Jesus Christ is risen indeed! He is risen as he said! Alleluia!
The Apostles had to be witnesses of the reality of the resurrection and were sent to proclaim this Good News which is the basis of our salvation and the Kingdom of God.
I am sharing the insights of Fr. F. X. Durwell C.SS.R. in his wonderful book published in 1960, The Resurrection: A Biblical Study. In his introduction Charles Davis writes that
the resurrection of Christ is the culmination of His redemptive work and mission and the assuming of all history into this transforming redeeming reality.
He emphasises that the renewed awareness of the Resurrection of Christ is actually working a renewal in the church.
In 1960 he sees that the renewal in the church is essentially a rediscovery of the Resurrection and of the centrality and meaning and importance of the Resurrection of Christ. He said that it is an urgent pastoral concern to give Catholics a fresh consciousness of the faith by presenting them with the message of salvation in its full splendour. The essential core of the redemption of history was the Incarnation, death and Resurrection of Christ. This was when the essential transition took place and Christ passed from this world to the new order of creation.
God in his love decided to save humanity.
The origin of our redemption is the utterly free love of God for his creatures. This love is a self-giving love, for the gift by which God saves is the gift of himself. The plan of God is to raise human beings to the divine level and communicate to them a share in His Life. From the beginning the whole Old Testament was a foreshadowing and a preparation for the Incarnation and the Resurrection of Christ. We see constantly the theme of God’s anointed and chosen going to the depth of desperation and then God saving them and raising them up. We must remember that the Resurrection is not merely a return to life but a glorification and entrance into Christ’s glory as the Eternal High Priest of the order of Melchizedek, now seated in glory and interceding and mediating for us in His Eternally Perfect Sacrifice.
Before His entrance into his glory Jesus himself said ought not Christ to suffer thus in order to enter into his glory and this entry into glory constitutes the inauguration of God’s Kingdom. The resurrection realises Christ coming as messiah and henceforth He possesses all the power that is needed to establish the Kingdom. After his Resurrection he sent his apostles on the mission to all nations, and he told them that all power is given to Him in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and teach all nations and baptise them. So, it is the Resurrection which brings the Kingdom of God into the world and the reality of the Risen Christ which shows him to be the Messiah. He has also empowered them to dispose of the riches of the Holy Spirit. Starting with the Resurrection there now a new relationship between God and his people and from now on it is Christ who is to form the intersection of this relationship.
Because of the resurrection of Christ, we can die to sin and rise again to life in Christ. We all share in the resurrection of Christ. So salvation comes to us from God by way of a true resurrection of the spiritually dead in the Holy Spirit. The resurrection of Christ is not only proof of the truth of who Christ is, but it is also the fulfilment of the redemptive power of Christ. It shows its superiority over all other sacrifices because it is done once and for all and it alone expiates sin and effects union with God. For it alone enters the true sanctuary in Heaven. The Resurrection enables us to cross the bridge to enjoy union with God. We become one with the Sacrifice which carried Christ to the bosom of the Father and so we journey through the world in the sacrificed immolated Body of Christ that is now risen and glorified.