Time to reflect on the mystery of redemption
+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
11 Apr 2004
A young friend of mine told me she had been at a party last Saturday night with friends. A good deal of the conversation was about Jesus, but the polite taboo against discussing religion had been avoided by discussing a film. Mel Gibson's film The Passion Of The Christ has focused public attention on the Christian understanding of the Easter season very effectively. I wouldn't be surprised if quite a few came, or returned, to church for the "real thing" after seeing it.
We should not understate the traditional Christian claim about the facts and significance of Jesus's redeeming death and resurrection. The Easter gospel is not about memories, or ideals, or profound thoughts, although these should be present. At Easter, we do not gather to celebrate a doctrine, nor to rejoice in Jesus's message of hope – not in his love ethic, nor his promise of eternal life, of punishment or reward after individual judgment (although all these elements are contained in the Easter package).
Jesus truly died. At Easter, we proclaim that the man who was truly lost on the cross is now alive and well and available to us: "I am risen and am with you." The Resurrection is not a metaphor to disguise the fact that Jesus remains as dead as he was on Good Friday night and that his body rotted in the grave, or that his bones remain somewhere to be found. Jesus has risen from the dead, with his glorified body. He is alive and loving us, because he has redeemed us.
Australians don't need Christians to remind them that all is not well with the world. Nowhere is there a long-term heaven on Earth. The Easter message is that we have a personal Redeemer, the Son of God who rose from the dead. The prolonged violence and suffering of the passion of Christ are a consolation to sufferers, reminding them that God's Son suffered too.
It's not just another story of a good person treated cruelly and unjustly, but the necessary prelude to the resurrection of Christ and of all good people on the last day: they are the events that guaranteed that God forgives our sins and will completely overwhelm the evil in human history at the end of time. At Easter, the Christian churches urge us to reflect on this triumph of life and love achieved through the resurrection of Christ. But the events of the Passion during Holy Week have also prompted us to do what most people prefer to avoid. That is, to reflect on the mysteries of suffering and personal sin and on the struggle between good and evil that takes place in every heart. Easter celebrates the mystery of Christ's liberating obedience and redemptive suffering. Death is not the last word. Jesus has won.
Easter peace to everyone.
