HAPPY Easter to all! Easter commemorates the resurrection
of Christ, his final victory over our own sin and death carried out by
his own death on the cross. With this singular event, we ought to
clearly see the vital link between Christ’s resurrection and the
cross, between our true glorification and our need to suffer and die
to ourselves. We cannot have one without the other.
Easter is actually the happiest, most glorious day of the
year. That’s objectively speaking, since subjectively we might
consider other days happier or more glorious. Like Christmas day, for
example, when we tend to wax lyrical due to the tremendous truth of
God born to us like a baby. Or our birthday that simply has its
inherent, automatic magical effect.
This means that we have to do some adjustments, some
tweaking to make what is subjective conform to what is objective, to
make our perceptions conform to a deeper level of reality. In short,
we have to go theological more than merely emotional or social or
whatever. Faith, a gift from God that gives us the whole picture of
things, should lead the way for us.
Truth is that through his passion and death and in
obedience to the will of his Father, Christ paid in full for our sins
and their consequences, foremost of which is death. He made himself a
perfect ransom for us who have been abducted and alienated from God
due to our sin.
Again, let’s remember that the joy of Easter does not
exempt us from suffering and death. We cannot avoid them since we
cannot avoid sin that causes them. The freedom, which God has given us
and which makes us precisely his image and likeness, is so
intoxicating that it becomes fragile in our own hands, making us very
prone to abuse it.
What can make us like God can also easily make us like the
devil, God’s formerly marvellous creature who freely chose to be his
enemy, also because of his misuse of his God-given freedom.
Anyway, despite the most dangerous possibility of us
abusing our freedom and falling into sin, we are told by St. Paul that
“where sin abounded, grace did more abound.” (Rom 5,20)
It’s always good to remember this Pauline reassurance that
perfectly describes God’s eternal love and mercy for us. We need to
realize ever more deeply that God has given us everything that we need
for us to do what we ought to do, to be what we ought to be.
There’s really no need for us to be dominated by doubts,
fear and shame because of our sinfulness that sometimes can lead us to
a feeling of helplessness. We have to fight against that tendency, and
to unload whatever unnecessary emotional or psychological baggage we
may still carry.
It’s a matter of faith in God’s love for us, which should
be shown in deeds, that would enable us to participate in Christ’s
victory over sin and death with his resurrection. That victory will
always make us new as St. Paul once affirmed:
“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has
passed away. Behold, all things are made new.” (2 Cor 5,17) In another
passage, St. Paul said: “For we are buried together with him by
baptism into death, that as Christ is risen from the dead by the glory
of the Father, so we also may walk in the newness of life.” (Rom 6,4)
We need to learn the ways of this “newness of life”
offered by Christ through his passion, death and resurrection or the
Paschal mystery that summarizes everything that he did and said to
save us, to re-create us from our sinful selves to bring us back and
to enrich our original dignity as God’s image and likeness, as God’s
children.
Easter should not be wasted by simply enjoying it
emotionally and sentimentally. It has to lead us to more closely
follow the Spirit’s promptings as to how we can shed the undesirable
old man that we have been in order to be the new man Christ has made
us with his resurrection.
In this regard, St. Paul advised us “not to be conformed
to this world, but be reformed in the newness of your mind, that you
may prove what is the good, and the acceptable, and the perfect will
of God.” (Rom 12,2)
Let Easter be a time to give teeth to our desire for a new
life, coming up with appropriate plans and programs so we can
correspond more faithfully to everything that Christ has given us.
of Christ, his final victory over our own sin and death carried out by
his own death on the cross. With this singular event, we ought to
clearly see the vital link between Christ’s resurrection and the
cross, between our true glorification and our need to suffer and die
to ourselves. We cannot have one without the other.
Easter is actually the happiest, most glorious day of the
year. That’s objectively speaking, since subjectively we might
consider other days happier or more glorious. Like Christmas day, for
example, when we tend to wax lyrical due to the tremendous truth of
God born to us like a baby. Or our birthday that simply has its
inherent, automatic magical effect.
This means that we have to do some adjustments, some
tweaking to make what is subjective conform to what is objective, to
make our perceptions conform to a deeper level of reality. In short,
we have to go theological more than merely emotional or social or
whatever. Faith, a gift from God that gives us the whole picture of
things, should lead the way for us.
Truth is that through his passion and death and in
obedience to the will of his Father, Christ paid in full for our sins
and their consequences, foremost of which is death. He made himself a
perfect ransom for us who have been abducted and alienated from God
due to our sin.
Again, let’s remember that the joy of Easter does not
exempt us from suffering and death. We cannot avoid them since we
cannot avoid sin that causes them. The freedom, which God has given us
and which makes us precisely his image and likeness, is so
intoxicating that it becomes fragile in our own hands, making us very
prone to abuse it.
What can make us like God can also easily make us like the
devil, God’s formerly marvellous creature who freely chose to be his
enemy, also because of his misuse of his God-given freedom.
Anyway, despite the most dangerous possibility of us
abusing our freedom and falling into sin, we are told by St. Paul that
“where sin abounded, grace did more abound.” (Rom 5,20)
It’s always good to remember this Pauline reassurance that
perfectly describes God’s eternal love and mercy for us. We need to
realize ever more deeply that God has given us everything that we need
for us to do what we ought to do, to be what we ought to be.
There’s really no need for us to be dominated by doubts,
fear and shame because of our sinfulness that sometimes can lead us to
a feeling of helplessness. We have to fight against that tendency, and
to unload whatever unnecessary emotional or psychological baggage we
may still carry.
It’s a matter of faith in God’s love for us, which should
be shown in deeds, that would enable us to participate in Christ’s
victory over sin and death with his resurrection. That victory will
always make us new as St. Paul once affirmed:
“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has
passed away. Behold, all things are made new.” (2 Cor 5,17) In another
passage, St. Paul said: “For we are buried together with him by
baptism into death, that as Christ is risen from the dead by the glory
of the Father, so we also may walk in the newness of life.” (Rom 6,4)
We need to learn the ways of this “newness of life”
offered by Christ through his passion, death and resurrection or the
Paschal mystery that summarizes everything that he did and said to
save us, to re-create us from our sinful selves to bring us back and
to enrich our original dignity as God’s image and likeness, as God’s
children.
Easter should not be wasted by simply enjoying it
emotionally and sentimentally. It has to lead us to more closely
follow the Spirit’s promptings as to how we can shed the undesirable
old man that we have been in order to be the new man Christ has made
us with his resurrection.
In this regard, St. Paul advised us “not to be conformed
to this world, but be reformed in the newness of your mind, that you
may prove what is the good, and the acceptable, and the perfect will
of God.” (Rom 12,2)
Let Easter be a time to give teeth to our desire for a new
life, coming up with appropriate plans and programs so we can
correspond more faithfully to everything that Christ has given us.
