Tomorrow, on the evening of Holy Thursday, thousands of devotees from various parts of Metro Manila and nearby provinces will join the annual “Alay Lakad.” This is the pilgrimage on foot to the Cathedral of Antipolo City, which has attracted throngs of devotees.

This decades-old tradition is both festive and pious. What fuels the ardent devotion of those who make that long, hard climb to Antipolo, which ends on the morning of Good Friday?

The question made me recall a conversation with a friend some five years ago. That conversation led me to appreciate the fact that the commemoration of the crucifixion of Christ on Good Friday has meaning because of Resurrection Sunday.

Several years ago, I shared the highlights of that conversation with the Manila Bulletin’s readers. The topic was, “Was there really a Resurrection?”

This question is crucial; it strikes at the heart of the Christian faith: Christ died on the cross and rose again in a glorious resurrection, which is the core of the Gospel Message preached by the Apostles and early Christians.

For believers, finding an answer to this question provides a foundation to hold on to, stand on, and share.

Many believers may have taken this question for granted. After all, the resurrection is one of the “Gospel Truths” we were taught to believe in our Sunday School or catechism classes. As adult believers, it is good to ask ourselves whether we truly believe in the resurrection and consider it crucial to our personal and shared lives.

I believe in the resurrection because it makes sense.

Choosing not to believe in the resurrection would imply that centuries-old Christian churches and communities have lived a lie.

That brings one to a classic question asked and discussed by many Christian writers: Who would die for a lie?

One author whose thoughts on this resonated with me is Josh McDowell, author of the bestseller “More than a Carpenter.”

In explaining the reason as to why the resurrection could not have been a myth, McDowell wrote:

“I can trust the apostles’ testimonies because eleven of those men died martyrs’ deaths because they stood solid for two truths: Christ’s deity and his resurrection.

These men were tortured and flogged, and most finally faced death by some of the cruelest methods then known. The perspective I often hear is, “Well, those men died for a lie. Many people have done that. So, what does it prove?”

Yes, many people have died for a lie, but they did so, believing it was the truth. If the Resurrection had not happened, obviously the disciples would have known it.

Therefore, they would not only have died for a lie—here’s the catch—but they would have known it was a lie. It would be hard to find a group of men anywhere in history who would die for a lie if they knew it was a lie.”

I believe. The 11 apostles who died for what they believed in could not have been deceived. They could not have been made to believe a lie.

The reality of the resurrection of Christ must be so clear to them that they were more than willing to face painful, embarrassing deaths.

They were crucified upside down; scourged and beheaded; thrown in boiling oil; skinned alive; axed; pierced by a lance; thrown down from a tower; clubbed to death; stoned; sawed in half – all these, to make them renounce their faith in the Truth that Jesus is God and that He rose from the dead.

I believe in the resurrection because it is shown in the everyday lives of ordinary people like you and me. Through the grace of Him who rose on the Third Day, we tap into the power of that resurrection to move on in our lives.

We fall; we get up. We commit serious mistakes; we correct them, learn from them, and try again. We see our dreams shattered into pieces; we pick up the pieces and rebuild them. We are hurt; we wait for the healing power of time and get back on our feet. We are rejected; we keep believing that a second chance will be given to us or come our way.

I wish our readers the blessings of the Resurrection.

(The author is a Doctor of Medicine, an entrepreneur and the mayor of Antipolo City, former Rizal governor, and DENR assistant secretary, LLDA general manager. Email: [email protected])