St. Paul refers in 1 Corinthians 15:3 to the fact of the Resurrection of Christ is of first importance. Now it is probably true that the Church has invested more of its thinking in the Passion of Christ than in the Resurrection over the years.
The Gospels themselves devote the lion’s share of the narrative to the Passion. (The Mel Gibson film on the Passion of the Christ caused a sensation too.) The great thinkers and teachers of the Church have put forward and argued about theories of Atonement so much, that great books have been written on them. And this is as it should be: the matter of why Jesus suffered and died in the way He did is of profound concern to us, and it is right to be affected in heart and mind by the suffering He underwent. St. Paul himself has much to say on the Christ, who knew no sin, being made sin on our behalf, and on our dying and rising again with Christ in our Baptism.
In our Christian formation it is enormously important for us to know that the Passion and death of Jesus were not the end, but rather a new beginning. Death was not the end: the end and purpose of the Passion of Christ was life, life not only for the Son of God Himself, but for those He brings to life in Him. There can be no darker time in the history of the world than the horrible condemnation of Jesus. Yet it was God’s word about the matter that finally prevailed. That terrible dying was the means to Christ’s own rising again, and to our rising again in Him. The terrible death was revealed to be the means of man’s atonement and reconciliation with his Maker.
Our pathway to life and hope out of our despairs, and the despair of mankind in general, is in the prevailing word of God. That word is usually not understood or appreciated at first. For instance, when Jesus first started teaching His own disciples that the Son of man would be delivered into the hands of men, be killed, and then after three days rise, they did not understand what He said, and were afraid to ask Him. The word of God in the mouth of Jesus was often not understood or appreciated, and it was often resisted. Yet when that word was followed, it was the means of hope. And sometimes we, as Simon Peter, had to on other occasions, have to say to the word of God or to its messenger, “Yes, I was wrong, and now I begin to understand what you were actually getting at. The Lord said to Isaiah (Isaiah 6: 9), one supposes ironically, “Go, and tell this people, hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.” The seed of the word will nevertheless prevail in the end, and that is our sure and constant hope.
Years ago, the word was spoken to the churches that God had a certain order for men and for women to live and work together in purity and respect, and that there were distinctions in role between the two both within the family of the congregation and within the families of individuals. The word was spoken that if this mind of Christ and of the Spirit was ignored, the ethical guidelines governing civilisations would become eroded. The word was ignored. Then the insinuations of parity between things that were far from of equal value became a shout. Now we have official forms that cannot bear to mention husband, wife or even spouse, but only “partner”. The word to the churches was ignored, but that did not make the word one wit less true. Now, some of the tragic consequences of our culpable ignorance are plain to see. Today, too, God speaks His word to the churches. We may now understand through all that has happened, something of what God was getting at.
It is indeed an attack on the Christian Doctrine of Man to hold, with forceful modern western ideologies and even legal regulations, that there are fulfilling and healthy forms of sexual expression outside the purposes of procreation, purity of living and the mutual society, help and strengthening of a committed couple within the marriage bond.
It is an attack on the Christian Doctrine of Man to hold that there is no such thing as gross indecency or perverted sexuality, and to give equal dignity to a thing that is divinely approved and to a thing God warns us against.
If the word of God, which was spoken so long ago will finally be heard, and because of the prevailing truth of the Resurrection of Christ, there will be a resurrection and rescue too from these conditions of our time and our lives, which could otherwise induce despair.
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