What if …? By Ms Sylvia Chua

Every time I announce details of events happening in school, my students will ask ‘what if’ questions – what if it rains? what if we don’t bring our planner?’ So, I considered a ‘what if’ question that had been in my mind in the past. What if Jesus did not resurrect and ascend to His Father? When I posed this question as a student, I was told that then my whole belief would all be a lie. How so?

In Genesis, we learnt that when Adam and Eve sinned, heaven was closed to Man. God sought man time and again to bring us back to Heaven. However, time and again, this relationship was broken until God offered his only Son to us to die once and for all to sin. Jesus became man, died and resurrected to open the doors of heaven for us. If He had not, our life on earth remains just that. Life will cease when we die. Why bother to do anything or achieve anything? Life would just be a meaningless existence.

Life would also be based on pure luck. If we were lucky to be born rich, life may be a smooth passage, if not, suffering would be just that. We could just snuff out our life of misery. We’d have no hope to change anything.

The Bible might be an edition in the Chicken Soup series, filled with feel-good stories of living in this world. But what would our motivation be? Any happiness we feel would be fleeting. Nothing lasts. We should just eat and be merry for when we die, life would just end.

In his preaching on earth, St. Paul encountered people in Corinth who did not believe in the resurrection of the body. He wrote to the Corinthians:

“For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ had not been raised, then all our preaching is useless and your faith is useless.” (1 Corinthians 15: 13- 14)

St. Paul says further, “And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins. In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anything in the world.” (1 Corinthians 17-19) Jesus’ life, death and resurrection is the new Passover from death to life eternal. Jesus showed us in his transfiguration, as believers, what life is like back with the Father. That we will be made whole and radiant, bathed in the light of God. In our baptism, we have a share in that life. The Book of Revelations paints a beautiful picture of what life is like with God – “life is made new.” and “there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain!” This Easter, as I leave this “what if” question behind, I pray not just to fix my own eyes on heaven, but also to form my students as whole persons, “loving God and neighbour and enriching society with the leaven of the gospel, and who will also be citizens of the world to come, thus fulfilling their destiny to become saints.” (Cf. Gravissimum Educationis, 8)