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Jesus did not shed His humanity when He breathed His last. Eyewitnesses testify that the risen Christ was "visible," that they "ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead" and that He "commissioned" them to preach and testify so that "everyone who believes in Him will receive forgiveness of sins in His name."

This is Peter's testimony, summed up in Acts 10:37-43, which we just heard on Easter Sunday at Mass. No one knew better than Peter the human need for God's mercy. After being designated by Jesus Himself as the "rock" of the Church and the head of the college of Apostles (Mt 16:18), Peter was the very one who, on the night before His death, denied even knowing Him.

This was after having sat at His feet and heard His intimate words, seen His many miracles and gestures of kindness, and having shared His last meal with Him before He died -- a meal during which the Lord quite poignantly asked to be remembered in the breaking of the bread. So much for leadership -- and friendship.

Jesus, for His part, was well aware of this betrayal even before it happened. He knew well why He had to die: because of the weakness of humanity and fickleness of the human heart without an extraordinary breakthrough of divine grace. For Peter and the rest of us to have any hope of getting beyond this, He had to die for us and lift up our fallen humanity from its addiction to sin through His risen life.

That is also exactly why, the Scriptures remind us, Jesus had to rise from the dead (Jn 20:9). No one understood this at first -- not even Peter, who could only weep bitterly when he realized the depths to which he had fallen. Jesus Himself agonized in the garden, the night before He died, as He felt the crushing weight of human sin.

But it soon became clear that the resurrection had to be more than just another miracle, more than a wondrous thing that happened to Jesus. It also had to include us. That is the whole point.

The resurrection affirms God's love for us and for this world. The way Jesus died and the way He rose reveals a God deeply in love with His creation (cf. Jn 3:16-17).

Peter knew this -- or was soon to learn - more than anyone. Not only did Jesus not curse humanity and the world from the cross -- "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do" (Lk 23:34) -- but He sends a messenger to the disciples (and Peter, specifically!) after the resurrection that He is going to meet them in Galilee (Mk 16:7).

Jesus lets His death and resurrection speak for itself about the unlimited depth and breadth of God's forgiveness and mercy. The message is that the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is enough to overcome any sin and any effect of sin, including death itself. Nothing and no one can extinguish God's love for us in Christ. It truly is vast, eternal and everlasting.

What's more, however, is that it is not just "spiritual," any more than we humans are just spirits. Had Jesus died and just gone back to heaven when He "handed over His spirit" (Jn 19:30), then we would not have experienced clearly how the world and the flesh are caught up in His saving action.

Never in the Scriptures does it appear that the term "gave up the spirit" serves as a metaphor for death. The notion of a soul being "liberated" from the trappings of the human body was a pagan one, unknown to a Hebrew mentality. Instead, the "spirit" of Jesus is given over to and for us and the world at His death, affirmed by the resurrection, when we get the whole Jesus -- body, blood, soul and divinity -- in His inseparable communion with us.

This is good news for us and the world. Why? It reveals to us a God who loves this world and everyone and everything in it. No other faith I know of is so inclusive or affirms as much. God loves His creation! We are not saved by leaving any of it behind and for lost (cf. Jn 6:39).

Every reality that we, in good conscience, discover to be beautiful, memorable, exhilarating and delightful, God loves, too. The hatred, the torture, the abuse and the loneliness, which we naturally deplore, are God's foes, as well.

It makes sense that Jesus promises to remain with us until the end of time, even as He sends us into the world to proclaim this wonderful gift of His presence and to live now as if we already are in heaven (cf. Mt 28:20).

Without fear of the death that has no power over us and with confidence in every Spirit-graced word and deed that flows through our hearts, we go forth to take good care of ourselves, each other and the world we live in, especially the most vulnerable and marginalized.

This is God's work and, with Jesus -- God-with-us -- we cannot fail. Peter grasped this reality and it changed his life forever. It can change ours, too.[[In-content Ad]]

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