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Chapter 8. The Saving Death and Resurrection of Christ • 99
• The Son of God who became man truly died and was bur-
ied, but his body underwent no corruption. In his human soul
united to his divine person, the dead Christ went to the realm of
the dead and opened heaven for the just who came before him
(cf. CCC, no. 637).
• Christ’s Resurrection is an event that is historically attested to by the
Apostles who really met the Risen One. The Resurrection is also a
transcendent mystery because God the Father raises his Son from the
dead by the power of the Holy Spirit.
• The empty tomb helped the disciples accept the fact of the
Resurrection.When St. John entered the tomb,“he saw and believed”
(Jn 20:8).
• Christ is the “firstborn from the dead” (Col 1:18) and so is the prin-
ciple of our own resurrection, now by the salvation of our souls, and
at the end of time, when new life will be given to our bodies.
• Christ’s Ascension marks the definitive entrance of his humanity
into heaven. Christ precedes us there so that we, the members of his
Body, may live in the hope of being with him forever. Jesus intercedes
constantly for us as our mediator and assures the permanent out-
pouring of the Holy Spirit.
• At the end of time, Jesus Christ will come in glory to judge the living
and the dead.
MEDITATION
Make Holy Week Holy
Let us stretch ourselves, going beyond our comfort zones to
unite ourselves with Christ’s redemptive work. We unite our-
selves with Christ’s redemptive work when we make peace,
when we share the good news that God is in our lives, when
we reflect to our brothers and sisters God’s healing, God’s for-
giveness, God’s unconditional love. Let us break bread together.
Let us relive the holy and redemptive mystery. Let us do it in
memory of him, acknowledging in faith his real presence on our
altars.
9
9 Thea Bowman, FSPA,
Mississippi Today
(April 1990). These words come from a col-