By Father Jeremy Miller, OP

This little meditation on Resurrection took shape on the North Perimeter as I returned from an adult education session at St. Jude's, recalling some of the questions. I acknowledge my inspiration: Bea Ollinger and her friends.

"He is Risen," the Easter Gospel says. But who is He? It is Jesus of course. But is it "the same old Jesus," if that does not seem too crude a way of putting it? Is He the same, but living again? Or is He really different? The biblical scholars put it this way: is the resurrected Jesus merely a resuscitated Jesus?

The Church tries to use words of faith carefully. Do you notice that we never say, "Jesus resurrected Lazarus." Instead, we say, "Jesus brought Lazarus back to life." And the same with the other Biblical stories of someone being brought back to life. In a single word, resuscitation.

Jesus was not resuscitated. He was not simply brought back to the human life he had as a Galilean Rabbi. He was both the same, and He was profoundly different. It is crucial to know He was the same person, otherwise we could not really say He overcame death. "If Jesus is not risen, it is all in vain," Paul wrote. There has to be some identity. He really died and He really overcame death. The Easter story of seeing the marks of the nails means that the Risen One is none other than the Crucified One.

But on the other hand, He is profoundly different and not merely resuscitated as Lazarus, who was destined to die again. Jesus is the man resurrected. He is no longer of the Earth, but of the heavenly Kingdom. He lives at the Father's right hand. His humanity is now a "life-giving Spirit" (I Cor. 15). He bestows the Spirit of new life (of his new life) on the disciples and on anyone who believes in Him. He did not bestow the Holy Spirit before He was glorified (Jn. 7:39). He is born anew and not just born again.

When we, by Baptism, are born into His risen life, we are not just born again (as Nicodemus thought) but born anew. When we pray for Jesus to heal some relationship, for example, which is dead or is dying, it is not just the old relationship we want resuscitated, but something anew, transformed, or a new order. We want resurrection!