Christ is Risen!

Did you ever go to a church and wonder what it was all about, why people came there, what they were doing, how they could believe all this stuff, how it has been going on for over two thousand years? A man, Jesus, lived and died and had an effect that has lasted for centuries, prompting people to build cathedrals and perform rites and share communion in His name until the present times.

He was supposedly born in a stable under a special star that guided kings and wise men to his little manger. He lived and walked among us, teaching and healing, even raising the dead. He was crucified dead and buried, then ascended into heaven. What really happened back then that meant so much? What could it have been? There's only one possible answer: It must have been true.

Who could do this nowadays? We have our eyes on everyone, for at least fifteen minutes. We have all kinds of ways to prove and disprove things. We have insatiable curiosity. We are skeptics but we want hope, and proof. And if someone lived among us and performed miracles, and then died and was dead for three days and then walked again among us, and then ascended into heaven, wouldn't people be profoundly changed, and wouldn't we talk about it, write about it, act upon it,for generations?

We would want to hear from his friends and the people who knew him, we would want to know more, we would want to know everything. We would read the accounts online, and enshrine them in special texts undiluted, preferably with red letters to highlight exactly what he said. If we were told about his instructions at the Last Supper, many would want to do what he said, and would create a ceremony, a sacrament, to break bread and drink wine. Some among us would try to discern, and taste, his flesh and blood in it, transubstantiated, in the mystery of faith. For many people there would be no need to go on a wild goose chase for the Holy Grail, because His simple instruction to "Love one another", and His promise of eternal life would be wondrous enough. "Remember Me."

There are so many galaxies in the universe, mystery upon mystery. Scientific theories are developing, beyond Einstein, about light and space and speed and time. The prospect of stem cells replenishing life, our nascent cloning experience, many other theories about quarks and black holes and magnetic forces all suggest larger mysteries than we are ready to grasp, here in our little speck of the universe. That life could be recreated and restored is part of the suggestion made by these sciences. And somewhere, with the communion of saints, why couldn't there be planets made of diamond, sapphire, ruby, emerald, and gold, and all the things that have been wrought by God....where the heavenly angels sing, where the good people go and have always been, where life is eternal?

It's simple really. Jesus came to us from another place, from heaven, to show us something, to interest us in love. He suffered, died, was buried, and then He rose again, to eternal life, and told us that we could do that too. He said all things are possible, if you will only believe. And Christ will come again. Alleluia!