THE RESURRECTION ENIGMA

Blessed Easter.

What follows is an excerpt from my newest publication, The Resurrection Enigma: A Lay Cistercian reflects on five consequences the Resurrection of Christ has for living Forever.

St. Paul, as you will read, states that, if the Resurrection is false, our Faith is useless. I took those ideas and applied them to my Lectio Divina (Philippians 2:5). What follows is what the Holy Spirit presented to me. It is amazing what thoughts come into my mind when I keep my mouth shut and open my heart to the Spirit. Here are five consequences of the Resurrection, followed by an excerpt from one of them.

The Resurrection of the Dead

12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?  13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised;  14 and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain, and your faith has been in vain.  15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God because we testified of God that he raised Christ—whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.  16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised.  17 If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins.  18 Then those also who have died[e] in Christ have perished.  19 If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. (Emphasis mine)

20 But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.[f]  21 For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being;  22 for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ.”

FIVE CONSEQUENCES IF THERE IS NO RESURRECTION

To even begin to discuss the Resurrection, the Mystery of Faith, something that we can only vaguely describe, we will need to examine these five themes and probe the consequences.

• Our Need to Live Forever
• Our Need to Fulfill Our Destiny
• Our Need for Adoption as Sons and Daughters
• Our Need to Love as Christ Loved us
• Our Need to Make All Things New

The first statement to consider is why there is that nagging desire in the human heart to live Forever.

The second discussion is related to the Six Thresholds of Life or the six questions all humans must ask and answer correctly to enter the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth and in the next life.

The third statement looks at the Resurrection as the joyful confirmation that we are indeed adopted sons and daughters of the Father and what that means in my short lifespan. You are not alone in your adoption but part of the Church Universal. Heaven is your birthright, once again. Lost by Adam and Eve (our archetypal parents) the Resurrection proclaims our inheritance once again.

The fourth discussion is what type of love satisfies the human heart. Our hearts, says St. Augustine, are restless until they rest in Thee (Christ).

The fifth statement looks at our need to make all things new and how the Resurrection of Christ enables us to do so in this life and in the next.

V.     Our Need to Make All Things New

We live in a human condition where everything is dying and whose default is corruption. All of creation began, exists, then dies and loses energy. The Book of Genesis is an archetypal account of that condition and how humans must live with the consequences of knowing that their existence is limited to seventy or eighty years.  Is Genesis real? The question is: If Genesis describes how human nature possessed then lost its innocence, how individuals live in a condition of imperfection and eventually death, how there is hope for the future, then the Resurrection is that event which restores the original life intended for us from the beginning. Resurrection is the promise of Christ to restore the Garden of Eden, to unlock the Gates of Heaven to humans, and to allow us to make all things new while we await our adoption as sons and daughters of the Father.

The Resurrection Enigma is at once a recognition of our frailty but also that we can move beyond death but only with our guide to the Kingdom of Heaven, Christ.

In prior discussion, we talked about nature and how human nature was elevated to the point that we were accepted as adopted sons and daughters of the Father. So, how do we keep our focus on our destiny and the promise made to us by Christ that those who are faithful will be with him in Paradise? 

SEVEN GIFTS FROM GOD TO SUSTAIN OUR FAITH

In each age, the Church Universal takes the message of Faith, Hope and most especially Love and allows us to experience it where we are and as we are. Sustaining our Faith is one of the critical struggles we have, especially after the death of our charismatic leader, Christ. Not one person after Christ can ever fill his shoes. What we weak and sinful members can do is walk in his footsteps. These are not footsteps that we make up ourselves but ones laid down through the centuries, ones that countless people have followed, often without any notoriety or fame. Only those declared as Saints (those who have walked the path of righteousness and have put Christ as their center) are worthy to be trail guides on our journey through life.

We are saved by Faith, says Saint Paal in Ephesians not by good works, yet ironically, it that Faith does not produce good works in us, that Faith is ineffectual. Remember the time that Jesus could not work wonders because of their lack of Faith? The point here is that God shows his mercy on humans by sending us a Gift, Jesus Christ. It is only through, with, and in Christ that we receive grace to call God Abba, Father. It is only through Christ that we are saved.

Faith and Belief

Faith is not the same as belief, although some people use it that way. As you can read below, we are saved by grace through Faith, a gift from God, and not by anything we do to earn it. That grace is energy. Humans, by themselves, cannot approach the Father. It is only through, with, and in Christ, God’s only Son, that we dare to call upon the name of the Lord. Belief is our calling upon God to be merciful to us, for we are sinful and in need of grace. Faith produces good works, much like the Sun produces both heat and light. Faith comes from God; belief is a human response to Faith. We have not earned the right to be adopted sons and daughters of the Father, but Christ has purchased this for us with his life, death, and resurrection. Without the resurrection, death would be the end instead of the beginning. It takes Faith for us to believe, Faith that does not come from us but by our being one with Christ in the glory of God the Father. It is a sign of contradiction that good works alone will not get you to Heaven (Matthew 25:36ff) but that you can’t get to Heaven without them. There are only three types of works: good works, bad works, and no works. One of these is the result of Faith. God helps sustain our Faith by gifts (grace) shared and poured out through the local Church and its Pastor. God knows what we need to resist tempation, keep our minds on having in us the mind of Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5).

Saint Benedict’s Chapter 4 of his Rule sets forth for his monks what he calls the tools for good works. Properly understood (in the 6^th Century) the were ways to approach Christ by having in them the mind of Christ Jesus. These tools produce the charisms of humility, obedience, hospitality, preferring nothing to the love of Christ. They increase the capacity of God in each of us according to our individual Faith. Good works are always the products of Faith, not Faith itself, of which we have been gifted by God.

From Death to Life

2 You were dead through the trespasses and sins  2 in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient.  3 All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else.  4 But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us  5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ[a]—by grace you have been saved—  6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,  7 so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.  8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—  9 not the result of works, so that no one may boast.  10 For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life. (emphases mine)

Once more, God, in his wisdom, gives us what we need to be with him and claim our inheritance bought by the blood of the Lamb of God. These are gifts given to the Church to distribute to each of us in every age. They are what we need to maintain our Faith in the face of Original Sin.

Baptism –In the gift of Baptism, God made all things new in us by taking away the sin of the World (Original Sin of Adam and Eve) and giving us the mark on our souls that says we are a pilgrim in a foreign land. 

Confirmation —

With the gift of Eucharist, the community of believers offers praise and glory to the Father through that same Christ that took on our human nature. As the Lamb of God, Christ offers himself again and again to the Father as a sacrifice. The Body of Christ must be nourished with Christ’s own body and blood so that each of us can live in the foreign land and sustain ourselves against the decay and corruption of the World. The Resurrection is all about knowing, loving and serving God with all our hearts and mind and strength so that we can fulfill the destiny that awaited Adam and Eve but which they squandered.

Eucharist –To sustain the Body of Christ, God gives us the gift of Eucharist. What a brilliant idea to give each us in every age the same body and blood the same humanity and divinity the Real Presence. Christ remains the same today, yesterday and tomorrow.  The brilliance of this gift is that it happens at each age. To put it another way, Eucharist is the Real Presence because it sustains the Baptismal covenant with each person when they are. Christ is present, not as a memory to be remembered, like we think of our parents after they have died, but is the same Christ that walked the earth in his time, healing, teaching, blessing, doing the will of the Father. St. Paul says it this way in Hebrews 13:7-9 New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)

“7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you; consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.  8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.  9 Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings; for it is well for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by regulations about food,[a] which have not benefited those who observe them.”

Eucharist is Christ. Christ gave us of Himself in each age so that we might sustain our adoption as sons and daughters of the Father. Only God’s grace can help us move from two universes (physical and mental) to three universes (physical, mental, spiritual) in our approach to reality. These seven gifts from Christ help to give us that very life of God, not by any works or belief on our part, but by Faith. Whenever you see the word Faith, think of what God gives to us to help us get to Heaven (our ultimate destiny). 

If there is no Resurrection, there is no Christ present with us today because Christ died on the cross and that was that. There is no life after death, there is no promise of living Forever with the Father as adopted sons and daughters. Indeed, as St. Paul says, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins.  18 Then those also who have died[e] in Christ have perished.  19 If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.”

A Living Hope

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,  4 and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,  5 who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.  6 In this you rejoice,[a] even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials,  7 so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.  8 Although you have not seen[b] him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

Without the Resurrection, there is no Eucharist. Without the Eucharist, there is no Real Presence, no heart of Christ against which we hope for future adoption. Without the Resurrection, all we have is the earth, and the World corrupts absolutely.

One of, if not the strongest urge for all living things is procreation. It becomes a little more confusing when you think of organizations that seek to propagate themselves so that they can survive each age. Gone are the Ceasars of Rome, gone the way of Ozymandias. Listen to the poetry of Shelley on the futility of power.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46565/ozymandias

Power is fleeting, fame a flickering flame blown by the wind. The Word of the Lord endures Forever, from age to age.

Reconciliation: Making All Things New  Both Eucharist and Reconciliation are given to the Church Universal to sustain our Baptismal Commitment. In Eucharist, Christ is present in the format of the Last Supper so that He lives Forever. As members of the Body of Christ, we bring Christ present into our hearts so that we can rise with Him, through Him, and with Him to give glory and honor to the Father in union with the Holy Spirit. (Eucharistic doxology)Think about it. Christ gives us of Himself just as He did on the cross, just as He did in the Transfiguration, and as He did at the Last Supper.

In Reconciliation, Christ gives us grace (His own energy) to renew in us our Baptismal Covenant. His is the Real Presence in our hearts as we proclaim our sinfulness and the need for daily renewal. I see what I do as Cistercian practices (Lectio Divina, the Rosary, Eucharist, Liturgy of the Hours, and reading Chapter 4 of the Rule of St. Benedict) as placing me in the presence of the Real Presence so I can receive grace. God is made flesh each time we seek forgiveness for our sins and pledge to love with all our hearts, our mind, and our strength (Matthew 22:36) These two Sacraments are to feed us and make us whole again, not in the sense of Adam and Eve but one with Christ.

Matrimony and Holy Orders — Christ gives to his body on earth the gifts that sustain it in each age. Such gifts are Holy Orders and Matrimony so that we can build up the Body of Christ here on earth in each age. Holy Orders keeps the Body whole, allowing it to make all things new in each age. Matrimony populates the Body of Christ with new members as it slowly crawls through each age. One thing to note. These two gifts are instituted by Christ to give his adopts sons and daughters grace. Grace is the energy of God in each of us and also collectively.

These two gifts are meant to sustain the Church in feeding us and to keep alive our Baptismal covenant.

Anointing of the Sick – Both Anointings of the Sick and Viaticum (preparing your heart to sit next to the heart of  Christ..forever) are gifts that prepare us to meet Christ. Christ wanted the Body of Christ (local community or parish) to help me as an individual prepare for the journey to Forever. We receive both Eucharist and Reconciliation to make our hearts ready to receive the love that Christ has for us. Come, good and faithful servant, share your Lord’s joy prepared for you from the beginning. (John 1:1)

LEARNING AND DISCUSSION POINTS

• If there is no resurrection from the dead, there is no need to prepare for something that does not exist. 
• It is important to realize that these gifts fulfill the needs that we have. Sustaining our baptismal promise is key to being One in Christ.
• The Resurrection enabled us to claim our inheritance. The Resurrection needs sustaining through approaching the heart of Christ with our own heart (together with those around us as well as in union with the Church Universal).
• Without the resurrection, whatever we do is futile, and we remain in our sins, prisoners of death, hostage to the whims that come with being our own god.
• The power to make all things new

V.     Our Need to Make All Things New

We live in a human condition where everything is dying and whose default is corruption. All of creation began, exists, then dies and loses energy. The Book of Genesis is an archetypal account of that condition and how humans must live with the consequences of knowing that their existence is limited to seventy or eighty years.  Is Genesis real? The question is: If Genesis describes how human nature possessed then lost its innocence, how individuals live in a condition of imperfection and eventually death, how there is hope for the future, then the Resurrection is that event which restores the original life intended for us from the beginning. Resurrection is the promise of Christ to restore the Garden of Eden, to unlock the Gates of Heaven to humans, and to allow us to make all things new while we await our adoption as sons and daughters of the Father.

The Resurrection Enigma is at once a recognition of our frailty but also that we can move beyond death but only with our guide to the Kingdom of Heaven, Christ.

In prior discussion, we talked about nature and how human nature was elevated to the point that we were accepted as adopted sons and daughters of the Father. So, how do we keep our focus on our destiny and the promise made to us by Christ that those who are faithful will be with him in Paradise? 

SEVEN GIFTS FROM GOD TO SUSTAIN OUR FAITH

In each age, the Church Universal takes the message of Faith, Hope and most especially Love and allows us to experience it where we are and as we are. Sustaining our Faith is one of the critical struggles we have, especially after the death of our charismatic leader, Christ. Not one person after Christ can ever fill his shoes. What we weak and sinful members can do is walk in his footsteps. These are not footsteps that we make up ourselves but ones laid down through the centuries, ones that countless people have followed, often without any notoriety or fame. Only those declared as Saints (those who have walked the path of righteousness and have put Christ as their center) are worthy to be trail guides on our journey through life.

We are saved by Faith, says Saint Paul in Ephesians not by good works, yet ironically, it that Faith does not produce good works in us, that Faith is ineffectual. Remember the time that Jesus could not work wonders because of their lack of Faith? The point here is that God shows his mercy on humans by sending us a Gift, Jesus Christ. It is only through, with, and in Christ that we receive grace to call God Abba, Father. It is only through Christ that we are saved.

Faith and Belief

Faith is not the same as belief, although some people use it that way. As you can read below, we are saved by grace through Faith, a gift from God, and not by anything we do to earn it. That grace is energy. Humans, by themselves, cannot approach the Father. It is only through, with, and in Christ, God’s only Son, that we dare to call upon the name of the Lord. Belief is our calling upon God to be merciful to us, for we are sinful and in need of grace. Faith produces good works, much like the Sun produces both heat and light. Faith comes from God; belief is a human response to Faith. We have not earned the right to be adopted sons and daughters of the Father, but Christ has purchased this for us with his life, death, and resurrection. Without the resurrection, death would be the end instead of the beginning. It takes Faith for us to believe, Faith that does not come from us but by our being one with Christ in the glory of God the Father. It is a sign of contradiction that good works alone will not get you to Heaven (Matthew 25:36ff) but that you can’t get to Heaven without them. There are only three types of works: good works, bad works, and no works. One of these is the result of Faith. God helps sustain our Faith by gifts (grace) shared and poured out through the local Church and its Pastor. God knows what we need to resist temptation, keep our minds on having in us the mind of Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5).

Saint Benedict’s Chapter 4 of his Rule sets forth for his monks what he calls the tools for good works. Properly understood (in the 6^th Century) the were ways to approach Christ by having in them the mind of Christ Jesus. These tools produce the charisms of humility, obedience, hospitality, preferring nothing to the love of Christ. They increase the capacity of God in each of us according to our individual Faith. Good works are always the products of Faith, not Faith itself, of which we have been gifted by God.

From Death to Life

2 You were dead through the trespasses and sins  2 in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient.  3 All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else.  4 But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us  5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ[a]—by grace you have been saved—  6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,  7 so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.  8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—  9 not the result of works, so that no one may boast.  10 For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life. (emphases mine)

Once more, God, in his wisdom, gives us what we need to be with him and claim our inheritance bought by the blood of the Lamb of God. These are gifts given to the Church to distribute to each of us in every age. They are what we need to maintain our Faith in the face of Original Sin.

Baptism –In the gift of Baptism, God made all things new in us by taking away the sin of the World (Original Sin of Adam and Eve) and giving us the mark on our souls that says we are a pilgrim in a foreign land. 

Confirmation —

With the gift of Eucharist, the community of believers offers praise and glory to the Father through that same Christ that took on our human nature. As the Lamb of God, Christ offers himself again and again to the Father as a sacrifice. The Body of Christ must be nourished with Christ’s own body and blood so that each of us can live in the foreign land and sustain ourselves against the decay and corruption of the World. The Resurrection is all about knowing, loving and serving God with all our hearts and mind and strength so that we can fulfill the destiny that awaited Adam and Eve but which they squandered.

Eucharist –To sustain the Body of Christ, God gives us the gift of Eucharist. What a brilliant idea to give each us in every age the same body and blood the same humanity and divinity the Real Presence. Christ remains the same today, yesterday and tomorrow.  The brilliance of this gift is that it happens at each age. To put it another way, Eucharist is the Real Presence because it sustains the Baptismal covenant with each person when they are. Christ is present, not as a memory to be remembered, like we think of our parents after they have died, but is the same Christ that walked the earth in his time, healing, teaching, blessing, doing the will of the Father. St. Paul says it this way in Hebrews 13:7-9 New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)

“7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you; consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.  8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.  9 Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings; for it is well for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by regulations about food,[a] which have not benefited those who observe them.”

Eucharist is Christ. Christ gave us of Himself in each age so that we might sustain our adoption as sons and daughters of the Father. Only God’s grace can help us move from two universes (physical and mental) to three universes (physical, mental, spiritual) in our approach to reality. These seven gifts from Christ help to give us that very life of God, not by any works or belief on our part, but by Faith. Whenever you see the word Faith, think of what God gives to us to help us get to Heaven (our ultimate destiny). 

If there is no Resurrection, there is no Christ present with us today because Christ died on the cross and that was that. There is no life after death, there is no promise of living Forever with the Father as adopted sons and daughters. Indeed, as St. Paul says, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins.  18 Then those also who have died[e] in Christ have perished.  19 If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.”

A Living Hope

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,  4 and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,  5 who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.  6 In this you rejoice,[a] even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials,  7 so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.  8 Although you have not seen[b] him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

Without the Resurrection, there is no Eucharist. Without the Eucharist, there is no Real Presence, no heart of Christ against which we hope for future adoption. Without the Resurrection, all we have is the earth, and the World corrupts absolutely.

One of, if not the strongest urge for all living things is procreation. It becomes a little more confusing when you think of organizations that seek to propagate themselves so that they can survive each age. Gone are the Ceasars of Rome, gone the way of Ozymandias. Listen to the poetry of Shelley on the futility of power.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46565/ozymandias

Power is fleeting, fame a flickering flame blown by the wind. The Word of the Lord endures Forever, from age to age.

Reconciliation: Making All Things New  Both Eucharist and Reconciliation are given to the Church Universal to sustain our Baptismal Commitment. In Eucharist, Christ is present in the format of the Last Supper so that He lives Forever. As members of the Body of Christ, we bring Christ present into our hearts so that we can rise with Him, through Him, and with Him to give glory and honor to the Father in union with the Holy Spirit. (Eucharistic doxology)Think about it. Christ gives us of Himself just as He did on the cross, just as He did in the Transfiguration, and as He did at the Last Supper.

In Reconciliation, Christ gives us grace (His own energy) to renew in us our Baptismal Covenant. His is the Real Presence in our hearts as we proclaim our sinfulness and the need for daily renewal. I see what I do as Cistercian practices (Lectio Divina, the Rosary, Eucharist, Liturgy of the Hours, and reading Chapter 4 of the Rule of St. Benedict) as placing me in the presence of the Real Presence so I can receive grace. God is made flesh each time we seek forgiveness for our sins and pledge to love with all our hearts, our mind, and our strength (Matthew 22:36) These two Sacraments are to feed us and make us whole again, not in the sense of Adam and Eve but one with Christ.

Matrimony and Holy Orders — Christ gives to his body on earth the gifts that sustain it in each age. Such gifts are Holy Orders and Matrimony so that we can build up the Body of Christ here on earth in each age. Holy Orders keeps the Body whole, allowing it to make all things new in each age. Matrimony populates the Body of Christ with new members as it slowly crawls through each age. One thing to note. These two gifts are instituted by Christ to give his adopts sons and daughters grace. Grace is the energy of God in each of us and also collectively.

These two gifts are meant to sustain the Church in feeding us and to keep alive our Baptismal covenant.

Anointing of the Sick – Both Anointings of the Sick and Viaticum (preparing your heart to sit next to the heart of  Christ..forever) are gifts that prepare us to meet Christ. Christ wanted the Body of Christ (local community or parish) to help me as an individual prepare for the journey to Forever. We receive both Eucharist and Reconciliation to make our hearts ready to receive the love that Christ has for us. Come, good and faithful servant, share your Lord’s joy prepared for you from the beginning. (John 1:1)

LEARNING AND DISCUSSION POINTS

• If there is no resurrection from the dead, there is no need to prepare for something that does not exist. 
• It is important to realize that these gifts fulfill the needs that we have. Sustaining our baptismal promise is key to being One in Christ.
• The Resurrection enabled us to claim our inheritance. The Resurrection needs sustaining through approaching the heart of Christ with our own heart (together with those around us as well as in union with the Church Universal).
• Without the resurrection, whatever we do is futile, and we remain in our sins, prisoners of death, hostage to the whims that come with being our own god.
• The power to make all thing new does not come from ourselves, but from Christ. If there is no Resurrection, there is no power to do anything.
• The Resurrection is an enigma to those who do not live in three universes. “To those with Faith, no answer is necessary; to those without Faith, no answer is possible.” (St. Thomas Aquinas)

• l thing new does not come from ourselves, but from Christ. If there is no Resurrection, there is no power to do anything.
• The Resurrection is an enigma to those who do not live in three universes. “To those with Faith, no answer is necessary; to those without Faith, no answer is possible.” (St. Thomas Aquinas)