From March 28, 2005
America lost one of its esteemed former editors this year with the passing of John W. Donohue, S.J. His colleague and friend, James Martin, S.J., called him "one of the greatest men I have ever known." Father Donohue wrote dozens--if not hundreds--of pieces for the magazine over the years, many of them unsigned. Here he reflects on the new hope that comes with the Resurrection.
The natural shrinking from dying is one thing, wrote St. Augustine, and the deepest persuasion of faith is another. Christians believe that Jesus of Nazareth by his death, and only by his death, won eternal life for the human family. By the power of the Resurrection, thinking about death has been transformed from thinking about an end to thinking about a beginning.