RESURRECTION

This sun catcher window is centered on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The resurrection of Jesus is the essential event on which our Christian faith is based. As St. Paul wrote if Christ had not risen from the dead our faith would be foolish. According to The New Testament, Jesus, the central figure of Christianity, was crucified, died, buried within a tomb, and resurrected three days later (John 19:30–31, Mark 16:1, Mark 16:6). The New Testament also mentions several resurrection appearances of Jesus on different occasions to his twelve apostles and disciples, including "more than five hundred brethren at once" (1 Cor. 15:6), before Jesus' Ascension. These two events are essential doctrines of the Christian faith, and are commemorated by Christians during Good Friday and Easter Sunday. The earliest written records of the death and resurrection of Jesus are the letters of Paul, which were written at least two decades after the death of Jesus. Some scholars suppose that these contain early Christian creeds and creedal hymns, which were included in several of the New Testament texts and that some of these creeds date to within a few years of Jesus' death and were developed within the Christian community in Jerusalem. Though embedded within the texts of the New Testament, these creeds are a distinct source for early Christianity.

1 Cor. 15:3-4 reads: "For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures." This contains a Christian creed of pre-Pauline origin. The antiquity of the apostolic creed has been located by many biblical scholars to less than a decade after Jesus' death, originating from the Jerusalem apostolic community. This account meets all the demands of historical reliability that could possibly be made of such a text. Two other scriptural texts are worth noting are: Romans 1:3–4: "...concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and designated the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord;" and 2 Tim. 2:8: "Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, this is my Gospel."

Above the image of the resurrection is a dove, which represents God the Holy Spirit, who partook in the resurrection of our Lord. The fire-like ribbon that falls from the dove represents the grace that Holy Spirit poured out on the sacred body on our Lord cooperating with the Son and the father in the resurrection. The seven stars on the outer edge of the window represents the seven spirits that surround the throne of God in the book of Revelations. The twenty light blue beads (circles) represent the twenty mysteries of the rosary, which is a contemplative prayer on the life of Jesus on earth and of His glory in heaven. The resurrection is the first mystery of the glorious mysteries of the rosary. In the lower right of the window is an oval that contains a monstrance, which contains the Holy Eucharist – the resurrected body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus. In the lower left of the window is a large circle that contains an imager of the bright morning star, which Jesus calls himself in the book of Revelations.