In the past two entries, I wrote about the nature of a Risen body and how we receive the Risen Body and Blood of Jesus in the Eucharist. It is very important to remember that we receive the whole Person of the Risen Christ in the Eucharist and not separate "parts" of Jesus in the Eucharist.
Now we are united to Christ in our Baptism. We are united to the Risen Christ in our Baptism. He renews our Baptism in him every time we celebrate the Eucharist, because it is the Crucified yet Risen Christ who is present to us in the Eucharist. Every time we receive Holy Communion which is receiving the Risen Christ, we are receiving and renewing the Risen life of Jesus in ourselves.
"On the feasts of the Lord, when the faithful receive the Body of the Son, they proclaim to one another the Good News that the first fruits of life have been given, as when the angel said to Mary Magdalene, ‘Christ is risen!’ Now too are life and resurrection conferred on whoever receives Christ." (Catechism# 1391)
This Risen life is not just reserved for after our death as Christians; we also share in the risen life of Christ now, but not fully as we shall after our physical death. St. Paul writes to the Church at Colossae:
"Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God." (Colossians 3:1-3)
St. Paul is not writing at the time to people who were physically dead! He is writing to Christians who were still living on this earth in a city of the First Century. Yet he says they have been raised up with Christ. Obviously, the Risen life begins in this life and will be completed in the next life, i.e., "the life of the world to come." This fulfillment will transform our earthly bodies to become like Christ’s Risen body. (See my entry "What Is a Risen Body" HERE)
During this past Lent I attempted to increase our parish’s knowledge of the Paschal (Passover) Mystery of Christ. The core of the Paschal Mystery is the Dying and Rising of Christ. In the above quote from St. Paul he also writes "you have died...". Again, he is writing to people still alive at that time, so this must be a spiritual death and it is. In Baptism we are spiritually (by the Holy Spirit’s agency) united to the Dying and Rising of Christ. (See Romans 6:1-11 HERE) The pattern of our life in Christ is to live the Paschal Mystery in our lives now.
Obviously the Rising part of the Paschal Mystery assumes the Dying part. The Catechism speaks of the Paschal Mystery in this way: "The Paschal mystery has two aspects: by his death, Christ liberates us from sin; by his Resurrection, he opens for us the way to a new life." (Catechism#654)
In Lent, the Church particularly focuses on the Dying aspect of the Paschal Mystery; now in the Easter Season we focus on the Rising aspect of the Christian life. What does this entail?
We are pretty familiar with the Dying part of life and again not just physical death, but that death also. We live in a world described as having a "culture of death" (Pope St. John Paul II) In this world we know the feeling of dying present in suffering, in the burdens of sin, in egoism and selfishness, in sorrow, grief, fear, lack of forgiveness, lack of hope, and physical death itself, especially the violent deaths at the hands of others.
What would life be like if this was all there was in life? But in Christ’s Paschal Mystery we are given the hope and the power of the Resurrection to pass through the Dying to a new rising, a new life transformed by Christ. "I want to know Christ-yes, to know the power of his resurrection..." (Phil. 3:10). So Christ’s Risen life moves us (sometimes pushes us) to pass from sin’s lack of love to divine love; from egoism to self-giving; from darkness to light; from grief to peace; from fear to courage; from lack of forgiveness to forgiveness; from lack of hope to undying hope; from physical death to the Resurrection of the Dead.
The Risen life gives us the strength to pass through the sufferings of our lives, to come through them to a place of healing (total healing in the life of the world to come).
Christ’s Risen life is always working within us to bring us to the freedom of the sons and daughters of God.
Furthermore, it is the Holy Spirit, also given to us in our Baptism, who is the Personal power of the Risen life within us, along with Christ who is "the Resurrection and the Life." "But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you." (Romans 8:11)
Next week I want to teach about why so many Christians don’t seem to live the Risen life, the rising part of the Paschal Mystery.
