Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/882

 RESURRECTION

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RESURRECTION

does not allow us to regard the belief in the Resurrec- tion as the result of a gradual evolution in Christian consciousness. The apparitions were not a mere pro- jection of the disciples' Messianic hope and expecta- tion; their Messianic hope and expectations had to be revived by the apparitions. Again, the Apostles did not begin with preaching the immortal life of Christ with God, but they preached Christ's Resurrection from the very beginning, they insisted on it as a fundamental fact, and they described even some of the details connected with this fact; Acts, ii, 24, .31; iii, 15, 26; iv, 10; v, 30; x, 39-40; xiii, 30, 37; .xTii, 31-.32; Rom., i, 4; iv, 25; vi, 4, 9; viii, 11, 34; x, 7; xiv, 9; I Cor., xv, 4, 13 sqq.; etc. Thirdly, the denial of the historical certainty of Christ's Resurrection in- volves several historical blunders: it questions the objective reality of the apparitions without any his- torical grounds for such a doubt ; it denies the fact of the empty sepulchre in spite of solid historical evi- dence to the contrary; it questions even the fact of Christ's burial in Joseph's sepulchre, though this fact is based on the clear and simply unimpeachable testi- mony of history (cf. Lepin, " Christologie. Com- mentaire des Propositions XX\'II-XXXVIII du D^cret du Saint Office 'Lamentabili'", Paris, 1908).

D. Character of Christ's Risurrection. — The Resur- rection of Christ has much in common with the general resurrection; even the transformation of His body and of His bodily life is of the same kind as that which awaits the blessed in their resurrection. But the fol- lowing peculiarities must be noted: (1) Christ's Resur- rection is necessarily a glorious one; it implies not merely the reunion of body and soul, but also the glorification of the body. (2) Christ's body was to know no corruption, but rose again soon after death, when sufficient time had elapsed to leave no doubt as to the reality of His death. (3) Christ was the first to rise unto life immortal; those raised before Him died again (Col, i, 18; I Cor., x^-, 20). (4) As the Divine power which raised Christ from the grave was His own power, He rose from the dead by His own power (John, ii, 19; x, 17-18). (5) Since the Resurrection had been promised as the main proof of Christ's Divine mission, it has a greater dogmatic importance than any other fact. "If Christ be not risen again, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain" (I Cor., xv, 14).

E. Importance of the Resurrection. — Besides being the fundamental argument for our Christian belief, the Resurrection is important for the following rea- sons: (1) It shows the justice of God who exalted Christ to a life of glor\-, as Christ had himibled Him- self unto death (Phil., "ii, 8-9). (2) The Resurrection completed the mystery of our salvation and redemp- tion; by His death Christ freed us from sin, and by His Resurrection He restored to us the most im- portant privileges lost by sin (Rom., \v, 25). (3) By His Resurrection we acknowledge Christ as the im- mortal God, the efficient and exemplary cause of our own resurrection (I Cor., x"\-, 21 ; Phil., iii, 20-21), and as the model and the support of our new life of grace (Rom., vi, 4-6; 9-11).

II. General Resurrection. — "No doctrine of the Christian Faith", says St. Augustine, "is so ve- hemently and so obstinately opposed as the doctrine of the resurrection of the flesh" (In Ps. Ixxx^iii, sermo ii, n. 5). This opposition had begun long before the days of St. Augustine: ".\nd certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics", the inspired writer tells ua (Acts, x\'ii, 18, 32), "disputed with him [Paul] . . . and when they had heard of the resurrection of the dead, some indeed mocked, but others said: We will hear thee again concerning this matter." Among the opponents of the Resurrection we naturally find first all those who denied the immortality of the soul; secondly, all those who, like Plato, regarded the body as the prison of the soul and death as an escape from

the bondage of matter; thirdly, the sects of the Gnostics and Manicha-ans who looked upon all matter as evil; fourthly, the followers of these latter sects, the Priscillianists, the Cathari, and the .\lbigenses; fifthly, the Rationalists, Materialists, and Pantheists of later times. Against all these we shall first estab- lish the dogma of the resurrection, and secondly con- sider the characteristics of the risen body.

A. Dogma of the Resurrection. — The creeds and pro- fessions of faith and conciliar definitions do not leave it doubtful that the resurrection of the body is a dogma or an article of faith. We may appeal, for instance, to the Apostles' Creed, the so-called Nicene and .Athanasian Creeds, the Creed of the Eleventh Council of Toledo, the Creed of Leo IX, subscribed by Bishop Peter and still in use at the consecration of bishops, the profession of faith subscribed by Michael Palse- ologus in the Second Council of Lyons, the Creed of Pius IV, and the Decree of the Fourth Lateran Coun- cil (c. "Firmiter") against the Albigenses. This article of faith is based on the belief of the Old Testa- ment, on the teaching of the New Testament, and on Christian tradition.

(1) Old Tenlament. — The words of Martha and the history of the Machabees show the Jewish belief towards the end of the Jewish economy. " I know ", says Martha, "that He shall rise again, in the resur- rection at the last day" (John, xi, '24). .\nd the third of the Machabee martjTS i)ut forth his tongue and stretched out his hands, saying: "These I have from heaven, but for the laws of God I now despise them: because I hope to receive them again from him" (II Mach., xii, 11; cf. ix, 14). The Book of Daniel (xii, 2; cf. 12) inculcates the same belief: "Many of those that sleep in the dust of the earth, shall awake: some unto life everlasting, and others unto reproach, to see it always. " The word many must be understood in the light of its meaning in other passages, e. g. Is., liii, 11-12; Matt., xxvi, 28; Rom., v, 18-19. Though Ezechiel's vision of the resurrection of the dry bones refers directly to the restoration of Israel, such a figure would be hardly intelligible except by readers familiar with the belief in a literal resurrection (Ez., xx.xvii). The Prophet Isaias foretells that the Lord of hosts "shall cast down death headlong for ever" (xxv, 8), and a little later he adds: "Thy dead men shall live, my slain shall rise again . . . the earth shall disclose her blood, and shall cover her slain no more" (xxvi, 19-21). Finally, Job, bereft of all human comfort and reduced to the greatest desolation, is strengthened by the thought of the resurrection of his body: "I know that my Redeemer liveth, and in the last day I shall rise out of the earth. And I shall be clothed again with my skin, and in my flesh I shall see God. AMiom I myself shall see, and my eyes shall behold, and not another; this hope is laid up in my bo.som" (Job, xix, 25-27). The literal trans- lation of the Hebrew text differs somewhat from the foregoing quotation, but the hope of resurrection remains.

(2) New Testament. — The resurrection of the dead was expressly taught by Christ (John, v, 28- 29; vi, 39-40; xi," 25; Luke, xiv, 14) and defended against the unbelief of the Sadducees, whom He charged with ignorance of the power of God and of the Scriptures (Matt., xxii, 29; Luke, xx, 37). St. Paul places the general resurrection on the same level of certainty with that of Chri.st's Resiu-rection: "If Christ be preached, that he rose again frorn the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resur- rection of the dead, then Christ is not risen again. .•\nd if Christ be not risen again, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain" (I Cor., xv, 12 sqq.). The Apostle preached the resurrection of the dead as one of the fundamental doctrines of Christianity,