The Nazareth Page - A gospel meditation for your home

April 12, 2020 – Easter Sunday - Luke 24:13-35

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On two very unique days God created. On the first of those days, God created the Universe. Before, there was nothing but God. Then, in an instant, using the visionary analysis of Albert Einstein, there was energy and there was matter. All from a point, later called by scientists who know about such things, the singularity. It all instantly moved outward in a flash lasting one-billionth of a second, a nano second. That would have been something to see. And God did.

Or if you want another description, just as insightful but with a bit more of a poetic flair, read the first lines in the Book of Genesis. God created the heavens and the earth with its whole surface wildly swishing with water until a mighty wind pushed the water aside and dry land appeared. And so that this could all be seen, light replaced total darkness. It took a day for God to do this although we still don’t have a clue how long that day was. All we can say is that it was the first day.

I said that God also created on a second day. That’s the day we now call Easter, the day Jesus Christ rose from being dead. He didn’t wake up as if from a sleep because he really was dead. Jesus as risen was now something totally new, a new kind of life. St. Paul calls this “a new creation” that happened on “the first day” of all the rest that would follow. And this second creation would exist forever, and it would be God’s gift to all of us.

Our earthly bodies will die and then we will be transformed and renewed, just as was the earthly body of Jesus. And some even wonder whether the New Creation will not only involve us humans who will receive this new life, but all creation. Again, to paraphrase St. Paul in I Corinthians, “Eye has not seen what awaits us.” We just don’t know … yet!

But one thing we believe is that it will be wonder-full. Better than the first creation in all ways. Life without death. No suffering, Living and loving in ways totally unimaginable. The best of all possibilities. Some day ahead we will all have our own Easter moment. Death is not a wall but a bridge to life in the full presence of God and who knows what else!

©David M. Thomas, PhD