From Pope Benedict’s book “Jesus of Nazareth, Part Two,” chapter nine.
Pope Benedict XVI writes that Jesus’ Resurrection is the very foundation of our faith, and that “whether Jesus merely was or whether he also is depends on the Resurrection.” But what exactly is the Resurrection of Jesus?
Jesus’ followers were perplexed at his return. Neither Mary Magdalene, the disciples on the road to Emmaus, or those on the shore of Lake Gennesaret recognized him at first sight. He spoke to his disciples after the Resurrection and ate with them. He came through closed doors, yet they could touch him. How can these things be explained? Did Jesus return to a normal biological life like his friend Lazarus? Or, was he a spirit able to reveal himself to those in the living? Was he a mystical experience, in which humans are temporarily able to perceive the divine and eternal? Pope Benedict writes that the answer is no to all of these questions.
He tells us that Jesus is both the same man and a new man, not bound by the laws of space and time. The Resurrection is like an “evolutionary leap, in which a new dimension of life emerges.” Jesus, with his body, belongs to the sphere of the divine and eternal. He is alive “and now lives anew in the dimension of the living God.” That place also belongs to mankind — once reconciled to God through Jesus. Eternal life in that space means that we can enter into communion with God and with one another in an indestructible life.
Ratzinger, J. Pope Benedict XVI. (2011). Jesus of Nazareth (Part Two) Holy Week: From the entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection. Ignatius Press.
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