Living Catholicism: God has Saved Us (Or, Happy Easter)

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April 16, 2006

God has Saved Us (Or, Happy Easter)

From the hand of St. Thomas Aquinas:

In triumph over death, which resulted from our first parent's sin, Christ was the first of all men to rise to immortal life. Thus, as life first became mortal through Adam's sin, immortal life made its first appearance in Christ through the atonement for sin He offered. Others, it is true, raised up either by Christ or by the prophets, had returned to life before Him; yet they had to die a second time. But "Christ rising again from the dead, dieth now no more." As He was the first to escape the necessity of dying, He is called "the first begotten of the dead" and "the first fruits of them that sleep." Having thrown off the yoke of death, He was the first to rise from the sleep of death.
Christ's resurrection was not to be long delayed, nor, on the other hand, was it to take place immediately after death. If He had returned to life immediately after death, the fact of His death would not have been well established; and if His resurrection had been long delayed, the sign of vanquished death would not have appeared in Him, and men would not have been given the hope that they would be rescued from death by Him. Therefore He put off His resurrection until the third day, for this interval was judged sufficient to establish the truth of His death and was not too long to wither away the hope of liberation. If it had been delayed for a longer time, the hope of the faithful might have begun to suffer doubt. Indeed, on the third day, as though hope were already running out, some were saying: "We hoped that it was He that should have redeemed Israel."

God bless,
Jay

Posted by jay at April 16, 2006 12:02 PM