Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 104.

YOUCAT Question n. 104 - Can you be a Christian without believing in the Resurrection of Christ?

(Youcat answer) No. “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain” (1 Cor15:14).     

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 631) Jesus "descended into the lower parts of the earth. He who descended is he who also ascended far above all the heavens" (Eph 4:9-10). The Apostles' Creed confesses in the same article Christ's descent into hell and his Resurrection from the dead on the third day, because in his Passover it was precisely out of the depths of death that he made life spring forth: Christ, that Morning Star, who came back from the dead, and shed his peaceful light on all mankind, your Son who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen (Roman Missal, Easter Vigil 18, Exsultet). (CCC 651) "If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain" (1 Cor 15:14). The Resurrection above all constitutes the confirmation of all Christ's works and teachings. All truths, even those most inaccessible to human reason, find their justification if Christ by his Resurrection has given the definitive proof of his divine authority, which he had promised.    

Reflecting and meditating 

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 638) "We bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this day he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus" (Acts 13:32-33). The Resurrection of Jesus is the crowning truth of our faith in Christ, a faith believed and lived as the central truth by the first Christian community; handed on as fundamental by Tradition; established by the documents of the New Testament; and preached as an essential part of the Paschal mystery along with the cross: Christ is risen from the dead! Dying, he conquered death; To the dead, he has given life (Byzantine Liturgy, Troparion of Easter).      

(The next question is:  How did the disciples come to believe that Jesus is risen?)