An exercise in death, an exercise in life
Without the Resurrection, our obligations towards the world, the planet, the climate, nature, the value of man, therefore also his intelligence, natural and artificial, but certainly also emotional, do not acquire their full dimensions.
It is easy to expect a metaphoric resurrection, synonymous with ascension, recovery or transcendence. A political, economic and even national resurrection. A resurrection of nature, the senses or the past.
The hard part is managing the literal Resurrection that sets the limit of our mortality and rationality. The Resurrection is a multiple summary, primarily of theology, but also of anthropology, philosophy, science, art. It is not a miracle that might happen, but an expectation that is not subject to deadlines, much less to reasonable scrutiny. It is an expectation of the faithful or perhaps deep down of everyone, even those who cannot rationally accept it, but would gladly accept it if it happened.
“I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come,” says the Orthodox Christian Creed. The Resurrection is therefore a test of faith. An exercise in death without which the Resurrection would be meaningless. An exercise of life without which the Resurrection would also have no meaning.
On Good Friday, when the Epitaphios (the procession representing the shroud of Christ) returns to the church, Ezekiel’s prophecy about the bodily Resurrection of the dead is heard. The description is clear and the commitment absolute: “‘I will speak and do,’ says the Lord.’ Paul the Apostle is equally clear: “For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.”
The issue is that without the Resurrection and its own ultimate historical horizon, the narrative of modern and now postmodern society cannot be constructed
There is not even the reservation of the Resurrection “in another form,” nor reason for us to say “Touch me not” to our own “Mary Magdalenes.”
Without the Resurrection, Christian teaching is not complete, but this, for various known reasons, leaves many people worldwide outside the scope of the message. The issue is that without the Resurrection and its own ultimate historical horizon, the narrative of modern and now postmodern society cannot be constructed. Our obligations towards the world, the planet, the climate, nature, the value of man, therefore also his intelligence, natural and artificial, but certainly also emotional, do not acquire their full dimensions.
I therefore expect a Resurrection that is pre-reflected, that pre-acts beneficially, with respect to its theological specifications, but far beyond them. A Resurrection that acquaints us with death, but does not reconcile us to it. A Resurrection that prompts us to enjoy life and love others. A Resurrection that allows us to gain a sense of the maximum scale of time and the minimum scale of our existence, individual and collective, within the universe.
Evangelos Venizelos is professor of constitutional law at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki’s Faculty of Law, former deputy prime minister and former president of PASOK.
