Pastor's Corner, April 21, 2013

Dear Parishioners and Friends,

On the Fourth Sunday of Easter we continue our analysis of the proofs of the Resurrection of Jesus.

Remember, the first witnesses of the resurrection are the women who come to the tomb early in the morning. How can this be a proof of the resurrection? If the resurrection was made up, no ancient author would have used women as witnesses. In the time of Christ, women were second class citizens. They couldn’t even testify in court. They were not considered to be legal witnesses to events.

When Mary Magdalene and the other holy women report to the apostles that the tomb is empty and that Mary had seen the Lord, the apostles don’t believe them at first. The evangelists had no choice but to write that women had been chosen as the first proclaimers of the Risen Lord. Why? Because that is the way it happened.

There were other witnesses as well. St. Paul writes that more than 500 people saw the Risen Lord at the same time (cf. 1 Cor. 15: 6). He also says that many of them were still alive. It would be very difficult for that many people to have a hallucination at the same time and, since many were still alive at the time of Paul, then they could be questioned by the early Christians.

In Christ,

Msgr. Baker