What the Resurrection is, however, is another glorious stroke in the portrait of a loving God that began with the description of Emmanuel, God with us, in chapter one. (Mt.1:23) All throughout Matthew’s Gospel we have this growing exposure of a God of love and life: Emmanuel. The entire Gospel is of one piece.
So, in the Passion, we have on one level a picture of Jesus as victim of injustice and hatred and rejection. On another level we have an underlying theme of God’s plan of love at work in spite of the apparent victory of evil. In the Garden Jesus prays that this cup pass but the Father’s will is clear. On the Cross, Scripture is sighted to reveal that this suffering was part of God’s final plan to set forth the true nature of the Messiah. Here is our God who shares our pain and loss. Here is our God who shares the perversion of our suffering in this valley of tears. Here is our God who enters into the depth of our ultimate anguish, death.
This is God’s answer to the ever recurring human questions, How can this be? Where is God in the cruelty of war or nature’s devastation or the death of our infants and the loss of our youth to drugs or the pervasive pain of Alzheimer’s and the unending litany of other imponderables of our journey?
Yet the story continues only to open up the final and true expression our reality. This is the revelation of life free of all the consequences of the failure in the Garden of Eden. This is final word of our loving God: life wins out! Love has the last word!
This whole Gospel is woven together to unveil Emmanuel (God with us). This Gospel is a revelation of love without limit or condition. This message of Good News proclaims the final word of God. It is not sickness or suffering. It is not division or violence. It is reconciliation and peace. It is pardon and love. It is the fullness of truth and the ultimate invitation into life and love, Emmanuel!
Our challenge is to realize this is not just information to know but a deep and engrossing mystery only open to us by an acceptance in faith of Christ Crucified and Christ Risen. Our entrance into this mystery of love and life begins when we struggle to find direction and meaning in our life by accepting Matthew’s message of Emmanuel! This message leads us to the great truth of Easter, Alleluia!! He is Risen!
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