In the Beginning…
“In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth…” and so opened our first reading this evening from the Book of Genesis. This opening sentence from the Bible began the story of how God created the world in six days. The reading told of the creation of light and darkness, of dry land and the seas, of the sun and the moon, of plants and animals and, ultimately, on the sixth day, of the creation of male and female in God’s own image. This ancient story revealed God’s creating us out of love and placing us at the center of creation. The story of creation concluded as we were told that at the end of that sixth day, God “looked at everything he had made and he found it very good” and on the seventh day, he rested.
A New Beginning
St. John the Evangelist was very much aware of how the Book of Genesis opened when he wrote his account of Jesus Christ. He began the fourth Gospel with the same words, “In the beginning.” But he was now pointing to a new creation. For you see, while the story of humanity’s creation by God was captured in the first Book of the Bible, Genesis also tells the story of sin and our alienation from God. God’s plan for us was not to be thwarted, however. Through the message of prophets and mighty works, some of which we have heard this evening, the promise of salvation endured and was ultimately fulfilled in a way no one could have imagined: through the incarnation of God’s only begotten Son, his being raised on a cross and his resurrection. And now God is offering us a share in the new life of Jesus Christ. Pope Benedict XVI referred to what happened to humanity as a result of the death and resurrection of Christ as an “evolutionary leap.” We are not simply restored to Eden. Christ, the New Adam—both God and human—opens for us a share in divine life itself. The parallels with Genesis are striking. Humanity is created on the sixth day; Christ is crucified on the sixth day, and from his side flow blood and water—the wellspring of Baptism. God rests in the tomb on the seventh day; Christ rests in the tomb on Holy Saturday. And on the first day of a new week, in a garden, the risen Lord appears—signaling not just a return, but a new creation.
Christ in Us
And so what about this new life? St. Paul says it clearly as he tells the Galatians “I have been crucified with Christ; yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:19-20). He proclaims it again in his letter to the Philippians, as he writes “For to me life is Christ, and death is gain” (Phil. 1:21). And he states it again, this time to the Corinthians, as he asks them, “Do you not realize that Christ is in you?” (2 Cor. 13:5). May those who are being baptized this evening live fully that new life. And may we, who have already been reborn into the new life of Christ and tonight renew our Baptismal promises, be reminded of how in dying with Christ and rising to new life with him, be strengthened in living that new life.
The Kingdom of God
As we celebrate Easter today, may Christ’s resurrection and our new life not be merely an historical event that occurred 2000 years ago but a present reality. May we know it not just as something that will only make a difference in the future when we pass from this world and look to enter heaven. The new life of Christ is entered into with each Baptism; it is renewed in every Mass; it is visible whenever the hungry are fed, the naked clothed, the imprisoned visited. In his death and resurrection, Jesus is revealed as King. As N.T. Wright puts it: “Jesus is now running the show—even if it doesn’t look like it, because we misunderstand how his power works.”
Let us Proclaim the Good News
While the stories of how the early disciples of Christ encountered the Risen Christ varied, their lives were changed as they went from fear and confusion to proclaiming, as Peter did in today’s first reading, the Good News of Salvation. They knew Christ was alive and with them. It is the story that is lived again and again in sometimes dramatic ways. It is the story that is lived in the humble and, for the most part, unnoticed ways. May we, like the women in today’s Gospel, know that “He has been raised from the dead” and may we, like them, go forth and proclaim the Good News.
