Frenchman Xavier Léon-Dufour and Australian Gerald O’Collins were two giants of contemporary theology on the Resurrection. Both emphasized the need to make the Resurrection central to Catholic theology. O’Collins specifically called for recognizing how the Resurrection shapes every branch of Catholic theology. (O’Collins died just last August, making this Easter his first experienced from “the other side.”)

Today I’d like to reflect on how it shapes ecclesiology, the theology of the Church.

Note this post’s title. It is not “the truth of the Resurrection.” I, along with presumably most readers in this space, take that as a given. Rather, let me reflect on the Resurrection and truth.

At least on the part of the Jewish authorities, Jesus was ostensibly sentenced to death for His teaching, which they regarded as false, even blasphemous. The fact that they strove to have Jesus crucified — a Roman punishment — was not just “because we may not put anyone to death.” (Ask St. Stephen about that.) It was because being crucified — “hung on a tree” — provided Biblical warrant (Dt 21:22-23) that the victim was rejected by God. Getting Jesus crucified was, therefore, not just a logistical issue for the Jewish leadership; it was a part of their theological repudiation of Jesus’ Teaching.

“The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging Him on a tree” (Acts 5:30), not as some personal reward to Jesus for a job well done. His raising is divine ratification both of the salvation that Jesus won for humanity and of all of His Teaching leading up to it.

The Jerusalem Establishment declared Jesus a false teacher; God begged to differ.

Now, if the Resurrection is divine affirmation of Jesus’ Teaching, it means God stands by even the teachings that are “hard” (Jn 6:60), e.g., that the Eucharist is really and truly the Body and Blood of Christ. To accept the Resurrection of Christ is to accept Christ’s Teaching in its entirety. The Resurrection is not the Father saying, “Jesus, OK, you were on the right track but X and Y need nuance.” The Resurrection is the Father showing what He meant at the Transfiguration: “This is my beloved Son. Listen to Him” (Mk 9:7). Among the things Jesus taught was that He was establishing a Church. “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Mt 16:18-19).

Jesus left behind a Church. Jesus did not intend salvation to be “Jesus and little ole’ me” but Jesus and I in a community of faith. And note that, in establishing that Church, Jesus simultaneously makes clear that the Church has the power to bind in conscience. Not just in theory or in teaching that one then “in conscience” is free to accept or reject. What the Church binds in conscience enjoys divine ratification: it opens or closes the gates of heaven, i.e., salvation. The idea that the Church merely “proposes” teachings whose acceptance then is in a morally neutral way ultimately up to somebody’s “conscience” (with whatever caveats we make about how much “religious submission” there should be) is false.

So, Jesus’ Resurrection is also an affirmation of the teaching authority of the Church. He established even the “hard” sayings, e.g., the immorality of contraception, abortion, artificial reproduction, and the truth of the normativity of the male/female sexual relationship. Jesus’ Resurrection is not a warrant for “cafeteria Catholicism,” an attitude of “Jesus, I know your Church says X but surely YOU didn’t mean that!” Nah, surely not for the Church for whom He gave up His Life (Eph 5:25-27)!

Catholic faith is like a tapestry: you cannot pull one thread without unraveling the entire work. And they all come down to the thread of the Resurrection. Either we believe there was a Resurrection, which is God’s ratification of Jesus’ Teaching in toto — including that of His Teaching Church — or we don’t.

Eastertide is a time to decide. And as we come to the close of Eastertide 2025 (it ends with Pentecost on June 8, though fulfillment of the Paschal Precept extends through June 15) let us reflect on what the Resurrection tells us about truth and the Church.

(The inspiration for this essay came from the Rev. Zinjin Iglesia.)