I wrote in a previous post about my deep appreciation of the arrival of spring. All around us, signs of Resurrection are near: the warmer air, the budding leaves, and as I likewise noted, the significant drop in cynicism that we tend to see at the beginning of the spring season.
And yet, for anyone who lives in Colorado understands, spring takes a while to really settle in. One week, the temperature is in the high seventies, only to drop to the fifties once again. Colorado weather is notoriously fickle, and perhaps the most during the spring. It is early May, and many trees do not boast the full blooming of their new leaves just yet.
This brings me to my point: yes, signs of life and Resurrection are all around us, but we are still in a season of waiting. Resurrection has come, but not the fullness of Resurrection just yet. What do I mean? Jesus Christ is indeed risen from the dead, and this is essential to the Christian faith. St. Paul famously condemns anyone who foolishly denies the real, physical Resurrection of Christ:
Now if Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied (1 Corinthians 15:12-19).
There were cynics in the early Church who denied the reality of the Resurrection, just as there are similar cynics today, both inside and outside of Christianity. St. Paul makes it strikingly clear that without the rising of Jesus Christ from the dead, the faith of a Christian is utterly pointless. Indeed, our “faith is futile” and there is little to hope for. Paul continues with the Good News:
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ (1 Corinthians 15:20-23).
Paul makes exactly the point which I am aiming for: Christ is risen, but we are not risen yet. Christ is the first fruits of Resurrection, while the dead still await their time. Just like the slow arrival of spring: it arrives with an initial joy, a warmth, filling us with great excitement and relief, only to soon slide back into the colder temperatures of late winter. But just as spring always arrives in its fullness, so the Resurrection of the dead will indeed come, as both the Prophets Daniel and Ezekiel promise, as well as St. Paul.
Be patient, wait and pray, and enjoy the passage of time.