The Resurrection of Christ : Resurrectio tamquam eventus storicus et transcendens  

In his homily for Easter, written around 165 AD, St Melito of Sardis in Lydia said: "You must understand, dearly beloved, how the mystery of the Pasch is new and old, eternal and transient, corruptible and incorruptible, mortal and immortal" (Ch 2-7,100-103). These words reflect a continuous tradition which affirms that the paschal mystery describes a juncture of the natural with the supernatural, the corporeal with the spiritual and the historical with the transcendent. This is, of course, a fundamental truth about the whole of the Christ event. Any attempt to reduce the mystery of salvation to a purely human reality or a purely divine one is a denial of the truth of the plan of God as outlined so clearly in Ephesians 1: 3-14 and of the reality of Christ as fully human and fully divine described in the Christic hymn of Philippians 2: 6-11. 

The principal sources for the events are in the gospels and the writings of St Paul. The oldest testimonies to the resurrection are found in profession of faith formulae such as in 1 Thess 1:10 and Gal 1:1. The most important of these creedal formulas dating from as early as AD 56 is found in 1 Cor 15. Here Paul recounts what is of FIRST importance in the following words:

This early account recognises the importance of the resurrection event in the life of the early Church. The text should be read together with Acts 10:40-43 which asserts that it was part of God's plan that the risen Christ should appear to certain chosen witnesses in order to commission the apostles to proclaim God's message of salvation through faith in Jesus. The appearances of Jesus were not just a small number of isolated events. The scriptures attest to a relatively large number of events affecting a relatively large number of people. These were real experiences which were eventually developed into narratives which provide the source for the scriptural texts. According to Ullrich (1995:588), "Paul's testimony (1 Cor 15:3-5), which was written down around 50 CE, actually goes back to twenty years earlier (his visit with the apostles), thus to within two to four years of the original event" [the resurrection]. Finally one should remember the power with which the fact of Jesus' resurrection, as a historical event, was proclaimed by the early Church. One text which illustrates this power is 1 Cor 15:14: "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is pointless and you have not after all been released from your sins. In addition those who have fallen asleep in Christ are utterly lost!"  

It is in the light of these multiple appearances of Jesus, in the life of the early Church, that we should read the gospel narratives. The gospels recount the earliest of the appearances of Jesus which were so unexpected and so striking. O'Collins (1973:29) suggests that there are "two originally independent and historically reliable traditions, a tradition of Peter and other disciples encountering the risen Christ…and a tradition of women discovering Christ's tomb empty". The first tradition recounts events that probably took place in Galilee. These are a series of encounters of apostles with the risen Lord. 1 Corinthians 15 provides the earliest narrative form of these encounters. According to Von Balthasar (1990:235) "we will not stray far from the truth in seeing as the nucleus of these stories the authentic, original Galilean appearances of the Lord to the apostles, to which the conveying of plenary power on Peter would belong". The second tradition recounts the events surrounding the empty tomb and finds its earliest narrative form in Mark 16:1-8. Von Balthasar (:239) suggests that "in favour of its historicity is the fact that it cannot count as a proof of Christ's Resurrection, and was not exploited apologetically in such a way in the older tradition. It spread, at first, only terror and confusion". Nevertheless the simple fact of the assertion of the resurrection on the third day might well be tied to the fact of the empty tomb found on that day by the women (:242). This as well as the theophany represented by the presence of the angels at the tomb both point to the validity of this narrative as one of the resurrection. 

The reality of Christ's resurrection, then, is a fact attested to by a number of different witnesses both in appearances of the risen Lord to them and also in the events surrounding the discovery of the empty tomb. These events profoundly changed the attitude of the followers of Jesus after his death and lead to the emergence of a clear message of salvation in Christ through faith in the paschal mystery. This one mystery of Easter combined, as one reality, two different and attested events: the death of Christ on the Cross and his resurrection to new life. It is these two events which establish a new creation and a new affirmation of faith.  

The condition of Christ's risen humanity.

The resurrection of Christ cannot be compared to bringing back a dead person to this life such as in the case of Lazarus (Jn 11). There are many significant differences between this and the resurrection of Jesus. In the first place Jesus' resurrected body does not always have the same appearance as his earthly body, though sometimes it does. Sometimes he has to take steps to respond to the fear of the apostles that they are seeing a ghost. He eats food with them, he shows them his wounds and invites Thomas to touch him (cf Lk 24,40; Jn 20,20 27). In this way he demonstrates to them that his resurrected body manifests all the aspects of ordinary corporality. But it also transcends them. He has the ability to appear in space and time and to pass through closed doors (Jn 20:19) and also to vanish from view (Lk 24:31). He has the ability to control the likeness with which he appears to his followers. Mary of Magdala takes him for the gardener and Cleopas and his companion walk with Jesus for several hours without recognising who he is. Jesus' resurrected body enjoys all the dimensions of corporality that we have but is not limited by the world of space, time and history. It is a body which includes, but transcends, the way that we are and unlike the risen Lazarus it is a body that will no longer die again (cf. Jn 12:10). 

The deepening of relationship with Christ found in the appearance narratives often contains with it an empowerment to action in missionary and ministerial service. Mary of Magdala, for example, is sent to tell the disciples that he will appear to them in Galilee (Mk 16:7). Saul is sent to the house of Ananias. (Acts 9). When Jesus appears in the room where the disciples were "for fear of the Jews" (Jn 20:19) he commissions them, using the words "as the Father sent me so I am sending you", to forgive sins (Jn 20:21-23). Peter, on meeting Jesus at the shore of Tiberius, is commissioned to "feed my sheep" (Jn 21). Jesus' appearance to the disciples on the road to Emmaus causes their "hearts to burn" as he talked with them and explained the scriptures to them (Lk 24: 32). They immediately set out to return to the others and recount the good news of what has happened to them. The resurrection is thus a manifestation of the sacrament of salvation lived out in the actions of those Jesus meets. This is the definition of what the Church is called to be. 

The appearances of Jesus are never without purpose. They manifest salvation by increasing faith, they promote adherence to him in personal relationship with the saviour, they constitute the Church as a community of believers and they send disciples out on mission to spread the good news of Jesus Christ to others. Without the presence of the risen Lord amongst the disciples there is no possibility for the foundation of the Church which "Christ mystically constitutes as his body" (LG7; cf 1 Cor 13). It is these same apostles who become "the foundation stones of his church" (CCC 642). For this reason, the resurrection becomes the condition for the possibility of the foundation of the Church. "It is in the resurrection that all ecclesial history has its starting point, the only one which grants the early existence of Jesus, and his cross, their momentous consequences" (von Balthasar 1990:191). 

The centre of this good news is expressed in the creedal formula of the Paschal Mystery which is, of its essence, an _expression of the faith of the early Church. Von Balthasar (1990: 192), in a comment on Paul's account of the resurrection appearances as presented in 1 Cor 15, recognises "two essential affirmations of the formula". Firstly, Paul affirms that in his own time there are a great number of witnesses to the resurrection who are still "available for questioning". This statement is made not so much to prove the resurrection, but rather to affirm God's purpose in choosing some people to be witnesses to Jesus as God's judge of all the living and the dead and the saviour of the world (cf. Acts 10: 40-43). Secondly the formula specifically links two events, the crucifixion and the resurrection as one single profession of faith.  

The formulaic representation of the paschal mystery is also the manifestation of liturgy within the early Christian community. This is why we can easily discern liturgical and sacramental dimensions within the appearances of Jesus. The centrality of the Eucharist as presence of Jesus amongst his people marks the summit of the Emmaus story. In the same story it is Jesus as high Priest who breaks the bread (Lk 24). In the commissioning of the disciples to forgive sins we have the institution of the sacrament of Penance (Jn 20). The appearance to Saul leads to his baptism (Acts 9). Indeed the sacrament of baptism is the principal sign of entry into the community of faith that the many creedal formulations of the paschal mystery signify.  

The link between the appearances of Jesus and the affirmation of faith in the formulaic representation in the narratives means that the resurrection can only be affirmed as both an historical event and a transcendent one. The historical event is one that transforms the nature of history itself opening humankind to a life giving relationship with God which constitutes us as "a new creation. The old order is gone and a new being is there to see. It is all God's work; he reconciled us to himself through Christ" (2Cor 5: 17-18). The resurrection of Christ is an historical event "with manifestations that were historically verified, as the New Testament bears witness" (CCC 639). But it is also an event that goes beyond history. "It remains at the very heart of the mystery of faith as something that transcends and surpasses history. ." (CCC 647). This is because the essence of the resurrection is the passing over of Christ into a new life and the manifestation of a new creation. The appearances assure us that this new life can be made visible to the senses of this world but the narratives remind us that it is a life rooted in the Kingdom of God which transcends this world. This is why the risen Christ does not reveal himself to the world, but to his disciples, "to those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people" (Acts 13:31).