Death and resurrection

I have said we should not rush to Easter, yet Easter is the necessary presupposition of our contemplating the derelict on the cross.  Apart from Easter, such contemplation would reflect nothing but a morbid, macabre fascination with suffering and death - however "noble" his sacrifice.  Because of Easter, the words from the cross are words of life.  The cross is not merely the bad news before the good news of the resurrection.  Come Easter Sunday, we do not put the suffering and death behind us as though it were no more than a nightmarish prelude to the joy of victory.  No, the cross remains the path of discipleship for those who follow the risen Lord.  It is not as though there are two paths, one the way of the cross and the other the way of resurrection victory.  Rather the resurrection means that the way of the cross is the way of victory.  - Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, Death on a Friday Afternoon


I think I hear Fr. Neuhaus saying that just as there can be no resurrection without dying, the purpose of this death is the resurrection.

Maybe that's the point of all death, really.  My father's despairing death.  My sister's tragic death.  My mother's peaceful death.  My eventual death.

That is the point, too, of dying to ourselves, of placing my daughters' and grandchildren's and wife's and neighbors' needs ahead of my own.  The death of my wishes, of my selfish will, somehow conveys the risen Christ.