The Easter Effect and How It Changed the World
Bishop Robert Barron - Your daily Gospel reflection...
Saturday, March 31, 2018
HOLY SATURDAY
MARK 16:1-7
Friends, on this Holy Saturday in our Gospel we hear St. Mark’s account of the Resurrection. The Resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the be-all and end-all of the Christian faith. If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, all bishops, priests, and Christian ministers should go home and get honest jobs, and all the Christian faithful should leave their churches immediately.
As Paul himself put it: "If Jesus is not raised from the dead, our preaching is in vain and we are the most pitiable of men." It’s no good, of course, trying to explain the Resurrection away or rationalize it as a myth, a symbol, or an inner subjective experience. None of that does justice to the novelty and sheer strangeness of the biblical message.
It comes down finally to this: if Jesus was not raised from death, Christianity is a fraud and a joke. But if he did rise from death, then Christianity is the fullness of God’s revelation, and Jesus must be the absolute center of our lives. There is no third option.