Fr. Robert J Carr is the editor of this blog
The title of this post is one of the most important words in the bible. It can be found in the fifteenth chapter of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. It is there you will find the oldest eyewitness account of the Jesus’ Resurrection. This is why today is so important, it is the key to everything we believe. It is also why so many who attack our faith, focus on the resurrection. But if we look at the words of Paul we can also the see the next part of what Jesus Resurrection means. If we believe in it, we must live it. The Resurrection of Jesus is proof that our resurrection is real. Our embracing it will affect our life profoundly, and the more we believe in the Resurrection, the more our life will reflect it. Our whole being will be wrapped around it. St. Paul calls us to seek it like an athlete seeks a first prize in a race. Live your faith like the winners of the Boston Marathon.
It is not so much that we work hard so that we can win a prize, or live in fear if we do the wrong thing, as if Jesus were Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. It is rather that our life itself reflects our relationship with Jesus and our hopes for resurrection. The resurrection becomes part of our who life plan so that our decisions are based on our hope in that which awaits us. What we seek as Catholics must be radically different than those who reject our faith and our belief in the resurrection. You and I have a hope that we share with all believers that affects every part of our lives. It is so profound a hope that no one can shake it from our way of life.
What does this mean?
photo: McInich via bigstockphoto.com
In the gospel, we can see how the Apostles and Jesus’ Mother and Mary Magdalene are all coming to realize that Jesus resurrected from the dead. Yet, you can imagine that this is not something that they could fully understand completely. You know yourselves, when a major event happens, either a joyful event or a tragedy, it takes time, days, weeks and even more to fully comprehend what it all means. Once that event happens and it is understood it completely changes our way of being. As we look at the accounts today, we can see they are all in the stage of discovering the resurrection, but not fully understanding it. Indeed, remember Jesus spent forty days after the resurrection and in this way his followers had time with him to come to appreciate everything this all means.
If you want to see the next stage, to coming to understand what it means, read the prologue of the Gospel of John, which is the first chapter.
One of those lines says: Those who did accept Him, He gave power to be children of God. This is a profound change in who we are. that is one of the things they came to understand. I have become a child of God! One could spend weeks mining the profound depths of that simple sentence. Weeks.
St. Paul reminds us this weekend to seek what is above, not what is from Earth.
Let every single decision be affected by your relationship with Christ as you journey to Heaven. Let them all be rooted in prayer.
It is not so much that we must choose that every music we listen to must be Christian music or anything like that. It must be that all our goals and our plans are based on our ultimate goal which is seeking to grow in our love and service of God and our neighbor as we journey to Kingdom.
This is what Jesus is teaching us: This is who you are, that is what you will be, and this is what to do!
All of this came not through anything we do, but through the death and resurrection of Jesus, we have a hope that is beyond human understanding and it surpasses all despair.
Because of what we celebrate this day, we look forward to the truth and and that truth sets us free.
photo credit: tim via bigstockphoto.com
Because of what we celebrate this day, we look forward to the truth and and that truth sets us free.
However, there are many that look upon us and do not understand. St. Paul reminds us to be ready to explain that in which we hope. We also have to remember those who reject this hope. When Jesus resurrected, he presented Himself to a total of 500 people and sent them as disciples to go out in the world and preach the gospel. He knew some would respond immediately, such as the three thousand who accepted Christ that day that Peter preached at Pentecost. He also knew some would never respond because they had hardened hearts such as those who crucified Him. Those same groups still exist. Those wanting to understand our hope, those who reject it out of hand and will never accept it and those of us who embrace that hope. In either case, our hope in what Jesus did for us is the most profound element of our lives.
Fr. Carr is an alliance member of the New Song Community (Canção Nova). He is the pastor of St. Benedict Parish in Somerville, MA and is the editor of this blog. You may also find his videos in English at Gloria.tv.