The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1915-04-03
.CHRIsT's REsURRE TON
ITS MEANING AND PLACE IN THE
CHRISTIAN ECONOMY.

CHRISTIAN ECONOMY.
Every year with the Church is
holy year There is not, indeed, day
with her that is not sacred to some
holy historical fact, says the Syracuse
Sun. Today it is the feast of martyr,
a virgin, confessor, that has worked
and suffered for the faith, and that has
loved God devotedly; tomorrow it is
one of the innumerable feasts of the
Mother of God that make rosary
of all the months of the year; and
again, more holy than all, comes a
feast of Our Lord Himself.
And of all these great feastdays of
Our Lord there is none that can COM
pare with the glory of the Easter Sum
day. This is the queen of all feasts.
st. Leo called it the Feast of Feasts"
One needs only to read the Church's
ritual to see that. Throughout the
peating from morning until night in
her prayers and her hymns that it is
the day of days. '"This is the day
which the Lord hath made; let us re-
joice and be glad therein"
1t needs little explanation to show
why the Church is exceedingly glad on
this day, and urges us to participate
in that joy; why She uses every glory
of ceremony and vestment and adOrn-
ment at her disposal to give express
sion to that feeling of divine joy. 1t
is her great day, because thereon she
celebrates the Resurrection Of her
Divine Founder.
Cornerstone of Faith.
In our religion there is one fact that
stands out above all others, that puts
the seal Of approval on the work of
Christ, that floods with holy light the
meaning of His mission to the world.
That fact is that Christ being dead,
arose from the tomb by His own di-
vine power, in accordance with His
prophecy that He would do so. Our
whole faith rests upon that historical
fact as upon it's cornerstone. 1t was
so ST. Paul regarded it, when he spoke
those oft repeated words: IF Christ
be not risen from the dead, then is
our preaching vain, then is your faith
vain.'
The Resurrection was not the only
miracle of Christ, as We well know
His whole life was filled with mira
cles. But all are joined together, all
center in and take their value from
this master-miracle, the Resurrection.
If that miracle be proved to be an
historical fact, then all must be we'll.
And so from the beginning the apos-
ties appealed to that as their reason
for preaching the Christian gospel.
Rock of Ages.
On the other hand, too, the enemies
of Christ have sought to diScredit it,
knowing that could they disproVe the
Resurrection of Christ from the tomb,
the whole superstructure of the Cath
Ollie Church would fall in ruins. But
the apostles knew upon what corner
stone they were building with Christ,
and we, too, know, so that come what
ever attacks, we are sure that if there
is any fact in history of which we can
be certain, it is that Christ after being
dead and in the grave came forth from
that burial place glorious and immor-
tai.
Some one has well called the at
lacks upon Christianity a blasting at
the Rock of Ages. But that Rock is
the tomb of Christ, the Easter stone,
the Resurrection, which all the puny
efforts of men cannot harm.
A Historical Fact.
There is no need to go into all the
proofs of the Resurrection of Christ
to show that it is an historical fact.
The proofs are just as compelling as
for any easily accepted fact Histori-
cal facts are so accepted because they
rest on the testimony of trustworthy
witnesses. So with the Resurrection.
We accept it historically because it
was testified to by men and women,
numbers of them, whose truStWorthi-
ness we cannot for moment doubt.
Christ was dead. Everybody at the
time knew that. And then after all
the tragedy, and some of them had
been convinced almost against their
will so far had they been from expect
ing anything of the kind, that they
saw again with their eyes this same
Christ Who had been dead.
The very simplicity of the gospel
narrative is a proof that these men
told only just what they knew to be
fact. Their whole subsequent life
is proof of the change that came over
them from timid, wavering men, to
soldiers of the cross and martyrs for
the faith in that same miracle of the
Resurrection.
Faced Death.
And so they faced death in defence
of what they knew, that the Christ
Whom they preached had as proof
of His mission prophesied that on the
third day after His death He would
rise again, and that He actually did
rise. AS Paschal says: eve must be-
lieve witnesses who allow themselves
to be murdered for what they attest;
the apostles and disciples, some doz-
ems of upright, virtuous, simple men,
contrary to all their own interests,
affirm that they saw Jesus Christ ris-
en-, and rather than deny it they al
lowed themselves to be murdered;
therefore we must believe that Jesus
Christ is risen. and if He is risen,