EASTER time is, of course, glorious time. It means Christ has risen, he has conquered sin and death. It means we are saved, rescued from our state of condemnation because of sin. That is, if we are willing to die with Him so we also will rise with him.
With Christ’s resurrection, we are now reconciled with God, our Father and Creator. We now just don’t live a human, natural life, much less, a damned, hopeless one.
Ours is life with Christ who in the Holy Spirit abides in us. It’s a supernatural life, nourished in faith, hope and charity. It cannot just be a product of genetics, of physical laws, nor of economics, politics and sociology.
Though spent in time, with Christ that life already acquires an eternal dimension, which makes it always new, since in eternity, nothing gets old, nothing gets swallowed into the past. In its pure eternal form, it will be always in the present, and the future becomes irrelevant.
Easter reminds us that this is the life that is being offered to us. A result of grace, this new life in Christ also requires of us an abiding effort. It’s never just an automatic, spontaneous growth.
Given our nature and bar any disabling handicap, it has to be developed as knowingly and as willingly as possible. It cannot be purely a matter of inertia. It has to be directed and intentionally developed.
We actually pine for this new life that never ends. Even if we are not aware of it, or worse, we profess to be against it, we cannot deny that deep inside us is a longing for eternity.
History, traditions and popular practices even in the present attest to this truth. This is what the Catechism teaches: “In many ways, throughout history down to the present day, men have given expression to their quest for God in their religious beliefs and behavior…” (CCC 28)
Thus, we have those marvelous manifestations of popular piety especially during Christmas, Lent, Easter, and some special feasts, like those of Santo Niño, Our Lady, St. Joseph, All Souls, etc.
A lot of catechesis is needed to make these truths of our Christian faith shine and truly guide our life. Of course, a lot more than catechesis is needed. We have to develop virtues, we have to wage war against the enemies of Christ and our soul, etc.
Among the truths that we need to highlight is the significance of Easter and its relation to liturgy. We need to understand that Easter represents the goal of our life here on earth. It gives us a complete vision of our life. It is what gathers and summarizes all the elements of our life.
In short, it is what gets our act together. We cannot go halfway only. We have to go all the way, much like what our Lord did as described in St. John’s gospel—
“Jesus knowing that his hour was come that he should pass out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them unto the end.” (13,1)
This “going all the way” is his passion and death on the Cross, the offering of his life. We need to understand that our resurrection in Christ, our victory and redemption can only be achieved through the Cross of Christ. No Cross, no Christ, and thus, no resurrection, no redemption.
This dying and rising of Christ is made available to us in this life up to the end of time through the liturgy, where Christ “continues the work of our redemption in, with and through his Church,” meaning, us.
We need to realize and understand more deeply what our participation in the liturgy of the Church, especially the Holy Mass, means and involves. It means we are doing things with Christ, and not just by ourselves with our good intentions and inventions.
It means we have to follow Christ, everything that he was and did, and continues to be and do. And in this, there can be no end. This is possible only in the liturgy.
Thus, Christian life is necessarily liturgical life. It cannot just be a life according to one’s designs.
We have to help one another in developing this conviction of our faith in the liturgy. I am sure that once we realize the true significance of the liturgy, hardly anything that we do would be an exaggeration.
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