St Paul tells the Corinthians: "From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view. Even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way." (2 Cor 5: 16) Everything we hear in the New Testament is told through the lens of the resurrection. Jesus was vindicated by the heavenly Father, as the Son of God. This informs all the oral traditions which informed the Gospels as well as the New Testament letters. These are all suffused by the knowledge that the subject of these documents, Jesus Christ, is who he said he was. Thus, the lowly son of the virgin from Nazareth is thus present to us as the one who has conquered sin and death: " 'Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last, and the living one. I was dead, and see, I am alive forever and ever; and I have the keys of death and of Hades' " (Rev 1: 17-19) This power is manifested in our gospel today: " 'Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?'" (Mk 4: 41) Jesus is primarily present to us not in human form but in the Gospel and the sacraments. It is there that we "know" him. Let us therefore not be confined in our thoughts to the historical Jesus, even though that is still relevant, but rather let us encounter Christ in his Church and in the Holy Eucharist above all.
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