EASTER completes us. It promises us a future. That is our theology, our faith.
Our traditional theological formulas about Easter still seem to prevent many people from coming to a faith empowered mission.
Theologians like Cardinal Ratzinger and Scripture scholars like Anglican Bishop Tom Wright desire to clarify those formulas so that they can be the basis for mission.
Brisbane’s Catholic Psychiatric Pastoral Care (“Reaching out to the mentally ill”, CL 9/4/06) story is so relevant at Easter.
Br Len Marshall was reported as saying that the ministry is structured in such a way that lay people volunteering to minister can stay in the ministry for many years.
That part reminded me of Jesus’ words not to be afraid when he appeared at the first Easter.
In his 1985 book, Journey Towards Easter, Cardinal Ratzinger, as he then was, described the fruit of the Resurrection as Jesus “making Himself seen” (Greek ophthe).
Bishop Tom Wright (CL 9/4/06) made the same point at his recent Brisbane lectures in saying that the Resurrection and the “appearances” were two distinct events.
Both say that the appearances of Jesus after the Resurrection reveal a sphere of reality normally withdrawn from our senses. Witnessing to that reality is our mission as believers.
Bishop Wright sees neither the annihilation of earth nor heaven but a future in which both will overlap.
The earth will be transformed just as St Paul speaks of the Resurrection body as a transformed human body.
For Cardinal Ratzinger, Easter means we remain always guests, nomads, wanderers, the foundation for which is Deuteronomy 26(5).
He said we must face squarely the mission of building the new city from this earth, not in spite of it.
For Cardinal Ratzinger the whole incarnation event means that while God’s kingdom is “not from this world”, this world has a future, sharing in the divinity of God.
VINCE HODGE
Paddington, Qld
