We’ve been discussing the power of the Resurrection (from the line in the Creed: and rose again on the third day) for some time now. Last week, I brought up that we need to know what we are being saved from in order to properly appreciate the Resurrection. I said that our faith can be summarized in four points. The first two of these points are that:

  1. God created this universe, and all that is in it. Including us.
  2. Sin messed everything up so horribly we can’t even imagine a universe without sin.

Today, we’ll cover the next two points.

The third point is: the Son of God became one of us and rescued us from the evil of sin. Sin and the forces of evil that are in this world seek our destruction as way to try and inflict some form of harm on God. We are caught in between these two sides, and for a long time, humanity appeared to be doomed to a fate where we suffered both on this world and–if there was an afterlife–in that too.

But that all changed about 2000 years ago, when an angel named Gabriel and told a woman named Mary something astounding: that she would bear a son, and that he was to be named Jesus–“Yahweh saves”–because he will save the people from their sins. (See Matthew 1:21) When the Divine Logos, the Second Person of the Trinity, took on human flesh through his mother, Mary, he made possible something that was never imagined before. Our humanity was shown to be capable of being so much more than mere subjects of a deity, We can be truly united with God. This, however, was just the beginning.

When Christ was born, the demons did not know what was going on. Contrary to popular belief, angelic beings do not have perfect knowledge of all things. Certain things are known only by God. So when Satan tempted Jesus, he did not know who he was tempting. When Death came for Jesus on the cross, he did not know that he was attempting to consume the Lord of Life. When Christ entered the underworld, he destroyed its power to contain humanity and freed us from the reign of sin. When we say that sin and death has no power over us, we mean that these evil forces have truly been conquered by Christ. The does not mean that the battle on this world is done. In human warfare, the decisive victory that won the war is rarely the final battle. Not only must the enemy be defeated, but the enemy must also admit defeat. Unlike human warfare, the forces of evil will never admit defeat until they are all cast out and destroyed at the end of days. We, in fact, join in this destruction of evil every time we turn back to God and repent of sin in our own life.

But we must always remember the most important of all of this: the war is already won. Sin and death no longer have a claim to humanity, because Jesus’s Death and Resurrection destroyed them. As a perfect and sinless man, Jesus was able to offer himself as the perfect sacrifice through his death on the throne and altar of the Cross. And then he showed us that humanity is called to eternal life through his Resurrection. He was not some strange ghost or spiritual entity after his Resurrection, but a truly human being, who could eat and drink with his disciples.

The fourth and final point to our consideration of the Resurrection is this: we must respond. Jesus sacrificed himself and opened the path to eternal life for us. How can we not respond to this? How can we not thank him? How can we not share the Good News of salvation with those around us?

Throughout Christian history, this mystery of our salvation has driven Christians to go out and bring people to Christ so that he can free them from the scourges of sin and death that ravage them. Pope St. Paul VI teaches us that, “Evangelizing is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize, that is to say, in order to preach and teach, to be the channel of the gift of grace, to reconcile sinners with God, and to perpetuate Christ’s sacrifice in the Mass, which is the memorial of His death and glorious resurrection.” (Evangelii nuntiandi, no. 14)

The Resurrection has destroyed the power of sin and death. It has opened humanity to eternal life. Nothing can stop us when we are united with God, for with God all things are possible. (See Matthew 19:26, Luke 1:37) So let us not be afraid to share the Good News of the power of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.