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What the Resurrection is, however, is another glorious stroke in the portrait of a loving God that began with the description of Emmanuel, (God is with us) in chapter one. All throughout the Gospel we have this growing exposure of a God of love and life: Emmanuel. The entire Gospel is of one piece. For our part, we are called to a personal transformation that draws us into the life-giving and renovating love of Emmanuel.
So, in the Passion, while we have a picture of people’s injustice and hatred and rejection, we also have an underlying theme of God’s plan of love at work. In the Garden, Jesus prays that this cup may not be necessary. On the Cross, Scripture is sighted that this suffering was the plan of God to reveal the true nature of the Messiah. Here is our God who shares our pain and loss. Here is our God who shares the travesty of our suffering in this valley of tears. Here is our God who enters into the depth of ultimate anguish of death only to open up the final expression of our reality, the destiny of eternal life and happiness. In the resurrection, we have the revelation of life free of all the consequences of sin. This is the ultimate expression of love and freedom in the hands of our saving God. This is Emmanuel!
Easter is a further expression of Emmanuel. Easter is the renewed invitation into the mystery of life’s victory over death, grace’s final domination of sin, and the Incarnate goodness, in the person of Jesus, devastating evil.
Often in life we are driven to ask, “How can this be?” The raw and savage power of evil is never far from our doorstep. Its destructive forces are clawing at the edges of our life. It may be the death of an innocent child or a young parent, the power of a pandemic like Covid, the senseless destruction of war or gang violence. These realities are always surfacing in our daily life
When these encounters break loose from the shadows of life, the new meeting with evil always seems to drive us to ask again with new intensity, “How can this be?”
In the Pascal Mystery of Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection, God responds to our question and the same question all through human history. Jesus has taken upon himself, at the request of the Father, all of evil so he shares single-mindedly in all human suffering. He is God’s response to our deeply painful question. He is the victory of life and love in the resurrection. The Easter Alleluia is our invitation to gradually share in the victory over evil, destruction and death. We are called to grow in faith, hope and love and to break free from the binding forces of our broken human condition. The Alleluia calls us to life and freedom, hope and conviction when we walk with Jesus into the mystery of Emmanuel.
This whole Gospel of Matthew is woven together to unveil Emmanuel (God is with us). This Gospel is a revelation of love without limit or condition. This message of Good News proclaims the final word of God. It moves beyond sickness or suffering. It breaks the bondage of division and violence. It lets reconciliation and peace overcome the impossible. It lets pardon and love be the mustard seed that becomes the tree whose healing shadow covers all of life’s hurts in its loving embrace. It is the fullness of truth and the ultimate invitation into life and love, Emmanuel!
Our challenge is to know this is not just information for us to understand, but a deep and gripping mystery only open to us by an acceptance of Christ Crucified and Christ Risen. It is only in our personal struggle between grace and sin that life will we find the life-giving direction and meaning of this Mystery of Emmanul. This is done solely by walking in the footsteps of Jesus to Jerusalem and sharing in the wonder of the Pascal Mystery where death gives way to life.