Choose a topic from Part 3a:

53. The Resurrection

1. Christ rose from the dead: (a) to manifest the divineJustice which exalts the humbled; (b) to instruct and establish usin the faith, for the Resurrection is the central truth of ourfaith; (c) to give us firm hope of our own resurrection; (d) toteach us to rise from the death of sin to newness of life; (e) tocomplete the work of our salvation, and, after enduring evil, torise triumphant to lasting good.

2. Christ rose on the third day. He delayed theResurrection long enough to establish the fact that he had trulydied. Yet he did not delay it so long that men might fail to see itas the unquestionable proof of his Godhead. Besides, the third daycommends to our notice the perfection of the number three which, asAristotle says, is the number of everything that has beginning,middle, and end. And, mystically, since Christ's one deathdestroyed our two deaths, the number three is significant. Thethird day also indicates the three epochs of mankind in theirrelation to God: before the Law, under the Law, and now undergrace.

3. Christ was the first to rise from the dead, to die nomore. Those who had been miraculously restored to life in the Oldand the New Testament, had to die again eventually. Not so withChrist who "is risen from the dead, the first fruits of themthat sleep" (I Cor. 15:20); "Christ rising again from thedead, dieth now no more; death shall no more have dominion overhim" (Rom. 6:9).

4. Scripture speaks of Christ (Acts 2:24) "whom Godhath raised up." Yet our Lord himself says (John 10:18):"No one taketh my life from me; but I lay it down, and I takeit up again." There is no conflict or contradiction here.Christ is God, and when he causes his own Resurrection it is Godwho raises him up. It is perfectly accurate, then, to say thatChrist himself is the cause of his Resurrection from the dead.

"Happy is the youth, because he has time before him to do good. "
St Philip Neri

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"It is vanity to be concerned with the present only and not to make provision for things to come."
Thomas á Kempis

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"Though the path is plain and smooth for people of good will, those who walk it will not travel far, and will do so only with difficulty if they do not have good feet, courage, and tenacity of spirit. "
St John of the Cross, OCD - Doctor of the Church

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