Angelus News | April 19-26, 2019 | Vol. 4 No. 15

to listen to the victims, to talk to the
survivors as if touching the wounds of
the crucified Lord.
“Our people need us to draw close
to their wounds and acknowledge our
faults if we are to give authentic and
credible witness to our faith in the
Resurrection,” he said.
All of us are wounded, and in the
wounds of Jesus we see a God who
is not remote but who knows, who
understands.
The Gospel writers wanted to make
clear the reality of the Lord’s suffering
and death. The cries to God, the
thirst, the final breath, the pierce of
the lance and the blood and water.
The Son of God, the Messiah, put
to death in a most ignominious way
— a common criminal hung on the
cross to die slowly in front of a crowd
of onlookers. The spotless victim, the
perfect sacrifice, had died that we
might be healed of our wounds, that
we might be saved.
This is why we venerate the cross on
Good Friday, commemorating the
wood on which hung our salvation.
Yet all of this would only be a rather
strange death cult if it ended here. As
St. Paul writes, if Christ has not risen,
then we are the most foolish of men.
How could we know that we had been
saved if not for the Resurrection?
The resurrection of the Lord is
the happy ending of which we are
assured. The finality of death is not
final. As T.S. Elliot writes, “In our end
is our beginning.” What seemed like
the end of the life of the mortal Jesus,
the agony, the blood, the grieving
mother, the stunned and frightened
followers, was only the prologue to
something far greater.
One thinks of the various Resurrection
accounts in Scripture. While they
differ in certain details, what comes
through is the struggle to comprehend,
the shock, the surprise.
In the retrospective recalling in the
Gospels, Jesus seems to make plain
what was to happen, but it only became
clear looking back.
Hearing the women tell the story that
the tomb was empty, hearing the two
disciples talking about the encounter
with Jesus on the road to Emmaus,
one can imagine the incomprehension,
even disbelief, that these stories
were true. And yet those encounters
with the risen Lord changed
everything, and for all time.
This is Easter: The Lord truly rose,
and because he rose, our hope is not
in vain. Easter is only understood
in the context of Good Friday, and
Good Friday is only understood in the
context of Easter.
What much of contemporary society
calls Easter is really without context and
without meaning. The comedian Jim
Gaffigan skewers it appropriately: Eggs
and a bunny. Some chocolate, too.
Society can’t comprehend the redemptive,
salvific power of suffering.
The truth be told, sometimes I can’t
either. And so it comes down to touch
again. Not Mary touching the foot
of her dead son, but Thomas invited
by the living Lord to touch the lance
wound and believe. And all that
remains to be said is, “My Lord and
my God.”
Greg Erlandson is the president and
editor-in-chief of Catholic NewsService.
© 2018 NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART
“The Deposition
of Christ,” by
Jacopo
Tintoretto, 1562,
Gallerie
dell’Accademia,
Venice.
April 19-26, 2019 • ANGELUS • 29