Resurrection and Real Justice

Resurrection and Real Justice | Fr. James V. Schall, S.J. | Easter Sunday, March 23, 2008 | Ignatius Insight

"Nam qui Deus erat, homo natus est, et qui homo natus est, operatur ut Deus; et qui operatur ut Deus, ut homo moritur; et qui ut homo moritur, ut Deus resurgit. Qui devicto mortuis imperio cum ea carne, qua natus et passus et mortuus fuerat, resurrexit tertia die...." -- Formula "Fides Damasi" c. 500 A.D. [1]

"It is clear from the New Testament that the Resurrection was in no sense a restoration of Jesus to an earthly life as He had previously lived it; but neither was it merely a series of visions which assured the disciples that Jesus was still alive and present with them in spiritual power. The event is rather a mighty act of God, by which Jesus 'was raised up' ...and exalted by the Father to His rightful position of glory at the Father's right hand (Acts 2, 22-36, etc.). It was a victory of Christ over death, with results not only for Himself but for all Christians (1 Pet. 1, 3 f, cf. 1 Cor. 15, 14), and hence the beginning of a new era (Jn. 20, 17, Mt. 28, 16)." -- "Resurrection of Christ," The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. [2]

I.

In the Prologue to the Gospel of John, we read the famous words, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld His glory, glory as of the only son from the Father" (Jn 1:14). John is careful to assure us that Christ is not an "illusion," as the Docetists thought, because, for them, it was a scandal that God could actually in any sense be a man, one of our kind. So John uses a word that cannot be mistaken for an abstraction or an illusion, "flesh." Christ did not become merely a human "soul," which He did. He became "flesh," body and soul.

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