From today’s Mass:
The Lord hath brought you into a land flowing with milk and honey, alleluia: that the law of the Lord may be ever in your mouth, alleluia, alleluia!
Give glory to the Lord, and call upon His Name; make known His deeds among the nations!
This is the day which the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and be glad in it!
Alleluia, alleluia! An angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and coming, rolled back the stone and sat upon it.
The Lord is risen, and hath appeared to Peter, alleluia!
What are these discourses that you hold one with another as you walk (six feet apart?-watch out for Cuomo’s $1,000 fine!), and are sad?
Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into His glory?
+++
The Resurrection of Our Lord
To reiterate the words of Fr. Benedict Groeschel, "Never think about death without thinking about the Resurrection." The Passion has ended. "It is finished." Faith, Hope and Charity have prevailed. The Three Theological Virtues were displayed by Our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane. Faith when He said, "Thy will be done." Hope in looking to the Kingdom of Heaven, the completion of His mission. And Charity for the Father in desiring to accomplish His will, and consequently for us. Now He enters into His Glory, the true and final End. If this is what its all about, what does that say about life? What does the Resurrection of Christ, Our Lord, demand of us?
If Christ is important, we are important. After all, He only came here for us, for the Redemption of our poor souls. People reject Him because they do not want to be important. They love sin so much, they would rather think themselves not much more than the animals, with no eternal destiny. In meaning, there must be restraint. Therein lies the Cross, but also the Resurrection. The alternative is a life of mediocrity or worse. There is less feeling, less responsibility.....less joy. We reap what we sow. If meaninglessness is what we want, that is exactly what we will get. The tragedy is that if we ever wake up from this dream of vagueness and delusion, we will find a precious crystal has been broken. But this does not have to be the end of the story. We can still write a different ending. Through repentance we enter into Our Lord's Resurrection and Glory. He walks before us always. Where He goes, we are meant to follow. We have all the assistance of Heaven at our disposal. The same God Who catapulted the universe into existence can do no less than give us everything we need for our salvation.
Christ calls us to a Heavenly Resurrection, but also an earthly one. This transformation is not merely the cessation of sin, but reaching our full potential as members of the Body of Christ, one with Him in thought, word and deed. We are powerful and power can be frightening. Fulfilling the saintly vocation for which we were created has consequences. Our Lord's greatest power was executed on the Cross as He stretched out His arms in yielding. In that moment of weakness, the axis of the universe shifts and the tables are turned. A world appears that we could not see before...."and the darkness could not comprehend it." The caterpillar becomes the butterfly.
Being resurrected with Christ is a process of becoming. The Father has written this message for us in all of nature, the butterfly being one of the most beautiful examples. The snake sheds its old skin, the fragile sprout becomes a great tree, bearing fruit....the oyster patiently builds its pearl. No matter how long it takes, no matter how many setbacks occur, no matter how hopeless it seems....if we cling to the Three Theological Virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity....we will see our Resurrection. O Jesus, Whose Resurrected, Glorified Body walked upon this very earth, bring me back from my own countless deaths, that I may follow Thee to our Eternal Home. Amen.