Presiding Bishop's Easter Message
Diocesan Press Service. February 6, 1967 [52-1-1]
On January twenty-seventh the nation was shocked and saddened by the tragic death of three astronauts as they rehearsed for the first Apollo flight. The immediate reaction was to raise the question, "Is it worth this? Should we not put an end to the space thrusts now before even more young men are lost?" Several months before, one of the astronauts who died had said: "If we die, we want people to accept it. We are in a risky business and we hope that if anything happens to us it will not delay the program. The conquest of space is worth the risk of life."
At the foot of the Cross, and outside the heavily barricaded tomb on that first Good Friday the tiny band of Jesus' followers asked themselves the hard questions, "Is this not the place to stop? In the light of the brutal crucifixion is not the cost too great? If death marks also the end of him, as it has thus far marked the end of all others, has not human hope been voted down by the powers of darkness?"
Human ingenuity coupled with a certain relentless pursuit deeply seated within the spirit of men can give adequate reply to the doubts and anxieties raised over the moon quest by the costly death of the astronauts. For answers can be found to the as yet partial equations which delay progress in the realm of human knowledge. But only God could give the answer to the grieving queries of the few who stood bereft and comfortless before the death of man's purest hope, Jesus called Christ. And answer God did! The answer rolled away the stone! The answer emptied death of its ultimate content and the tomb of its most valiant and obedient body. The answer shook the earth around Jerusalem transmitting tremors throughout the world. "He is risen," the answer proclaimed. "Death cannot hold him-- nor any in whom his spirit dwells!"
Well, the astronauts were right. What they were, and are, engaged in is risky. And all who see the Christ-event for what, in reality, it is - God loving mankind and the Cross impaling that love- know about the dimensions of risk. The Cross attests to the reality of the peril. The Resurrection cannot remove the peril. The Cross shows us how risky it is to respond in faith to God's love. The Resurrection guarantees that it is worth the risk!