The reason Christians treat this week as holy is that we believe Jesus Christ on Good Friday was crucified on a cross between two common criminals, and his dead body was then placed in a tomb with a huge boulder blocking the entrance. But on the third morning—what we celebrate on Easter—the tomb was discovered empty. Jesus had been bodily resurrected. Over the next forty days before ascending into heaven, He appeared to his apostles and 500 witnesses.

For serious Christians, this is the central truth of our faith. If it is not so, we of all men, as the Apostle Paul says, are to be the most pitied (1 Cor. 15:19).

As one of a small group of advisers to President Nixon who was charged with obstructing justice, I have personal reasons for believing the historicity of the resurrection. President Nixon did not know the full extent of the Watergate conspiracy until March 21, 1973, when John Dean told him of the “cancer growing on his presidency.” In less than three weeks, Dean went to the prosecutors to, as he wrote, “save his own skin,” and made a deal. Once Dean did that, the Nixon presidency was doomed. Think about this—ten or twelve of the most powerful men in America sitting around in the Oval Office could not keep a lie for three weeks.

Could the apostles—powerless, outcast, beaten, and even martyred—have maintained a lie for forty years? Not once did they deny that they had seen Him bodily resurrected. Surely one of them would have done what Dean did had they not seen the living God.

People will die for something they believe to be true—we are witnessing that daily—but they will not die for something they know to be false. My Cardinal friend remains securely celibate.