Episode Transcript  

One

But Some Doubted

At the end of Matthew’s Gospel, just before Jesus ascends into Heaven, He speaks with the Apostles one last time. And at that final meeting, Matthew tells us that Jesus’ disciples worshipped Him, but some doubted.

Ever after, down the centuries, down to this day, those would be the two responses to the Risen Jesus: Worship or doubt. Why do some doubt Christ’s resurrection? And what makes others believe, and believing, fall down in worship?

Two

The Strangeness of It All

It’s always hard to accommodate a new idea, an unfamiliar idea, some fact that feels completely foreign to the rest of our experience. And for sure, the Resurrection was that for all of Christ’s disciples. No one was expecting it. No one saw it coming. And even after Jesus stood before them, in the flesh, they tried to interpret it according to more familiar categories.

Was He a ghost? No, He was eating. Had He really not been crucified? No, there were wounds in His hands and side. But people don’t just get violently executed and then come up out of the tomb three days later looking fine, right?

It was so strange, so hard to process, the disciples just couldn’t take it in. But as time went on, they realized that it was true, it was real, and it made sense of everything. 

Three

When it All Comes Together

We recognize that something is true, no matter how surprising or disorienting it is, when it not only fits into our picture of the world, but actually brings all the other things we know into a clear, consistent overarching view of everything.

So, for example, it was a really surprising and disorienting idea to think that the Earth might revolve around the sun. After all, it looks like the sun is moving, and it feels like the Earth is still under our feet. But over time, we realized that all the movements of all the stars, the phases of Venus, the seasons of the year, it all makes so much more sense, it all comes together so much better, once we realize that the sun is still and the Earth is moving. 

So too, Jesus’ death and resurrection were wildly surprising and disorienting to the first apostles. But over time, they saw how it fulfilled all the prophecies. They saw how Christ had been preparing for it during His whole public ministry.

They saw how it conquered sin without destroying human freedom, how it combined the possibility of heroism with the certainty of victory, how it connected love of God and love of neighbor, how respected the value of suffering without letting suffering have the last word, and how it joined God to humanity in the best conceivable way.

Christ Risen was strange, so strange it was hard not to doubt. But it made sense of the entirety of human experience. So it had to be true. 

Four

Mysteries that Give Normalcy

One of my friends once went into the parish hall to get a drink of water just before Sunday mass. There wasn’t anyone else in the hall except a little girl who was going to receive her first Communion at that Mass. He knew her family, knew that they were a very faithful, good family. This girl was their fifth child, and she was about eight years old. She didn’t see my friend come into the parish hall. She didn’t see him because she was dancing there, in her white first Communion dress. Dancing alone in the parish hall, out of sheer happiness that today, for the first time, she would receive the Eucharist.

Now the Eucharist is about the strangest thing any one of us believes. That God comes to us disguised as a little round piece of stiff bread, that is so surprising, so disorienting, so weird when you first hear it. How could you not doubt such a thing?

And yet, look, there is the most beautiful, normal, human thing on earth: a little girl in a white dress, dancing for sheer happiness. All that goodness, all that beauty, all that normalcy: it all stems from the mystery of the Eucharist.

Many will doubt the Risen Christ, many will doubt the Eucharist. But we who have seen that the Resurrection and the Eucharist are the center that grounds everything that is good in human existence, we will not doubt. We will only worship. 

Five

The World is Good, and the World Makes Sense

The traditional greeting during the Easter season is for one person to say, “Christ is Risen!” and for the other person to say, “He is Risen indeed!”

We are celebrating something strange. Something surprising. Something unfamiliar. But this strange, surprising, unfamiliar thing is what makes human life good, normal. It’s what makes life make sense. It’s how we know that good triumphs over evil, and life over death. It’s how we know the best is yet to come. It’s how we know God has a plan and will always be victorious. It’s how we know why we are alive, and why it is so good to be alive.

The Easter greeting contains so many truths within it. At Easter, we could greet each other by saying, “Life makes sense,” and responding, “It makes sense indeed!” Or “Life is good,” “It is good indeed!” Or “God does beautiful things!” “He does beautiful things indeed!”

That’s what it means to have faith in the resurrection, and faith in all the mysteries of our faith. It means to see, to understand, and to rejoice.   

Suggested Resolutions:

Choose one resolution for today to help you grow closer to God, or create your own. Here are some ideas to inspire you.

• When faced with uncertainty, consciously choose to trust in Christ. Accept that some truths, like the Resurrection and the Eucharist, are strange, but still true. Let mystery invite awe, not cynicism.

• Find one extra opportunity this week to attend daily Mass and receive Communion, then spend fifteen minutes sitting in silence and awe of the wonders of God.

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