Insight Scoop | The Ignatius Press Blog: Easter: The Defiant Feast

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Saturday, April 15, 2006

Easter: The Defiant Feast | Fr. James V. Schall, S.J.

Easter: The Defiant Feast | Fr. James V. Schall, S.J. | April 15, 2006

"Wine is of such divinity that it refuses to change its name. It has kept the same name since it was first pupped. … Mark my words, you my readers who are destined to live for ever, it will not change." — Hilaire Belloc, "About Wine," Places (London: Cassel, 1942), 276.

"God raised up Jesus on the third day and granted that he be seen, not by all, but only by such witnesses as had been chosen beforehand by God–but us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead." — Acts, 10:40, Reading, Morning Prayer, Easter Sunday.

I.

Easter is a defiant feast.

At the tomb we hear it said, "you seek Jesus of Nazareth; He is not here. He is risen." And earlier, in words that were remembered later, "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up again." Those who remembered said, "He was speaking of the temple of His Body." The risen Christ was not seen by all, but only by those witnesses chosen beforehand by God. Is this unjust, that all of us were not there? Or are in fact all of us there because of the witnesses chosen beforehand? "Unless I put my finger into His hands and my hand in His side, I shall not believe." The challenge of the man who said these defiant words was literally accepted. His only response when so confronted was, "My Lord and my God." He was told, almost as a reprimand, that those who did not need this direct evidence were "more blessed." We wonder why? Certainly the witnesses remain necessary. The account is not imaginary.

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