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<b style="margin:0px;outline:medium none currentcolor;padding:0px;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:medium none currentcolor;padding:0px;font-size:18px;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:normal;font-style:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:medium none currentcolor;padding:0px;font-size:18px;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:normal;font-style:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:medium none currentcolor;padding:0px;font-size:18px;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:normal;font-style:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:medium none currentcolor;padding:0px;font-size:18px;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:normal;font-style:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:medium none currentcolor;padding:0px;font-weight:normal;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-size:18px;font-style:normal;text-align:start"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:18px;font-weight:400;line-height:inherit;text-decoration:inherit;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-style:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:medium none currentcolor;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:18px;font-weight:400;line-height:inherit;text-decoration:inherit;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-style:normal">Friends, <span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b>on this Holy <span class="gmail-aBn" tabindex="0"><span class="gmail-aQJ">Saturday</span></span>
 in our Gospel we hear St. Mark’s account of the Resurrection. </b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>The 
Resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the be-all and end-all of the 
Christian faith.</b></span> If Jesus
didn’t rise from the dead, all bishops, priests, and Christian ministers
 should go home and get honest jobs, and all the Christian faithful 
should leave their churches immediately. </span><br><br><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:18px;font-weight:400;line-height:inherit;text-decoration:inherit;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-style:normal">As
 Paul himself put it: <span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b>"If Jesus is not raised from the dead, our 
preaching is in vain and we are the most pitiable of men." </b></span>It’s no good,
 of course, trying to explain the Resurrection away or rationalize it as
 a myth, a symbol, or an inner subjective experience. None of that does 
justice to the novelty and sheer strangeness of the biblical message.</span><br><br><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:18px;font-weight:400;line-height:inherit;text-decoration:inherit;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-style:normal">It
 comes down finally to this: <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>if <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">Jesus </span>was not <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">raised from
</span>death, <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">Christianity </span>is a fraud and a joke.</b></span> But<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b> if he did rise from 
death, then Christianity is the fullness of God’s revelation, and Jesus 
must be the absolute center of our lives.</b></span> There is no third option.</span></b></span></b></b></b></b></b></b>

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