Easter finds absolutely no comparisons either in the history of mankind or in the history of religions. It remains a unicum on which the radical turning point that changed history depends. The entire New Testament bears witness to the Resurrection of Jesus. Without this event it probably would never have been written. The most ancient statement found here and there in the whole of the New Testament is certainly the sentence "Christ has risen". In these words, or in similar variations, we find described the fundamental nucleus of the Paschal event and annunciation. Paul provides the most primitive and archaic profession of faith. It is in fact to the First letter to the Corinthians 15,3-5 that one must refer to so as to find the principal and most ancient testimony of the announcement of the Risen Christ. It is definitely possible to state that it is with this text that we actually physically touch on the first announcement that marks the birth of the paschal faith. In two verses the apostle Paul transmits what he himself has received and simply calls this "the gospel". The good news is summarized in four verbs: "he died", "was buried", "he rose" and "appeared". Many wish to investigate the truth of this text which presents itself with immediate evidence that leaves no doubts. Jesus Crucified really died and His death is the redeeming event of expiation for the sins of mankind. He was quickly buried, and in a new sepulchre, because according to the law his body was cursed and could not therefore contaminate other sepulchres. The Father however resuscitated Him on the third day bringing Him back to life. He allowed Himself to be seen by Peter and by the Twelve who bore witness that He who had been crucified was really alive. The manner in which the text is structured reflects a synthetic parallelism: Jesus dead and buried; risen and seen; and an antithetic parallelism: dead and risen, buried and seen. This permits the emphasis of two decisive elements: first of all the intention of wanting to list the fundamental facts which are the object of the kerigma; and also showing the full and perfect identity between Jesus who is dead and buried and Jesus who has Risen and is seen. In this way the identity of He who was Crucified and has Risen emerges clearly; this is the guarantee of the veracity of those who announce and also certitude for the wishing to adhere to the kerigma.

In the course of the two thousand years of our history the Gospels have seen a variety of contentions – more or less interesting or coherent- tending to undermine their value. And yet it remains with its provocative force that affects in a decisive manner those who accept it. Effectively everything moves around one single verb: ofthe! He has allowed Himself to be seen! Without this testimony the resurrection would remain relegated as an inaccessible and perhaps not very credible phenomenon. The fact that the disciples always confirmed that they had seen Him resurrected and that it really was Him, and not a ghost, permitted the uninterrupted transmission of the Lord’s resurrection. Anything can be disputed, but their testimony remains as a wooden knot that it is impossible to tarnish. If one analyses the life of these disciples, one notices their profound humanity and the contradictions that marked them. The very authors of the Holy Scriptures were not afraid to present even Peter with his betrayals and his weaknesses. Faced with repeated attacks and threats not to reveal what they had seen, they preferred imprisonment and abuse, always refusing to deny what they had seen. They travelled across the world so as to tell everyone that they had seen the Risen Christ and finally did not even retreat when faced with violent death. "We bear witness to this": the expression remains as the most genuine form of an announcement that never tires. Who were then these men who radically changed their lives, who abandoned everything, who confronted every kind of uncertainty and in the end also faced death? To use the words of Saint John Crisostomo we should say that "if they had not seen Him resurrected and had not received irrefutable evidence of His power, they would not have exposed themselves to such risks" (Om. 4. 3.4).

There is a second verb that is relevant to our meditation: egheghertai: He has been resurrected. This verb,, as you know, does not have a univocal meaning in secular Greek and is never used in the transitive tense (therefore resurrecting the dead). The diversified use in Greek tends to express the dead reawakening from sleep, or returning to an upright position or the deceased exiting the residence of the dead. Used in a secular manner therefore this verb is linked to a metaphoric concept that links death to sleep. The authors of the New Testament found themselves therefore faced with the very linguistic impossibility to fully express the meaning of what was the object of their experience. Further observations debating the tense of this verb however deserve a degree of attention. When Paul speaks of the Lord’s death, burial and apparition he uses the aorist tense, while for the resurrection he uses the perfect tense. This emphasis is not without importance. Using the aorist in fact, one always indicates that the action one is describing is complete, relegated to the past and its effects have ended. With the perfect tense instead one wishes to indicate that the past event continues to have effects in the present. The consequence is immediate: the Lord’s death, burial and apparition indicate a historical event linked to the past; His Resurrection instead is for today. It belongs to the present of the world and of the Church that verifies and lives its effects. Paul’s intention is obvious: Christ’s resurrection cannot be judged by the same standards as a simple "return to life" as for the widow’s son (Luke 7,14), the ruler’s son (Mt 9,25), or for Lazarus (John 12, 1). In Jesus’ case one is in the presence of a life that will never end; it is an existence that continues without any longer suffering the frailty of death or the limitations of time.

The message they wish to transmit is amazingly simple, and yet, the sense of a life depends on that text. Who are Christians if not those who for two thousand years have repeated in every corner of the world that Crucified Jesus is alive and that we bear witness to this? Theologically it is necessary to maintain a number of fundamental principles which constitute a solid basis on which the treatment of the subject is built. They are schematically summarised as follows:

1. One must emphasise the fact that the event of the resurrection does not only represent the object of faith; Easter is also placed at the origin of the act with which one believes. In fact, with the resurrection we are faced with the origins of the Christian faith; in this its entire credibility is played. Methodologically this means that faith does not first of all search for the "reasons" outside itself, but the formulas primarily within it, so as to clarify that the event holds within itself the reasons for its credibility.

2. A second element must permit us to verify that the analysis of the Holy Scriptures is open to a global interpretation, capable of fully understanding their meaning (sensus plenior). Paul who announced the resurrection did not obtain the consent of the philosophers in Athens (At 17,32). In a similar case the simple motivations of reason cannot be satisfied. So as to fully understand the Biblical data it is therefore necessary to look at this event through the eyes of faith; these eyes know how to go beyond the phenomenon, because they are capable of verifying the profoundness of the mystery through a logic that is not only rational.

3. This statement however, far from wanting to limit the resurrection only to the sphere of believers, intends to support the profound reasonableness of this event and its credibility. For those who believe, Jesus has Risen and is in the glory of the Father. This condition and His Resurrection are not however the result of faith. Christ has objectively Risen; the resurrection therefore does not depend on the faith of the believers. This faith instead is capable of acknowledging the event and seeing in it the primordial work of God, who, as He had promised, enters history and redeems it. Easter therefore cannot be relegated to the sphere of believing subjectivity, or simply the beginning of faith; it remains an event linked to history and to historical events that determine it understanding and its development in the eschatological fullness of the truth it contains.

4. On the other hand it would be deceptive to think of studying the Holy Scriptures without previous understanding capable of recognising in them the intention of an announcement linked to the personal experiences of the disciples and the redemption awaited by a people. Easter in fact comes as a first conclusion of a long historical process that verifies God’s continuous work in the historical events of the Hebraic people. The paschal texts are guided by faith in the Risen Christ and by the direct experience of the disciples. And yet, these experiences cannot be relegated to a "mystical" experience or some kind of vision; they instead claim to emphasise and refer to a precise historical event, the consequence of which consisted in radically changing their lives.

4. These elements must be kept in mind when one begins to evaluate the novelty and the authenticity of the texts of the New Testament. The resurrection acquires its coherent theological sense when it is studied through its very own sources: faith in it, the history within which the event takes place, and the testimony of people attesting its truthfulness. Easter therefore is not the result of an imaginative fantasy and one cannot study this event only with the curiosity of a sceptic: "they would not even be persuaded if one resurrected from the dead" (Le 16,19-31). This to witness that faith in the Risen Christ is not automatic; the apparition of one who has died could also be frightening, as the Gospels often also state. The Resurrection therefore is offered so as to give rise to conversions and faith, so that life is provided with the certainty of hope capable of going beyond death.

5. Around the centrality of the resurrection, theology builds its scientific meditation, providing a reason for its very existence. Easter in fact represents the culminating point of the mystery of the Incarnation, and as such also becomes the central focus of theological meditation. More than ever it necessitates a number of differentiated approaches to the problem, to the extent that only with contributions from everyone does it become possible to achieve a broader vision regards to the mystery. --------