Give Witness to the Resurrection
Rev. Mr. Manuel Dorantes
Originally posted on 4/4/2010

Last week we learned some surprising news about what people in our country believe about Easter. According to a Barna Group study released last week, less than 50 percent of U.S. adults link Easter to the Resurrection of Jesus. In an open-ended question as to what Easter means to them personally, only 42 percent tied Easter to the Resurrection. While this points to a sad reality, we can sit and try to figure out what has led to this, create some labels, put them on a scapegoat, kill the scapegoat and feel good about having killed it. On the other hand, we can be Resurrection people. I humbly suggest the latter.

In today’s first reading from Acts of the Apostles, we learn what it means to be a person of the Resurrection. The reading narrates that great Pentecost morning in which Peter, guided and strengthened by the Holy Spirit, addressed the assembly of pilgrims who had gathered at the holy city for the great feast. Fifty days after Passover, and after the Crucifixion of Jesus, Peter testifies to what he had seen. He said to all those who were gathered, “We are witnesses of all that he [Jesus] did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree. This man God raised on the third day and granted that he be visible, not to all the people, but to us, the witnesses chosen by God in advance, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commissioned us to preach to the people and testify that he is the one appointed by God.”

Wait, is this Peter? The same Peter who denied knowing Jesus three times during Jesus’ most difficult hour? The same man who at the first sign of danger ran away to hide? And now he is speaking publically in favor of the one he had betrayed? Is he flip-flopping? How come the radical change? The reason Peter was able to conquer his fear was simply Jesus’ Resurrection from the dead. Having seen the Risen Christ, Peter is affirmed in his belief and commits himself to the mission of preaching and testifying to others how Jesus had truly risen from the dead. When Jesus conquered death, he also conquered Peter’s fear.

As we look to the apostolic and missionary work of early Christians we notice that when they began to share the Good News about Jesus, they did not begin with the miraculous annunciation of his birth to Mary, or his astonishing works during his three years of public ministry, but rather they began with the Resurrection. That is why St. Paul writes: “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain; and your faith is in vain…. And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is a delusion and you are still lost in your sins…. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep” (I Cor 15: 14, 17, 20).

Our Christian faith is based upon the Resurrection, and our faith and convictions can only grow if we share them, if we testify. So, how can you and I give witness of the Resurrection? We can tell our story. We can share with others how Christ’s Resurrection has given us hope and carried us through at times when we were rejected or judged.

We can proclaim how it was his promise of Resurrection that helped us to overcome our fear of death when we felt as if we were hanging on the cross, abandoned by our closest friends. We all have had an experience in which knowing that Christ had conquered death helped us to conquer death along with Him. This is the Good News: Jesus’ Father did not abandon Him, He raised Him up! And He will do the same with you and me! We must not be afraid! Instead, let us share with those around us the great deeds He has done for us! Today we are a new creation, a people of His Resurrection!