put to the test in exactly the same way as we ourselves” (Hebrews 4:15b), and he
can then well serve as our practical model and guide, the “pioneer and perfector
of our faith” (Hebrew 12:2).
Back in 1967, my systematic theology professor, Fr. Cyrin Maus, OFM, told
me that if a video camera had been placed in front of the tomb of Jesus, it
wouldn’t have filmed a lone man emerging from a grave (which would be
resuscitation more than resurrection). More likely, he felt, it would’ve captured
something like beams of light extending in all directions. In the resurrection,
the single physical body of Jesus moved beyond all limits of space and time into
a new notion of physicality and light—which includes all of us in its
embodiment. Christians usually called this the “glorified body,” and it is indeed
similar to what Hindus and Buddhists sometimes call the “subtle body.” Both
traditions pictured this by what became the halo or aura, and Christians placed
it around all “saints” to show that they already participated in the one shared
Light.
This is for me a very helpful meaning for the resurrection of Jesus, which
might be better described as Jesus’s “universalization,” sort of an Einsteinian
warping of time and space, if you will. Jesus was always objectively the
Universal Christ, but now his significance for humanity and for us was made
ubiquitous, personal, and attractive for those willing to meet Reality through
him. Many do meet Divine Reality without this shortcut, and we must be
honest about that. I cannot prove that Jesus is the shortcut, nor does he need me
to, except through the abundant lives of those who sincerely “click on the link”
and “follow the prompts.” Only “by the fruits will you know,” says Jesus
(Matthew 7:16–20). People who are properly aligned with Love and Light will
always see in good ways that are not obvious to the rest of us, and we still call
that “enlightenment.”
Such folks do not need to “prove” that Jesus is God, or Christ, or even perfect,
as we see in the parents of the man born blind (John 9:18–23). They just need to
look honestly at the evidence. Even the man born blind himself says, “All I
know is that I was blind and now I can see” (John 9:25). People of the Light will
quite simply reveal a high level of seeing, both in depth and in breadth, which
allows them to include more and more and exclude less and less. That is the
only proof they will ever offer us, and the only proof we should ever need.
In the resurrection, Jesus Christ was revealed as the Everyman and
Everywoman in their fulfilled state. As the theologian St. Maximus the
Confessor (580–662), put it, “God made all beings to this end, to [enjoy the same