empty tomb - CathNews New Zealand https://cathnews.co.nz Catholic News New Zealand Mon, 09 Apr 2012 00:17:19 +0000 en-NZ hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 https://cathnews.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/cropped-cathnewsfavicon-32x32.jpg empty tomb - CathNews New Zealand https://cathnews.co.nz 32 32 70145804 A message of consolation that still endures https://cathnews.co.nz/2012/04/10/a-message-of-consolation-that-still-endures/ Mon, 09 Apr 2012 19:31:55 +0000 http://cathnews.co.nz/?p=22603

The Christian faith faces many challenges - but that is what it is for. Easter is a unique expression of hope, of regeneration and of the triumph of life over death. It is not necessary to be an active Christian to gain some measure of inspiration and reassurance from this great festival that, for two Read more

A message of consolation that still endures... Read more]]> The Christian faith faces many challenges - but that is what it is for.

Easter is a unique expression of hope, of regeneration and of the triumph of life over death. It is not necessary to be an active Christian to gain some measure of inspiration and reassurance from this great festival that, for two millennia, has annually brought a sense of renewal to our society. There is no time at which Christianity - reduced, marginalised and beleaguered as it may nowadays appear - so subtly influences humanity as at Easter. That influence is benevolent and welcome, emphasising as it does the duties of respect and service to others. Yet, in recent years, a small but vocal secularist lobby has sought to represent Christianity as somehow undesirable, even threatening, and to exclude it from the public square.

That is why the senior Catholic churchman in Britain, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, is calling upon Christians to "wear proudly a symbol of the cross of Christ", in response to attempts to ban the cross in the workplace. Why should the symbol that, from the spires of cathedrals to modest village churches, has dominated our landscape for so many centuries now be proscribed? It is the defining symbol of our culture; no other emblem so comprehensively expresses the historical identity of Britain and Europe. The bemusement of Christians was understandable when David Cameron, at his Easter reception for churchmen in Downing Street, welcomed a Christian "fightback", while his own Government is pursuing a case at the European Court to enforce the ban on the cross at work. Yet the fact that the Prime Minister felt it incumbent on him as leader of the nation to deliver an Easter message highlights the enduring presence of the Christian faith at the heart of our shared national psyche. Continue reading

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A message of consolation that still endures]]> 22603 An Easter story https://cathnews.co.nz/2012/03/30/an-easter-story/ Thu, 29 Mar 2012 18:32:34 +0000 http://cathnews.co.nz/?p=22133

If it were not for Mary Magdalene, we never would have heard about the Resurrection. The men would still be in the Upper Room, trying to figure how to get out of town. Do you sometimes wonder if things have changed? I don't think they have. Men are careful. Men are circumspect. Men, after all, Read more

An Easter story... Read more]]> If it were not for Mary Magdalene, we never would have heard about the Resurrection. The men would still be in the Upper Room, trying to figure how to get out of town.

Do you sometimes wonder if things have changed?

I don't think they have.

Men are careful. Men are circumspect. Men, after all, have their careers to consider.

Women just do it.

That could be a reason Jesus did not name women as Apostles, or at least why the women who were there did not bother with the title. The women were not interested in advancement or having their names remembered. They were simply doing.

What did the men want? Power? Authority? They preached the message, it is true, but they also jockeyed with each other for position. And who could forget the one who sold out for cash?

So, have things changed? As the church universal begins to move through the holy days this season, few will argue with the statement that the men have made a mess of things.

Of course, the Big Events go forward. The pope goes to Mexico. The pope goes to Cuba. The symbolism is striking, even as the palace guard drags the nearly 85-year-old professor around the world. On the one hand, it seems insane. On the other, it is important, it really is.

But it is also very, very important for Christians — a third of the world — to keep an eye on the empty tomb. Christ is risen, that tomb proclaims. Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. That is what really makes a difference.

Without the concept — if not the fact — of resurrection burned into every human heart and mind, the names Trayvon Martin and, lest we choose sides, George Zimmerman soon will be forgotten and tossed upon the trash heap of history. Their names, their story and their stories, are emblematic of so much of human interaction.

What happened in Florida happens every single day in so many ways in so many lives. We never really know who started things. We only know both sides are changed forever. Continue reading

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