United States Catholic Catechism for Adults

Chapter 8. The Saving Death and Resurrection of Christ • 99

• The Son of God who became man truly died and was bur ied, but his body underwent no corruption. In his human soul united to his divine person, the dead Christ went to the realm of the dead and opened heaven for the just who came before him (cf. CCC, no. 637). • Christ’s Resurrection is an event that is historically attested to by the Apostles who really met the Risen One. The Resurrection is also a transcendent mystery because God the Father raises his Son from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. • The empty tomb helped the disciples accept the fact of the Resurrection. When St. John entered the tomb,“he saw and believed” (Jn 20:8). • Christ is the “firstborn from the dead” (Col 1:18) and so is the prin ciple of our own resurrection, now by the salvation of our souls, and at the end of time, when new life will be given to our bodies. • Christ’s Ascension marks the definitive entrance of his humanity into heaven. Christ precedes us there so that we, the members of his Body, may live in the hope of being with him forever. Jesus intercedes constantly for us as our mediator and assures the permanent out pouring of the Holy Spirit. • At the end of time, Jesus Christ will come in glory to judge the living and the dead. Make Holy Week Holy Let us stretch ourselves, going beyond our comfort zones to unite ourselves with Christ’s redemptive work. We unite our selves with Christ’s redemptive work when we make peace, when we share the good news that God is in our lives, when we reflect to our brothers and sisters God’s healing, God’s for giveness, God’s unconditional love. Let us break bread together. Let us relive the holy and redemptive mystery. Let us do it in memory of him, acknowledging in faith his real presence on our altars. 9 MEDITATION

9 Thea Bowman, FSPA, Mississippi Today (April 1990). These words come from a col-