The proclamation of the resurrection of Christ is at the heart of the Christian faith. It is its cornerstone. If it is removed, everything collapses. As Saint Paul says: "If Christ has not been raised from death, then we have nothing to preach, and you have nothing to believe" (1 Cor. 15:14). This proclamation of faith is based on the experience of the apostles; it is astonishing and largely unexpected. Indeed, our gospels do not present us with a group of illuminated disciples, refusing to admit the death of their Master and waiting feverishly for his return. On the contrary, the death of Jesus disoriented them. They live a terrible ordeal for their faith. When Jesus was buried, it was their hope that was buried with him. The state of mind of these disciples who took the Emmaus road to go home is revealing of the feelings of the first apostolic group. And it will be necessary for the risen Christ to manifest himself to his people, to be recognized by them, so that they may open themselves to this new dimension of faith.

The experience of the encounter with the risen Christ transforms the life of the disciples. They pass from doubt to faith, from despair to hope, from fear to courage, from sadness to joy. Their faith is enlightened. They enter into a new understanding of God's purpose. Christ opened to them the understanding of the Scriptures. They finally understand what Jesus had tried to reveal to them by going up to Jerusalem. Inhabited by the breath of the Risen One, they are ready to testify to his presence and to announce his Gospel at the risk of their lives. To believe in the resurrection of the Lord is not for them a mere affirmation but a power of personal transformation. Paul will have a similar experience. For the Apostle, to confess the resurrected Christ is to receive in the faith his presence, to be grasped by him and to experience in his own life the power of the resurrection of the Lord. The resurrection of Christ feels more than it proves. It is by welcoming Christ and letting His Word inhabit us that we experience the power of transformation that is the resurrection. Far from being a hope for the hereafter only, the resurrection presents itself to us as an active force for the here below. The challenge of Christian life is to let this resurrection power act in our lives and produce fruit.

Celebrating Easter is not to celebrate the victory of spring over winter nor to develop a simple discourse on the triumph of life; instead it is to invite an experience, that of following Christ and letting his Word work in us. We know that there can be in man a considerable power of destruction, destruction of relations with others by the search for profit or power, destruction of social ties or the natural environment by economic decisions, destruction of others by terrorism to defend his cause, self-destruction by alcohol, drugs, jealousy, guilt or anxiety. We know what some inner wounds can cause us difficulty in living. We sometimes encounter men and women who are completely knotted, who feel tied up like Lazarus in the Gospel, coming out of the tomb enclosed in his bands. They need to hear a word of life, that of Jesus who tells them like Lazarus: "Lazarus, go out" and adds to the people around him: "Untie him and let him go!" (John 11: 43-44) To announce the Resurrection is to welcome the Word of Christ and to experience its strength of liberation and healing. Through his Spirit, Christ comes to free us from the forces of evil, hatred, destruction and death that imprison us. It makes us reborn in our humanity. It opens a path of life. Let us welcome him, let us open his resurrection power and bear witness to what the Lord has done in us in His mercy.

Let us keep telling the Easter story. In the silence of the tomb, let us imagine a different world, one in which creative paths to economic justice, gender equality, racial justice, environmental sustainability, and immigration reform are not just possible but made real. This Easter season, let us not restrict the life and death of Jesus to Sunday worships, but let us live it in radical ways so as to bring light and love to the darkest places of our lives.

--The Rev. Charles Kamano was received into the priesthood of The Episcopal Church on March 16 at the Church of the Holy Spirit, West Haven. He was raised in the Muslim faith, converted to Christianity as a teenager, and later became a Roman Catholic priest.