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Donors & Friends
Appeal: Annual Fund
OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
Easter, 2008
Dear Friends of CTU,
“The Lost Tomb of Jesus” has been found with the dust of Jesus’ bones inside! This was the claim of a Discovery Channel documentary that was broadcast exactly one year ago. (Equally astounding, the program claimed that the bones of Mary Magdalene were in the tomb, too, leading to the conclusion that she must have been the wife of Jesus! Hello, Dan Brown and the DaVinci Code!) James Cameron, director of the movie “Titanic,” was the American producer of the program and modestly asserted that this was the “greatest archaeological find of all time.”
Like the famous ship from Cameron’s movie, it wasn’t long before the program’s claims ran into an iceberg and began to sink. Expert archaeologists from across the globe who had examined the actual evidence (the tomb, by the way, had been discovered in 1980) cast strong doubt on the so-called discovery and the sensation created by the program began to fade.
But what if the bones of Jesus had been found? What if the resurrection of Jesus, body and spirit, from the dead had never happened? As Saint Paul said long ago to the Christians in Corinth, if that be so then we who believe in Jesus are the most pitiable of all people and our faith is in vain. It has been a core belief of Christianity from the beginning that God raised the Crucified Jesus from the dead, transforming and vivifying his total person, body and spirit. And even more - that the destiny of Jesus as the Risen Christ is also the destiny of God’s children, in the teaching of Paul the Apostle, a destiny that will extend even to the created world itself. No matter how powerful is the force of death, because of Jesus’ resurrection, we Christians believe that life has the last word.
It has struck me how much is at stake in our resurrection faith: that our relationships with those we love and have lost extend beyond the grave, that our bodies are sacred and deserving of our care, that through our bodies we are connected to earth and indeed to the universe itself - and that therefore stewardship of the environment is also a Christian responsibility, that all of the efforts of science and the medical profession to learn the mysteries of our body and its intricate systems can also be seen as a sign of respect and care in harmony with Christian faith. Because we have bodies we Christians need to be committed to the causes of justice: clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, protecting the vulnerable, making peace.
The astounding conviction that God will free our embodied spirits from the shackles of death reveals to us the full beauty and glorious destiny of life. And this, ultimately, is the rationale for much of the Christian mission to the world, a mission that stands behind our purpose as a school of theology. We are preparing resurrection people - men and women who, in their Christian faith, believe that Jesus has radically undercut the power of death. We look for people who can proclaim that life-giving message to today’s world with skill and care.
Every penny of support you give us goes toward that singular mission. Giving to a cause such as this reflects a true Easter spirit and is a living act of hope. Thank you for all you do; without you we can do nothing.
Sincerely yours,
Fr. Donald Senior, C.P.
P.S. And now for the annual Easter “bonus!” A gift of $100 or more received before April 25, 2008 also provides you with the opportunity to win a Biblical Study trip, which will be raffled at CTU’s “Blessed Are the Peacemakers” Trustee Dinner. I will be serving as tour guide to the Holyland, an annual tour that is offered exclusively by CTU. Good Luck!
Give now through CTU’s online giving form.