasions various individuals and groups saw Jesus alive from the dead. According to Norman Perrin, the late NT critic of the University of Chicago: "The more we study the tradition with regard to the appearances, the firmer the rock begins to appear upon which they are based." This conclusion is virtually indisputable.

At the same time that biblical scholarship has come to a new appreciation of the historical credibility of Paul's information, however, it must be admitted that skepticism concerning the appearance traditions in the gospels persists. This lingering skepticism seems to me to be entirely unjustified. It is based on a presuppositional antipathy toward the physicalism of the gospel appearance stories. But the traditions underlying those appearance stories may well be as reliable as Paul's. For in order for these stories to be in the main legendary, a very considerable length of time must be available for the evolution and development of the traditions until the historical elements have been supplanted by unhistorical. This factor is typically neglected in New Testament scholarship, as A. N. Sherwin-White points out in Roman Law and Roman Society tn the New Testament. Professor Sherwin-White is not a theologian; he is an eminent historian of Roman and Greek times, roughly contemporaneous with the NT. According to Professor Sherwin-White, the sources for Roman history are usually biased and removed at least one or two generations or even centuries from the events they record. Yet, he says, historians reconstruct with confidence what really happened. He chastises NT critics for not realizing what invaluable sources they have in the gospels. The writings of Herodotus furnish a test case for the rate of legendary accumulation, and the tests show that even two generations is too short a time span to allow legendary tendencies to wipe out the hard core of historical facts. When Professor Sherwin-White turns to the gospels, he states for these to be legends, the rate of legendary accumulation would have to be 'unbelievable'; more generations are needed. All NT scholars agree that the gospels were written down and circulated within the first generation, during the lifetime of the eyewitnesses. Indeed, a significant new movement of biblical scholarship argues persuasively that some of the gospels were written by the AD 50's. This places them as early as Paul's letter to the Corinthians and, given their equal reliance upon prior tradition, they ought therefore to be accorded the same weight of historical credibility accorded Paul. It is instructive to note in this connection that no apocryphal gospel appeared during the first century. These did not arise until after the generation of eyewitnesses had died off. These are better candidates for the office of 'legendary fiction' than the canonical gospels. There simply was insufficient time for significant accrual of legend by the time of the gospels' composition. Thus, I find current criticism's skepticism with regard to the appearance traditions in the gospels to be unwarranted. The new appreciation of the historical value of Paul's information needs to be accompanied by a reassessment of the gospel traditions as well.

Second, the empty tomb. Once regarded as an offense to modern intelligence and an embarrassment to Christian theology, the empty tomb of Jesus has come to assume its place among the generally accepted facts concerning the historical Jesus. Allow me to review briefly some of the evidence undergirding this connection.

(1) The historical reliability of the burial story supports the empty tomb. If the burial account is accurate, then the site of Jesus' grave was known to Jew and Christian alike. In that case, it is a very short inference to historicity of the empty tomb. For if Jesus had not risen and the burial site were known:

(a) the disciples could never have believed in the resurrection of Jesus. For a first century Jew the idea that a man might be raised from the dead while his body remained in the tomb was simply a contradiction in terms. In the words of E. E. Ellis, "It is very unlikely that the earliest Palestinian Christians could conceive of any distinction between resurrection and physical, 'grave emptying' resurrection. To them an anastasis without an empty grave would have been about as meaningful as a square circle."

(b) Even if the disciples had believed in the resurrection of Jesus, it is doubtful they would have generated any following. So long as the body was interred in the tomb, a Christian movement founded on belief in the resurrection of the dead man would have been an impossible folly.

(c) The Jewish authorities would have exposed the whole affair. The quickest and surest answer to the proclamation of the resurrection of Jesus would have been simply to point to his grave on the hillside.

For these three reasons, the accuracy of the burial story supports the historicity of the empty tomb. Unfortunately for those who wish to deny the empty tomb, however, the burial story is one of the most historically certain traditions we have concerning Jesus. Several factors undergird this judgment. To mention only a few.

(i) The burial is mentioned in the third line of the old Christian formula quoted by Paul in 1 Cor. 15.4.

(ii) It is part of the ancient pre-Markan passion story which Mark used as a source for his gospel.

(iii) The story itself lacks any traces of legendary development.

(iv) The story comports with archeological evidence concerning the types and location of tombs extant in Jesus' day.

(v) No other competing burial traditions exist.

For these and other reasons, most scholars are united in the judgment that the burial story is fundamentally historical. But if that is the case, then, as I have explained, the inference that the tomb was found empty is not very far at hand.

(2) Paul's testimony supports the fact of the empty tomb. Here two aspects of Paul's evidence may be mentioned.

(a) In the formula cited by Paul the expression "he was raised" following the phrase "he was buried" implies the empty tomb. A first century Jew could not think otherwise. As E. L. Bode observes, the notion of the occurrence of a spiritual resurrection while the body remained in the tomb is a peculiarity of modern theology. For the Jews it was the remains of the man in the tomb which were raised; hence, they carefully preserved the bones of the dead in ossuaries until the eschatological resurrection. There can be no doubt that both Paul and the early Christian formula he cites pre-suppose the existence of the empty tomb.

(b) The phrase "on the third day" probably points to the discovery of the empty tomb. Very briefly summarized, the point is that since no one actually witnessed the resurrection of Jesus, how did Christians come to date it "on the third day?" The most probable answer is that they did so because this was the day of the discovery of the empty tomb by Jesus' women followers. Hence, the resurrection itself came to be dated on that day. Thus, in the old Christian formula quoted by Paul we have extremely early evidence for the existence of Jesus' empty tomb.

(3) The empty tomb story is part of the pre-Markan passion story and is therefore very old. The empty tomb story was probably the end of Mark's passion source. As Mark is the earliest of our gospels, this source is therefore itself quite old. In fact the commentator R. Pesch contends that it is an incredibly early source. He produces two lines of evidence for this conclusion:

(a) Paul's account of the Last Supper in 1 Cor. 11:23-5 presupposes the Markan account. Since Paul's own traditions are themselves very old, the Markan source must be yet older.

(b) The pre-Markan passion story never refers to the high priest by name. It is as when I say "The President is hosting a dinner at the White House" and everyone knows whom I am speaking of because it is the man currently in office. Similarly the pre-Markan passion story refers to the "high priest" as if he were still in power. Since Caiaphas held office from AD 18-37, this means at the latest the pre-Markan source must come from within seven years after Jesus' death. This source thus goes back to within the first few years of the Jerusalem fellowship and is therefore an ancient and reliable source of historical information.

(4) The story is simple and lacks legendary development. The empty tomb story is uncolored by the theological and apologetical motifs that would be characteristic of a later legendary account. Perhaps the most forceful way to appreciate this point is to compare it with the accounts of the empty tomb found in apocryphal gospels of the second century. For example, in the gospel of Peter a voice rings out from heaven during the night, the stone rolls back of itself from the door of the tomb, and two men descend from Heaven and enter the tomb. Then three men are seen coming out of the tomb, the two supporting the third. The heads of the two men stretch up to the clouds, but the head of the third man overpasses the clouds. Then a cross comes out of the tomb, and a voice asks, "Hast thou preached to them that sleep?" And the cross answers, "Yea". In the Ascension of Isaiah, Jesus comes out of the tomb sitting on the shoulders of the angels Michael and Gabriel. These are how real legends look: unlike the gospel accounts, they are colored by theological motifs.

(5) The tomb was probably discovered empty by women. To understand this point one has to recall two facts about the role of women in Jewish society.

(a) Woman occupied a low rung on the Jewish social ladder. This is evident in such rabbinic expressions as "Sooner let the words of the law be burnt than delivered to women" and "Happy is he whose children are male, but woe to him whose children are female."

(b) The testimony of women was regarded as so worthless that they were not even permitted to serve as legal witnesses in a court of law. In light of these facts, how remarkable must it seem that it is women who are the discoverers of Jesus' empty tomb. Any later legend would certainly have made the male disciples to discover the empty tomb. The fact that women, whose testimony was worthless, rather than men, are the chief witnesses to the empty tomb is most plausibly accounted for by the fact that, like it or not, they were the discoverers of the empty tomb and the gospels accurately record this.

(6) The earliest Jewish polemic presupposes the empty tomb. In Matthew 28, we find the Christian attempt to refute the earliest Jewish polemic against the resurrection. That polemic asserted that the disciples stole away the body. The Christians responded to this by reciting the story of the guard at the tomb, and the polemic in turn charged that the guard fell asleep. Now the noteworthy feature of this whole dispute is not the historicity of the guards but rather the presupposition of both parties that the body was missing. The earliest Jewish response to the proclamation of the resurrection was an attempt to explain away the empty tomb. Thus, the evidence of the adversaries of the disciples provides evidence in support of the empty tomb.

One could go on, but perhaps enough has been said to indicate why the judgment of scholarship has reversed itself on the historicity of the empty tomb. According to Jakob Kremer, "By far most exegetes hold firmly to the reliability of the biblical statements concerning the empty tomb" and he furnishes a list, to which his own name may be added, of twenty-eight prominent scholars in support. I can think of at least sixteen more names that he failed to mention. Thus, it is today widely recognized that the empty tomb of Jesus is a simple historical fact. As D. H. van Daalen has pointed out, "It is extremely difficult to object to the empty tomb on historical grounds; those who deny it do so on the basis of theological or philosophical assumptions." But assumptions may simply have to be changed in light of historical facts.

Finally, we may turn to that third body of evidence supporting the resurrection: the very origin of the Christian Way. Even the most skeptical scholars admit that the earliest disciples at least believed that Jesus had been raised from the dead. Indeed, they pinned nearly everything on it. Without belief in the resurrection of Jesus, Christianity could never have come into being. The crucifixion would have remained the final tragedy in the hapless life of Jesus. The origin of Christianity hinges on the belief of these earliest disciples that Jesus had risen from the dead. The question now inevitably arises: how does one explain the origin of that belief? As R. H. Fuller urges, even the most skeptical critic must posit some mysterious X to get the movement going. But the question is, what was that X?

If one denies that Jesus really did rise from the dead, then he must explain the disciples' belief that he did rise either in terms of Jewish influences or in terms of Christian influences. Now clearly, it can't be the result of Christian influences, for at that time there wasn't any Christianity yet! Since belief in Jesus' resurrection was the foundation for the origin of the Christian faith, it can't be a belief formed as a result of that faith.

But neither can the belief in the resurrection be explained as a result of Jewish influences. To see this we need to back up a moment. In the Old Testament, the Jewish belief in the resurrection of the dead on the day of judgment is mentioned in three places (Ezekiel 37; Isaiah 26, 19, Daniel 12.2). During the time between the Old Testament and the New Testament, the belief in resurrection flowered and is often mentioned in the Jewish literature of that period. In Jesus' day the Jewish party of the Pharisees held to belief in resurrection, and Jesus sided with them on this score in opposition to the party of the Sadducees. So the idea of resurrection was itself nothing new.

But the Jewish conception of resurrection differed in two important, fundamental respects from Jesus' resurrection. In Jewish thought the resurrection always (1) occurred after the end of the world, not within history, and (2) concerned all the people, not just an isolated individual. In contradistinction to this, Jesus' resurrection was both within history and of one individual person.

With regard to the first point, the Jewish belief was always that at the end of history, God would raise the righteous dead and receive them into His Kingdom. There are, to be sure, examples in the Old Testament of resuscitations of the dead; but these persons would die again. The resurrection to eternal life and glory occurred after the end of the world. We find this Jewish outlook in the gospels themselves. Thus, when Jesus assures Martha that her brother Lazarus will rise again, she responds, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day" (John 11.24). She has no idea that Jesus is about to bring him back to life. Similarly, when Jesus tells his disciples he will rise from the dead, they think he means at the end of the world (Mark 9.9-13). The idea that a true resurrection could occur prior to God's bringing the Kingdom of Heaven at the end of the world was utterly foreign to them. The greatly renowned German New Testament scholar Joachim Jeremias writes,

Ancient Judaism did not know of an anticipated resurrection as an event of history. Nowhere does one find in the literature anything comparable to the resurrection of Jesus. Certainly resurrections of the dead were known, but these always concerned resuscitations, the return to the earthly life. In no place in the late Judaic literature does it concern a resurrection to doxa (glory) as an event of history.

The disciples, therefore, confronted with Jesus' crucifixion and death, would only have looked forward to the resurrection at the final day and would probably have carefully kept their master's tomb as a shrine, where his bones could reside until the resurrection. They would not have come up with the idea that he was already raised.

As for the second point, the Jewish idea of resurrection was always of a general resurrection of the dead, not an isolated individual. It was the people, or mankind as a whole, that God raised up in the resurrection. But in Jesus' resurrection, God raised just a single man. Moreover, there was no concept of the people's resurrection in some way hinging on the Messiah's resurrection. That was just totally unknown. Yet that is precisely what is said to have occurred in Jesus' case. Ulrich Wilckens, another prominent German New Testament critic, explains:

For nowhere do the Jewish texts speak of the resurrection of an individual which already occurs before the resurrection of the righteous in the end time and is differentiated and separate from it; nowhere does the participation of the righteous in the salvation at the end time depend on their belonging to the Messiah, who was raised in advance as the 'First of those raised by God.' (1 Corinthians 15:20)

It is therefore evident that the disciples would not as a result of Jewish influences or background have come up with the idea that Jesus alone had been raised from the dead. They would wait with longing for that day when He and all the righteous of Israel would be raised by God to glory.

The disciples' belief in Jesus' resurrection, therefore, cannot be explained as the result of either Christian or Jewish influences. Left to themselves, the disciples would never have come up with such an idea as Jesus' resurrection. And remember: they were fishermen and tax collectors, not theologians. The mysterious X is still missing. According to C. F. D. Moule of Cambridge University, here is a belief nothing in terms of previous historical influences can account for. He points out that we have a situation in which a large number of people held firmly to this belief, which cannot be explained in terms of the Old Testament or the Pharisees, and these people held onto this belief until the Jews finally threw them out of the synagogue. According to Professor Moule, the origin of this belief must have been the fact that Jesus really did rise from the dead:

If the coming into existence of the Nazarenes, a phenomenon undeniably attested by the New Testament, rips a great hole in history, a hole of the size and shape of the Resurrection, what does the secular historian propose to stop it up with?. . . the birth and rapid rise of the Christian Church. . . remain an unsolved enigma for any historian who refuses to take seriously the only explanation offered by the church itself.

The resurrection of Jesus is therefore the best explanation for the origin of the Christian faith. Taken together, these three great historical facts--the resurrection appearances, the empty tomb, the origin of the Christian faith--seem to point to the resurrection of Jesus as the most plausible explanation.

But of course there have been other explanations proffered to account for the resurrection appearances, the empty tomb, and the origin of the Christian faith. In the judgment of modern scholarship, however, these have failed to provide a plausible account of the facts of the case. This can be seen by a rapid review of the principal explanations that have been offered.

A. The disciples stole Jesus' corpse and lied about the resurrection appearances. This explanation characterized the earliest Jewish anti-Christian polemic and was revived in the form of the conspiracy theory of eighteenth century Deism. The theory has been universally rejected by critical scholars and survives only in the popular press. To name only two considerations decisive against it: (i) it is morally impossible to indict the disciples of Jesus with such a crime. Whatever their imperfections, they were certainly good, earnest men and women, not impostors. No one who reads the New Testament unprejudicially can doubt the evident sincerity of these early believers. (ii) It is psychologically impossible to attribute to the disciples the cunning and dering- do requisite for such a ruse. At the time of the crucifixion, the disciples were confused, disorganized, fearful, doubting, and burdened with mourning-not mentally motivated or equipped to engineer such a wild hoax. Hence, to explain the empty tomb and resurrection appearances by a conspiracy theory seems out of the question.

B. Jesus did not die on the cross, but was taken down and placed alive in the tomb, where he revived and escaped to convince the disciples he had risen from the dead. This apparent death theory was championed by the late eighteenth/early nineteenth century German rationalists, and was even embraced by the father of modern theology, F. D. E. Schleiermacher. Today, however, the theory has been entirely given up: (i) it would be virtually impossible medically for Jesus to have survived the rigors of his torture and crucifixion, much less not to have died of exposure in the tomb. (ii) The theory is religiously inadequate, since a half-dead Jesus desperately in need of medical attention would not have elicited in the disciples worship of him as the exalted Risen Lord and Conqueror of Death. Moreover, since Jesus on this hypothesis knew he had not actually triumphed over death, the theory reduces him to the life of a charlatan who tricked the disciples into believing he had risen, which is absurd. These reasons alone make the apparent death theory untenable.

C. The disciples projected hallucinations of Jesus after his death, from which they mistakenly inferred his resurrection. The hallucination theory became popular during the nineteenth century and carried over into the first half of the twentieth century as well. Again, however, there are good grounds for rejecting this hypothesis: (i) it is psychologically implausible to posit such a chain of hallucinations. Hallucinations are usually associated with mental illness or drugs; but in the disciples' case the prior psycho-biological preparation appears to be wanting. The disciples had no anticipation of seeing Jesus alive again; all they could do was wait to be reunited with him in the Kingdom of God. There were no grounds leading them to hallucinate him alive from the dead. Moreover, the frequency and variety of circumstances belie the hallucination theory: Jesus was seen not once, but many times; not by one person, but by several; not only by individuals, but also by groups; not at one locale and circumstance but at many; not by believers only, but by skeptics and unbelievers as well. The hallucination theory cannot be plausibly stretched to accommodate such diversity. (ii) Hallucinations would not in any case have led to belief in Jesus' resurrection. As projections of one's own mind, hallucinations cannot contain anything not already in the mind. But we have seen that Jesus' resurrection differed from the Jewish conception in two fundamental ways. Given their Jewish frame of thought, the disciples, were they to hallucinate, would have projected visions of Jesus glorified in Abraham's bosom, where Israel's righteous dead abode until the eschatological resurrection. Thus, hallucinations would not have elicited belief in Jesus' resurrection, an idea that ran solidly against the Jewish mode of thought. (iii) Nor can hallucinations account for the full scope of the evidence. They are offered as an explanation of the resurrection appearances, but leave the empty tomb unexplained, and therefore fail as a complete and satisfying answer. Hence, it seems that the hallucination hypothesis is not more successful than its defunct forebears in providing a plausible counter-explanation of the data surrounding Christ's resurrection.

Thus, none of the previous counter-explanations can account for the evidence as plausibly as the resurrection itself. One might ask, "Well, then, how do skeptical scholars explain the facts of the resurrection appearances, the empty tomb, and the origin of the Christian faith?" The fact of the matter is, they don't. Modern scholarship recognizes no plausible explanatory alternative to the resurrection of Jesus. Those who refuse to accept the resurrection as a fact of history are simply self-confessedly left without an explanation.

These three great facts--the resurrection appearances, the empty tomb, and the origin of the Christian faith--all point unavoidably to one conclusion: The resurrection of Jesus. Today the rational man can hardly be blamed if he believes that on that first Easter morning a divine miracle occurred.

Dr. William Lane Craig shares the evidence we have for the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

 
AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO
Easter c.411AD
Sermons, 241, Easter: c.411 A.D.

The beauty of the unchangeable creator is to be inferred from the beauty of the changeable creation
 
"Question the beauty of the earth, question the beauty of the sea, question the beauty of the air, amply spread around everywhere, question the beauty of the sky, question the serried ranks of the stars, question the sun making the day glorious with its bright beams, question the moon tempering the darkness of the following night with its shining rays, question the animals that move in the waters, that amble about on dry land, that fly in the air; their souls hidden, their bodies evident; the visible bodies needing to be controlled, the invisible souls controlling them; question all these things. They all answer you, 'Here we are, look ; we're beautiful.'

Their beauty is their confession. Who made these beautiful changeable things, if not one who is beautiful and unchangeable? Finally in man himself, in order to be able to understand and know God, the creator of the universe; in man himself, I repeat, they questioned these two elements, body and soul. They questioned the very thing they themselves carried around with them; they could see their bodies, they couldn't see their souls. But they could only see the body from the soul. I mean, they saw with their eyes, but inside there was someone looking out through these windows. Finally, when the occupant departs, the house lies still; when the controller departs, what was being controlled falls down; and because it falls down, it's called a cadaver, a corpse. Aren't the eyes complete in it? Even if they're open, they see nothing. There are ears there, but the hearer has moved on; the instrument of the tongue remains, but the musician who used to play it has withdrawn.

So they questioned these two things, the body which can be seen, the soul which cannot be seen, and they found that what cannot be seen is better than what can be seen; that the hidden soul is better, the evident flesh of less worth. They saw these two things, they observed them, carefully examined each one, and they found that each, in man himself, is changeable. The body is changeable by the processes of age, of decay, of nourishment, of health improving and deteriorating, of life, of death. They passed on to the soul, which they certainly grasped as being better, and also admired as invisible. And they found that it too is changeable; now willing, now not willing; now knowing, now not knowing; now remembering, now forgetting; now frightened, now brave; now advancing toward wisdom, now falling back into folly. They saw that it too is changeable. They passed on beyond even the soul; they were looking, you see, for something unchangeable. So in this way they arrived at a knowledge of the god who made things, through the things which he made."
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