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Rev. William Kurz, S.J.
Professor
Theology
Web Posted: March 28, 2005
Our world is beset with evil, malice, sin and death. Human hatred and sin put Jesus to death, as Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ depicted so graphically. But the story does not end there. Acts 2 proclaims that Jesus has been raised from the dead and is alive, in fulfillment of Psalm 16, “you will not suffer your holy one to see corruption.”
For Christian faith, Easter is a climax of God’s love and forgiveness, despite our human insistence on autonomy from God’s commandments. In the Incarnation contemplation of St. Ignatius’s Spiritual Exercises, the Triune God intervenes to deliver humans from a hopeless fate. As the Trinity beholds humans sinning, dying and falling into hell, divine mercy determines that the Son shall become a man to rescue us from our hopeless alienation from God.
The first Adam, created in God’s image, had rebelliously wanted himself to “be as God” and equal to God. He had forfeited human intimacy with God and become subject to death. Paul sees Jesus as the eschatological Adam. Though Jesus was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God something to be clung to, but emptied himself to take on human form and obey God unto death, even crucifixion (Philippians 2). The second Adam’s loving obedience to God reconciled humans to our Creator and restored us as God’s sons and daughters. Therefore God has exalted him above all creation, which we celebrate in Easter.
Thus at Easter we celebrate hope over hopelessness - not even death is the final word. God so loved the world he gave his only begotten Son to save us (John 3). We gratefully look forward to renewed life as God’s daughters and sons.
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