The Resurrection

                                                 The resurrection of Jesus from the dead and his appearances to the disciples were so unexpected that they could no longer depend solely on their senses. An element of faith was necessary to make sense of what happened right in front of their eyes! If only everything could be so plain as merely to rely on their five senses, the reality of the resurrection of Jesus would have been a mere phenomenon of this world. In reality, however, the resurrection transcended the limits of this world and transformed the human into the divine by the power of God's own Spirit. The essential divinity hidden in the human reality blossomed into the full-fledged human-divine in Jesus Christ. This transformation from the human to the divine is meant to be a fore-runner and an example of our own transformation in life and after death.
                                                Transformation is not something unheard of  in the natural cycle of life in this world. Take the case of a butterfly or a moth that has 4 stages of transformation. Each stage looks completely different and serves a different purpose starting with the egg. The caterpillar (larva) is the second stage and is comparatively long as it is the feeding and growth stage. The third stage called 'the chrysalis' (pupa) is the transformation stage proper getting ready to reach the adult stage of a butterfly or moth, the final fourth stage. Our final stage of transformation is reached in resurrection from the dead at the end of the world to receive reward by the just and punishment by the unjust (John. 5:28-29; Acts, 24:15). Resurrection, being a transformation, is not to be relegated to a world of obscurities as if we couldn't understand it. At the same time, being a historical and trans-historical event, the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ should not be entirely based on historical investigations. Faith has an important role in capturing the trans-historical aspect of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and is a further stage of enlightenment.
                                                Since there is enough material in the literature about the veracity of the fact of Jesus' resurrection from the dead, we need not labor the point here. However, certain indications of its reliability from the Bible itself may be noted. St. Paul clarifies the point in 1 Cor.15:3-8. It is based on the facts handed over to him by eyewitnesses of events. This is not against the claim of Paul that he received the message of the Gospel directly from Christ (Gal. 1:12) as it refers to the inner meaning of the facts, which were already publicly proclaimed by the primitive Church. The facts were that Jesus appeared, after his resurrection, not only to the Apostles but also to the 500 of the disciples at once. Although none of them was in a frame of mind to accept the fact of resurrection , an element of faith might have helped them to accept it. However, in the case of Paul himself this was not the case when he was confronted by Jesus on his way to Damascus. At the time he was known as Saul, and was on a mission to persecute the believers in Jesus at Damascus where the glory of the risen Jesus struck him down (Acts, 9:1-9). As a result of this experience , Saul turned out to be Paul, the most ardent missionary of the risen Jesus Christ.
                                             The facts on which Paul based his evidence of the resurrection of Jesus were first orally transmitted before they got recorded in the four Gospels. Since the first written records of the New Testament were the first and second Letters to the Thessalonians (around A.D. 53) and the First Letter to the Corinthians (around A.D..55), Paul got the details about the resurrection of Jesus directly from the existing oral traditions. As the Gospels were written between A.D. 70 and 100 Paul could not have depended on them for his information. Besides, Paul, as Saul, was already in the midst of those events as he was a student in Jerusalem under Gamaliel, a famous teacher of Israel, although his mind was closed at the time to the implications of those events.
                                              All the four Gospels converge on 4 main points:
1. The stone at the entrance to the tomb.
2. The link between the empty tomb tradition and the visit to the tomb of the women on the first day of the
     week.
3. Peter and the other Apostles came to know of the empty tomb from the women.
4. The prominence of Mary Magdalene.
                                              Women were given a central role in announcing the resurrection of Jesus even to Peter and the other Apostles,although they reported only about the empty tomb. However, no one would have believed women's stories, especially in ancient times,and needed to be verified and proclaimed by credible witnesses. Peter and John ran to the tomb on hearing the news and saw and believed.
                                               Jesus first appeared to Mary Magdalene and then to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Since Thomas was absent at his first appearance to the Apostles, Jesus appeared again when Thomas was present. The third appearance was near the Sea of Galilee where Peter was appointed to serve his followers. After teaching them about the Kingdom of God for 40 days on his resurrection from the dead, Jesus departed from them in his ascension to the presence of his Father. At last , Jesus appeared to Saul on the road to Damascus and turned him into Paul. The prayer of Jesus to his Father to spare him suffering and death was answered in placing him beyond the possibility of any more suffering and death. Our prayers are answered by God beyond our expectations and so sometimes do not seem to meet our immediate needs.

The Spirit of the World or The Worldly Spirit

                                                       It is the spirit of the world ruthlessly invading our daily life that is harmful to our real welfare and not the world itself. What is the world and its spirit where we cannot avoid the former while the latter should be avoided? St. Paul explains it in his first Letter to the Corinthians, ch. 5, verses 9-13. The believers are expected to shun those among them who are loose livers not those outside the believing community who are loose livers, grabbers and swindlers or idolaters. The reason for this concession to the believers is that otherwise they would have to get out of the world that is not possible. Although both believers and non-believers are living in the world, the former are expected to be guided by the Spirit of God while the latter may be led by the spirit of the world.
                                                      "Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God" (1 Cor. 2:12). God has given us eternal life in Jesus Christ and as a guarantee for the same sealed us with His own Spirit who dwells in our hearts (2 Cor. 1:22). The believers, therefore, are expected to live far removed from the spirit of the world. The Spirit of God in us supplies the antidote to wean us away from the spirit of the world that tries to cling to us as a result of our dealings in the world. The Spirit of God washes us clean from our tendency to be inordinately attached to things and people in the world. When we are detached from the harmful effects of our attachment to the world, we are able to live in the world without worldly spirit. St. Paul brands even our sorrow into healthy or harmful depending on the spirit that rules in us. "For the wound which is borne in God's way brings a change of heart too salutary to regret, but the hurt which is borne in the world's way brings death (2 Cor. 7:10).
                                                     The reason why the sorrow that is borne in God's way is healthy is because of its beneficial effects on the person concerned. It brings a change of heart in the person that helps him or her to renew the entire life taking it to a new and higher level. Such a person defines his or her life in terms of love that transforms the person. Such persons reach a higher level of maturity whereby they become happier and abide in an atmosphere of joy and peace. Just the opposite is the case with persons who bear their hurt or sorrow in the worldly manner leading them to unhappiness. They are worried about the ill consequences they have to suffer and think of only protecting their own selves. Unfortunately, the basic law of life applies to them negatively: " If you cling to your life, you will lose it, and if you let your life go, you will save it" (Luke, 17:33). Obviously, the reference here is to eternal life to gain which we have to moderate our life in the world.
                                                    The same is the reason why Jesus rebuked Peter immediately after praising him for his true faith in the Messiah that was revealed to him by God. " But Jesus turned and told Peter, 'Get behind me Satan! You are an offense to me, because you are not thinking God's thoughts but human thoughts!'" ( Matthew, 16:23). What was Peter's fault to earn so severe a stricture from the one who knew him thoroughly? Peter was ruled by the spirit of the world, put into him by Satan, in presuming to boldly advise Jesus to avoid all suffering and death on the cross predicted by him. Peter unknowingly became a stumbling block in a matter so close to the heart of Jesus that his reaction became swift and vehement. What was the sensitive issue involved? It was the Will of the Father for Jesus to become the sacrificial Lamb for the redemption of the entire Universe! It was not that Jesus was fond of suffering and death as may be seen in his prayer at the Garden of Gathsamene. There he keenly prayed and supplicated his Father to take away the chalice of painful death if it was possible with the proviso that the Father's Will should prevail. Apparently the prayer of Jesus was not heard by his Father and yet really it was heard. (See The Letter to the Hebrews, 5:7). (To see how, go to the next Post on 'The Resurrection').