TRANSCRIPT
Easter has, of course, arrived — the glorious season where we celebrate the final destruction of evil. Although we are still engaged in the fight, speaking from an earthly point of view, the battle is done.
It was done in a garden 2,000 years ago, reversing the sin committed in a different garden well before that. Every single device of evil and every corruption of the demonic was overturned and reversed on that glorious day.
Our Lord steps out from the Tomb to the sight of Roman soldiers collapsed and curled up on the ground as though they were dead. And it wasn’t due to witnessing Our Lord’s Resurrection, but the angel descending from Heaven who rolled back the stone. The sight of him is what made them drop like dead men in terror.
For the next 40 days, the glorified body of Our Blessed Lord appeared and disappeared at will, witnessing to His rising from the dead. But 40 days hence, He would ascend to Heaven, and the Apostles would be about the business of presenting His new body, His mystical body, the Church.
It would possess the power of miracles; the power to raise people from the dead; the power to call God down from Heaven; to preach and, most importantly, to save. Although the battle of evil was completed in eternity on Golgotha, it still has to play out in time for every individual soul.
It is precisely for this reason that Our Lord gave His authority to the Apostles, even His own power — for them to use it in the war with the Serpent and to defeat him as thoroughly as He Himself had done.
The war, He declared to them at the Last Supper in the Upper Room, would last until the end of time. And just as He was the only one capable of defeating evil in eternity, so too would He be the only one capable of securing the victory in time. This was the meaning of His saying to the Apostles, “Apart from Me, you can do nothing. I am the vine, you are the branches.”
That Christ intended His saving work to be carried to the ends of the earth after His departure for Heaven is clear from His words — not only throughout His ministry, but especially as He was preparing to ascend: “Baptize all nations. I will be with you all days, even until the consummation of the world.”
He commanded His Apostles how to celebrate the memorial of His ongoing sacrifice; how to call Him down from Heaven in the Flesh and Blood to feed His followers (not just in soul, but also in body) in order to prepare their flesh for the resurrection of the dead on the Last Day.
His earthly mystical body would feed their earthly bodies throughout the ages until He returned on the clouds of Heaven to bring them and present them to His Father. This is the point of Christ’s new body: not just to teach, but primarily to nourish with His own Flesh and Blood, to raise an army of followers to fight in His name and for their own salvation in the process.
An army needs food, and He would be the food provided — not just metaphorical or symbolic, but actual food. As He said, “For My Flesh is meat indeed, and My Blood is drink, indeed.”
Easter is the announcement of final victory. It’s a glimpse into our futures of glorified bodies, as long as we engage in the battle and stay well-nourished.
