Bishop R. Walker Nickless

Joy of Christ's rising renews Church every Easter
April 5, 2007

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

May the joy of Easter and the abundance of grace shining from Christ's Resurrection fill you and inspire you with love! Rejoice with me, my brothers and sisters, in the glory of Jesus' new life! Easter is the season of joy, of rejoicing in hope and love, because Jesus is risen!

We often need to be reminded of how radical, how utterly new and unprecedented, is  the Resurrection. Especially in our scientific and skeptical age, the arising of Christ from death seems like an uncertain and unlikely moment. Yet it is the central moment of all of salvation history. It is the fulcrum of time; before this moment, all of God's actions in His relationship with Israel and all nations prepare the hearts of men to receive this new life; after this moment, all God's actions in His Church point to this most fundamental truth, and prepare our hearts to hold to this faith.

This radical truth is the bedrock of our faith: Christ is risen, not merely in His divinity, but also in His humanity. The joining of the two natures in one person, Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, that begins from the Incarnation (and even in intention from the beginning of Creation) continues eternally in the Resurrection. Jesus Christ, true God and true man, consubstantial with the Father in His divinity and with us in our humanity, truly rose from the dead.

This event is so utterly new because in this event, we too are given by God the chance to rise also to new life. Our sins separate us from God: not that God turns away from us, but we turn away from Him. In sinning, we reject God's law, will, and desire for us to share as fully as possible in His own enduring perfection. "My sins, truly I know them; my guilt is ever before me." "Whoever says he is without sin is lying." Sin is endemic in us. But God establishes the interlocking means of grace which lead us from sin to life, from slavery to freedom. The abundance and variety of the natural world teaches us about the need for basic dignity and compassion. The Law of the Covenant with Moses teaches us about repentance. The New Law of Christ teaches us about love and mercy. And the Passion and Resurrection of Christ teaches us about transcendent freedom and grace.

All the preparatory interventions and work of Providence leading up to the Resurrection reveal God's love and mercy to us, but incompletely. None of these revelations contains the complete redemption from sin that is our baptismal participation in the new life of Christ. They teach us what sin is, why it is evil, how to avoid it; but they do not cure it and its effects. This is the great mystery and radical newness of Christ's new life.

The evil present in this world seeks always to deny the truth of Christ's grace, to undermine its distinctiveness and necessity, to water it down. "The wisdom of Christ is the folly of the wise; the wisdom of the world is the folly of Christ." Many sources in our world today tell us incessantly that Christ's Resurrection doesn't mean what we know in our hearts it does mean. Most insidiously, these sources deny that sin even exists, that it is evil, or that it harms anyone, including the sinner. In this world, desire is praised as individual self-expression; appetite is worshipped as liberty; self-indulgence is the highest form of virtue. If any of this is true, then indeed we do not need Christ.

But we who follow Christ, who have been made members of His Body and co-heirs of His Kingdom, who have met him face-to-face in the sacrifice of the Mass: we know that we do need Christ. We reject the worldly wisdom that seeks our enslavement to our own will. We reject both pride, that says that my will must be right even above God's, and despair, that says that my will can never do what is right. We know, deep in our heart, because of our faith, that God's will knows better than mine what is good for me, and that my will, weak though it is, is as strong as Christ - as long as I submit to Him.

The Resurrection is the pivotal moment of our surrender to God's love. As Christ comes forth from the tomb, still bearing in his flesh the marks of his torture and death, yet living with new and eternal life, we recognize Him as our King and Lord, our Savior and Redeemer. This Risen Lord gives His apostles the gift of the Holy Spirit which animates the Church. He gives them the commission to teach all nations, and the courage to do so. He calls even the hardened sinners to repentance and conversion, to share in His new and perfect life.

The joy of Christ's Rising is renewed in the Church each year at Easter. As we walk again through the Liturgy of the Triduum, we witness the Passion of Jesus, we share in the fear of Peter, the confusion of the apostles, and the sorrow of Mary. Out of this comes the unexpected Resurrection: Jesus returns, and shows himself again and again to His followers, even to His enemies, to prove that He is truly alive. He has not avoided death, but defeated it; and in Him we have our only hope of sharing in that victory.

This is new, the unprecedented gift of life that does not spoil, is not tarnished by sin, is not corrupted by desire and appetite and self-indulgence. This is the bedrock of our faith: Christ is Risen, indeed.

My dear brothers and sisters, let us make the new beginning we mark at Easter a new beginning for our lives together in Christ. Let us live the faith of Christ's Resurrection in all its radical novelty! Let us be fools for Christ, as St. Paul said, and put all our trust in Him, not in ourselves and our careers and our wealth. Live for Christ alone! This is my constant prayer for you, which I undertake with renewed vigor and shared joy in this Easter season. May the infinite grace of Divine Mercy which flows from the side of our Lord fill your hearts with love for Him and for each other, and bear you through all your struggles in the year to come; and may you live only in Christ our Lord. Happy Easter to all. The Lord is Risen, just as He said!

Your brother in Christ,

Most Reverend R. Walker Nickless
Bishop of Sioux City