The Easter joy

The Easter joy, which is earned for us by Christ, should

go way beyond feelings. It should enter deep into our soul,

transforming us into Easter persons, completely identified with the

risen Christ who identifies himself with us all the way to offering

his life for us, and conquering sin and death for us with his

resurrection.

            Yes, we will still have our weaknesses, we will always be

hounded by temptations, we will fall into sin. But let’s never forget

that Christ has taken care of all of these for us, offering us help,

forgiveness and salvation.

            As St. Paul said, Christ made himself like sin without

committing sin so he can identify himself with us even in our worst

human condition. No matter how unworthy we feel we are in our relation

with Christ, let’s not hesitate to identify ourselves with him as

completely as possible, just as Christ identifies himself with each

one of us all the way.

            It’s not presumptuous of us to assume the identity of

Christ even if such identity is still in the process of completion

while we are still here on earth. We just have to try our best. Christ

will always be around to help us. We should not be held captive by

feelings of unworthiness, shame and fear. These are tricks of the

devil to keep us away from Christ.

            We should not worry if our assumption of Christ’s identity

may lead us to feel proud and conceited. To be sure, such possibility

is a temptation from the devil, because if we are truly identifying

ourselves with Christ, then like him we would try always to be humble,

to be willing to serve everyone, to suffer, to love all, even our

enemies. Like Christ, we would try our best to do nothing other than

the will of God.

            Joy, a deep sense of confidence and security, the

conviction that everything will always work out for the good even if

we commit mistakes, should always be with us, because Christ takes

care of everything.  Ours is simply to try our best in doing good,

even if our best efforts will never be enough according to God’s

standards. They can always be made better.

            We should just be sport with our human condition here on

earth. The idea is simply to do our best. If we fail in something,

let’s be quick to rise, asking forgiveness and then move on. Let’s not

waste time ruing and brooding over our mistakes which can give us

precious lessons. These mistakes and failures should not keep us from

God. Rather, they should spur us to go to God.

            In practical terms, it may be a good idea that we always

remind ourselves that “I am Christ.” No matter what situations we find

ourselves, we just have to say to ourselves, “I am Christ.” We may

have to make some qualifications to that declaration, as we start

considering the implications of such declaration, but it should be

professed first of all.

            We should try our best that such constant reminder becomes

a streaming consciousness of our own selves.  Again that is not

presumption, simply because our true identity is that Christ has taken

the initiative to identify himself with us. We just have to learn to

correspond to that reality and to start feeling at home with such

truth about ourselves.

            Such consciousness will surely give us joy and confidence

no matter what happens to us here on earth. It would be an

indestructible joy, the joy and confidence of a son who completely

trusts his father.

            Let us spread this Easter joy, evangelizing as many people

as we can so we can take them out of the ignorance and unbelief of a

very important truth about ourselves. More than evangelizing, let us

be models and active endorsers of this Easter joy!