“We are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song!” Pope St. John Paul II, November 1986.
One of the well documented facts about Christianity is that Jesus died on the Cross, although some still want to deny it. It is recorded in the gospels, including the eyewitness account in John’s gospel, as well as by the Roman historian Josephus. But the Cross only takes us to Good Friday. Easter is about the Resurrection.
It begins with the empty tomb. It then proceeds to Peter and John racing to the tomb and John, looking inside saw “the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. … he saw and believed. For they did not yet understand the scripture that he had to rise from the dead.” Next, on the road to Emmaus, the risen Jesus confronts two of His disciples and explains the Scriptures to them, becoming known to them in the breaking of the bread.
Saint Paul documented its importance especially as a foundation of our faith. In 1 Corinthians 15:3-7, he details the many occasions of the appearance of the resurrected Jesus. Next he details the importance of this fact: “if Christ has not been raised, then empty [too] is our preaching; empty, too, your faith.” Without the Resurrection our faith is meaningless. At the Pentecost, Peter further attests to witnessing the Resurrected Jesus. This is what gives meaning to our Eucharistic sacrifice at every Mass and to our life of faith. Thus we can echo Pope St. John Paul II and sing “Alleluia.”
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