Jesus Christ is truly risen and by His resurrection Christ brings to fulfillment the work or our redemption. However, critics of Christianity have claimed the resurrection of Christ is a pure subjective experience with no foundation in reality. Is this the case? Certainly, the resurrection accounts in the Gospels are not written in a modern historical style with exact dates, places, and chronological order. They are written in narrative form. Yet historians have criteria for judging the reliability and objectivity of narrative. For example, it is reliable if the writer 1)-employs a certain amount of self-criticism, and he steers away from adulating himself and heroizing his cohorts. For instance, in researching the conquest of Mexico, Historians shy away from Hernan Cortez's Letters of Account. His own judgement is too impeccable and the Spanish do little wrong. Historians prefer Bernal Diaz del Castillo's The History of the Conquest of Mexico. Diaz de Castillo admits Spanish errors, foibles, and defeats. He admits that in taking Mexico City the Spanish had the help of tens of thousands of Indian allies. Likewise, historians like Ulysses S. Grant's account in his memoirs of the start of the Mexican-American War and his own role in it. The amount of self-criticism he employs is amazing considering that it is written by a retired union civil War hero and former U.S. president.
When we look at the resurrection accounts, neither one of the evangelists puts himself or the apostles in a positive light. They admit that they abandoned Our Lord and that they did not act in any kind of magnanimous way. Before the greatest event in the history of the world, they admit that they are hiding and that they have no clue the resurrection is to take place. They admit that Our Lord did not appear to them first but to a group of women, which has to be embarrassing. They all know Peter is the leader and head of the apostles, yet there is no attempt to heroize him. They admit that he denies Christ in an utmost cowardly way. The resurrection accounts read too truthful, too sincere. Christ is truly risen! His resurrection wins for us the inner gift of faith, but it is a gift based on events that happened in reality. The reality of the resurrection of Christ has to transform our whole being, so that our every words and actions proclaim: Jesus is risen, alleluia!