The miracle of the resurrection completes the miracle of creation

In the early 1920’s, the red-haired Bolshevik fanatic, Nicolai Bukharin (1888- 1938), was sent from Moscow to Kiev to address a vast, showpiece, anti-god rally. For an hour and more, he indulged in a tirade against Christianity, bringing to bear all the abuse and ridicule he could muster and demonstrating – to his own satisfaction, at least – that the whole ancient edifice of Christianity was a tissue of lies that now lay in ruins. After a brief, self-congratulatory pause the smug Bukharin waited for applause, but instead, and to his great surprise, a diminutive figure in the crowd put up his hand and asked to speak.

Bukharin, expecting sycophantic agreement, invited him onto the podium and gave him a comradely welcome. But unknown to either Bukharin or the crowd, this unremarkable looking man was a priest and, in a voice whose volume belied his stature, he gave the crowd the ancient liturgical greeting, ‘Christos Voskresje - Christ is Risen’. Instantly, the whole assembly, until now passive and cowed, rose to their feet and thundered the traditional reply: ‘Vojestene Voskresje – He is Risen indeed.’

Seething, the badly shaken Bukharin stormed off. The people remained in stunned, surprised silence. In any circumstance, silence is the only possible or appropriate response to the proclamation of Christ’s resurrection: not the silence of doubt or hesitancy, but disciplined, respectful silence before a mystery that exceeds anything that can be thought, said or even imagined: the awed silence that renders redundant any attempt to explain.

The miracle of the resurrection completes the miracle of creation and fulfils the promise written into our very existence. When we entered into the waters of baptism, we entered into the tomb with Christ; and when we rose from those same waters, we passed with him from death to life. As we were joined to him in his death, so were we joined to him in his risen life: which is why St Paul can say that our lives are “hid with Christ in God”.

His life is our life, his glory, our glory, his destiny, our destiny. Our death is already behind us. And if we share his life, we share also in his love. By charity, the greatest of the virtues and the greatest of God’s gifts, the mutual love that makes us God’s friends, we love with his love. Our friendship with him shows itself 2 in our love for all his friends and for all he has created. We share also in his love for us by loving ourselves as God loves us. If we don’t love ourselves, we can’t love anybody else. And if loving others as we love ourselves is the hallmark of the risen life, even now, patience, understanding, generosity, forgiveness and not just willing but acting for the good of others are the hallmarks of friendship, with God and one another.

The resurrection silences all argument and explanation; it is the full meaning of the crucifixion, the final vindication of the self-sharing love that is friendship. So it is Mary of Magdala who had much forgiven her because she had loved much, who, seeing the Lord first, recognises the friend she thought she had lost when he utters her name, ‘Mary’. So it is John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, who enters the tomb and, seeing with the eyes of love, is the first to believe. So it is that the greatest of all Franciscan theologians, St Bonaventure (1221-74), speaking of the empty tomb, can say that love outruns all knowledge. “Where the intellect cannot go, the heart enters with ease”. And so: “Rise heart; thy Lord is risen. Sing his praise Without delays, Who takes thee by the hand, that thou likewise With him mayst rise.” George Herbert (1593-1633