The entirety of Christianity is pointless...

...were it not for that Jesus Christ, for our sake, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.

"Come on Thomas-Called-Didymus, I'm not lying! I'm really back! I dare you to check out my wounds--so you know it's real."

I was thinking about this during the Easter Vigil Mass the Saturday night before Easter Sunday. And even when I went to morning Easter Mass the next day. Specifically, I was thinking about the resurrection part. How incredibly important and key is the Resurrection that if it didn't happen, then what legitimacy would Christianity have?

Any ol' person can teach, preach, and perform feats that astounds others to the point where the only conclusion is that such feats are miraculous. Any person can be arrested and then undergo a terrible, terrible death. But the real kicker is coming back from the dead. And not only coming back from the dead, but coming back from the dead because it was foreshadowed in the past!

It's a pretty heavy thought to let marinate in my mind--that all of Christianity is pointless unless Jesus went through what He went through in His suffering, death, and resurrection.

Some outward thoughts and examples regarding the Resurrection, but I am no historian and theologian (or at least exceedingly amateur at best):

If the Resurrection never happened, then Jesus' apostles probably would have gone back to their normal lives. My priest reflected on this at the morning Easter Sunday Mass. They would have been saddened by losing their teacher and friend. They wouldn't have been compelled to continue Jesus' teaching and ministry because He didn't return.

If the Resurrection never occurred, the memory of Jesus would have faded away. He would just been another man in history that others followed because they liked what he said, what he taught, and the things that he was able to do. No one would really care after a long, long while. Christianity wouldn't have spread. It would have died, just as Jesus died with no resurrection. We would simply be Jews awaiting the Messiah. Still.

If the Resurrection never happened, then our own deaths mean nothing. Once we are dead, we are done. There's nothing to look forward to after death. And suffering in our lives would have no redemption. Really, we wouldn't be redeemed. There's no glorious end game to our lives on earth.

St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians teaching them about Christ's resurrection from the dead. If Christ had not been raised then Jesus' disciples' preaching is in vain and thus the Christian faith would be in vain unless Christ was raised from the dead.

I dunno...I could go on. Essentially, I guess what really stood out to me in thinking about all this is that the Resurrection is so incredibly central to the Christian faith that without it almost seems as if the rest of our faith doesn't have any sort of legitimacy. "In vain", as St. Paul writes.

So why is the Resurrection important? Fortunately, my Catholic faith lets me refer back to the deposit of faith given to the apostles passed down through the ages until now.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church outlines the importance and meaning of the Resurrection because (CCC 651-655, with yes, Scripture references in the link's footnotes):

• It confirms all of Christ's works and teachings.
• It fulfills Old Testament prophecy and what Jesus said of Himself
• It links the Incarnation and the fulfillment of God's plan because of Jesus' divinity
• Christ's death liberates us from sin, and by His Resurrection a new way of life is opened for us
• Christ's Resurrection is the principle and source of our future resurrection

As a Christian, do I understand the implications and importance of the Resurrection? That His rising from the dead is so key as to why I am Christian? And as a disciple of Christ, how then should I respond to this great joy that our God is not dead, He's alive, the tomb is empty, and should I die in friendship and communion with God, then I too will be resurrected gloriously just as He is? How would I live my day-to-day life living out this joy of Easter?

Good thing we celebrate Easter day for 8 days straight followed by an entire season lasting longer than Lent. More time to reflect on this and to party it up! :-D

O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?
- JD

The Incredulity of St. Thomas by Caravaggio from Wikipedia

"Ecce homo!"

Depiction of "Ecce homo!" by Antonio Ciseri

This past Sunday, I wrote about how during Palm Sunday Mass, we read through Jesus' final hours from his arrest to his death and burial for our Gospel reading.

Easter is tomorrow! And that marks a joyous occasion for every Christian life because we celebrate an empty tomb because He is not there!  He is risen! Jesus wasn't joking!  Last year I wrote about how I noticed (seeming coincidentally) how nature itself was signifying Lent and preparing for the Resurrection.  But this year...I wanted to focus on something else--perhaps the true reason for the season.

As a Christian, it's always tempting to focus on the "feel good" parts of the faith.  Or on the "feel good" parts of Scripture. And Jesus' Resurrection is definitely one of those "feel good" moments because yes, He conquered death! Yes, He opened up Heaven! Yes, this is the source of our future resurrection in Him! Yes the Resurrection is what saves us! And all that jazz.

But sometimes it's too easy to get caught up in all that, as if it was the only thing that mattered or the only thing that I should focus on as a Christian.  But, in learning more about my faith and gaining a deeper understanding of it, I've come to know and appreciate that the Resurrection means absolutely nothing unless Jesus died.  In other words, there would be no point to the Resurrection unless Jesus first had to die.

And not just any kind of death.

No, no.

Death! On a cross.  But even the death on a cross is just a portion of all that He had to endure.

Easter Vigil

Now I'm not sure if I've ever gone to an Easter Vigil Mass before...maybe I did once during high school? I can't remember.  To make it easier, let's just assume I've never been.

And I went tonight, "for the first time."  And all I can say is that it was pretty legit.  And beautiful too!

I love how they shut off the lights in the sanctuary before Mass and processed in with the Easter candle lighting the way.  Then slowly the room filled with candlelight because everyone was given a candle to hold.  Cool effect for the blessing of the fire.

I didn't realize there were seven readings for this Mass with seven responsorial psalms and prayers.  But, what I liked about it all is that there is no skimping out.  Each reading progressed towards the Resurrection in a such a way that deserves a good Bible study to connect the dots.

And then there were the catechumens.  I'm normally used to babies getting baptized (hey, I'm Catholic), but to see a long line of adults, young adults, and kids get baptized was pretty cool.  There was a certain joy arising within me seeing all this knowing that these people are being initiated into God's family.

As if the line for being baptized wasn't enough, the number of those catechumens receiving the sacrament of Confirmation seemed like double (though it includes those who were baptized earlier).  Again, that certain joy welled up within me seeing all this because now they have this mission and responsibility to fulfill as a Confirmed Catholic.  And to make it that much more exciting, I was sitting next to my own Confirmandee, and he was pretty excited about it too seeing what will happen for him in over a month.

Then lastly, the Eucharist.  The usual stuff, but now those who were just baptized and confirmed can partake in communion.  And that's pretty legit.  Their lives are very, very Catholic now.

Anyway, I think back to the discussions I had with some fellow Catholic friends about Easter Vigil and how awesome they think it is.  And I totes agree.  The triple-whammy of sacraments all in one Mass makes it pretty cool.

On my way out after Mass, I could just see the joy in the new Catholics' faces as they took pictures in the sanctuary and the narthex was buzzing with more people taking pictures and excited chatter.  Cool stuff.

And I should keep this short...only because I have to return for the 9AM Mass so that I can attend with my own family.  But anyway...

Summary:
Easter Vigil is legit and a really cool Mass to experience.  A really exciting time for the greater Catholic Church as we welcome new members in our family.  I see why people recommend going to it...and I do the same: you should go if you've never been! :-)

Faith. Hope. Charity. Vigils.
- JR

Nature and Lent

Well, today is Good Friday and the season of Lent is over. Now we're in the holy season of Triduum which started last night at the beginning of Holy Thursday Mass.

For me, Lent went by pretty quickly. Way more quickly than what last year felt like. I guess I've been really busy this past Lent? I know I was preparing for Confirmation retreats for nearly half of Lent and that used a lot of my time and mental/physical/spiritual effort... And then those were over but I was still busy helping out with religious education... Essentially, just busy...

Kind of hard to stop and smell the roses, you know what I mean?

But let me tell you, once I finally just let myself slow down and take in the wonders of life around me...I made an interesting observation.

One day, a few weeks ago, I was driving home from work. I took a different way home (a path that involves stopping by a Chick-Fil-A, haha) and I couldn't help but notice some of the trees in bloom growing outside of some of the subdivisions. Most bloomed white, but the most striking ones bloomed majestic purple.

I thought to myself, "Huh, that's pretty cool. The trees are blooming purple! Even the trees know it's Lent!" Then I laughed awkwardly to myself because I'm the only one in my car... Of course, because my life is Catholic, I had to post about the trees blooming purple to my favorite Catholic Like page (see top right corner link) as soon as I got home. Had to share it. Not gonna lie.

Anyway, since then, we've had a few severe thunderstorms roll through here in north Texas. The first one involved a ridiculous amount of rain for like a straight day. The most recent one, earlier this week, involved some rain and tornadoes! :-O

In either case, the aftermath of both storms resulted in nature going crazy. (now I'm exaggerating) ... Grass grew like two feet high! Weeds everywhere! Bugs everywhere! Flowers in bloom, moreso! The smell in the air was fresher than some TV princes I know!

Awesome. Even Nature knows it is Lent with the Easter season fastly approaching.

You see, I think in a way, through Nature, God was trying to remind us of the Resurrection. Seeing the purple blossoms in the trees before both storm events reminded me of Lent because the color purple is used during Mass during seasons of preparation (Advent and Lent). The initial purple blossoming of these trees were preparing for the turbulent times we would face in the coming storms.

With that said, I would say that the storms we went through here are kind of like the Passion of Jesus. Violent and destructive, especially with the tornados we saw this past week. And the torrential rains in the first storm offered their own wave of destruction.

But! It is all not wasted! Though Nature brings us these crazy storms, the aftermath results in a renewal of life! Hence the greening plants and their blossoming; the teeming of bug life; the people out and about enjoying the outdoors and weather...and the list goes on.

Yeah, so all of this is kind of like Lent, the Passion, and the Resurrection. Sometimes you just got to take a moment and stop and realize that God speaks to us in different ways to make known and remind us of His existence and what He did for us. He's pretty much preaching the Gospel at all times, if necessary...through Nature. Haha.

Anyway, have a blessed Triduum!

Faith. Hope. Charity. Plants are Catholic too.
- JR