“If Christ has not risen, then idle is our preaching, and idle is your faith” (1 Cor. XV. 14). This is as true now as it was when St. Paul wrote it for the Corinthians nineteen hundred years ago. The resurrection of the Lord is the foundation of our faith. We do not preach simply Christ crucified, but always in the same breath Christ risen from the dead. The resurrection put the final and necessary seal of God upon Jesus. Had the tomb remained occupied by the body of Jesus, there would be no Christianity, no Catholic Church. For the Apostles themselves it was the resurrection which gave them the key to be used in order to understand Christ. They would never have preached Him as Son of God and unique Mediator between God and men had He not triumphed over death.
“The sting of death is sin” (1 Cor. XV. 56). It was sin that gave death its power over man. By the death of Christ death lost its power, because Christ by dying and rising conquered sin and death. “Death is swallowed up in victory. 0 death, where is thy victory! 0 death, where is thy sting!” (1 Cor. XV. 54-55). Now that Christ has conquered death, it is possible and even easy for us to believe that He also triumphed over sin, and that in Him and through Him we can share in His triumph.
Charles J. Callan, OP and John F. McConnell, MM
Spiritual Riches of the Rosary Mysteries
