If Christ had not risen, vain would our faith

This month we have the biggest fact of all time, the great truth that divided history to “before and after Christ”: the resurrection of Jesus. This is because, if Christ had not risen, our faith would be in vain and the Christian life would be meaningless. Christ is risen! He is really the way to God, the truth for which every human being searches. The Life we all strive for, with total quality in abundance, true to life.

The shroud of Turin shows that the Romans were vicious in the flagellation of Christ. Despite not having the custom  to give so many lashes, so the practice began and ended with the body of Jesus. He just persevered because he was a strong man. He was all bruised, in pain from head to toe. Jesus was wounded by our sins. We were all like stray sheep, each following his own path. Do we still do this today, leading our life the way that suits us. It’s not what the Father wanted, but it was for our redemption, that the Lord did put upon Him all our sins. Jesus knew what he was supporting was for our salvation.

Jesus was not a defendant, he was innocent. He was crucified for you and for me. Jesus accepted death because this was the means to save us. He took upon himself the sins of all humanity, he let the curse fall upon himself. He died for us, but also he rose for us, to make it clear that this project of the father be realized in our life. Just as Jesus was resurrected for a definitive life, we too will raise up at the last day, the Lord wants us to live the present life in this way, making sure that one day we shall resurrect with him.
Our body is still subject to sin, but we need to use all members, no more for evil, but for the sake of righteousness, because that’s why we were created.

“If Christ is in you, your body, without doubt, is destined to death because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. And if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies for your spirit that dwells in you “(Rm -11 8.10).

Although your body is weak, subject to sin and walks to death and corruption, if Jesus is in you, although your body is bound to the physical death, your spirit lives. The most beautiful reality is that your body also begins to experience the resurrection and the life. It becomes full of life, resurrection, and the signs that begin to appear in you, that becomes strong, brave by the power of Jesus. You stop being discouraged, a person who lives dragging through life, and you becomes a brave, fearless, kind person, who gives itself, full of courage, facing overwhelming odds, by the grace of God.

All this for what? Because of the presence of Jesus. Everyone will see your face, in your eyes, the true joy, enthusiasm, optimism, because Christ lives in you. And if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies for your spirit that dwells in you “(Rm 8.11). In the Valley of tears, (problems, difficulties, diseases), we will see people full of the resurrection and life. You are invited to be a transmitter of life for all those living in death.

The world needs Jesus! He is not physically with us, but we, Christians, by the power of the Holy Spirit are the source of living water to the world, as He. Jesus is the resurrection and the Life. There are a multitude of men in death, as in the vision of Ezekiel: “How parched bones scattered on the ground” (Ez 37.2). The Lord wants you to be resurrection and life for these people, to so many prodigal children who want to return home, they need to receive the embrace of the father of mercies. A person who has life and gives life to the point of saying: How Jesus is in me, how He lives in me and how I allow Him to penetrate me, I too am the resurrection and life.

To have that life we need to be in communion with the Lord, take communion the body and blood of Jesus, because “he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I shall rise on the last day” (Jo 6.54). Simply do not receive communion, but enter into intimate communion with the Lord. The Eucharist is the great means for our body, our soul and our spirit to come into communion with Jesus. How to assimilate the food we eat, and it becomes life for our body, so it happens when we enter into intimate communion with Jesus.

Raising up on the last day will be just a natural consequence of a lifetime. When our body you discard as the seed falls apart on Earth, eternal life will be on us. I always wondered why Mary Magdalene was the first to see the Lord. It wasn’t any of the Apostles. She’s the one who goes and announces to Peter and John that the Lord had risen. Mary Magdalene was chosen because she was the more determined, more determined to follow the Lord. While the Apostles went into hiding for fear of the Jews, she took her companions and, at dawn, determined, even at risk, she went to the Tomb, to express the great love she had for Jesus, because she had broken from her old life. We need to be as determined as she was!

If we stay on the fence, in “more or less” correct “neither hot nor cold,” and we’re not going anywhere. Mary Magdalene knew if she stayed in mourning, she wouldn’t want to go anywhere. My brethren, the Church wants us to live in this expectation of resurrection, because the resurrection of Jesus is the certainty of our resurrection. If we are living in the light, if we took the word of God and she takes effect in our lives, if we persevere and fight, especially in today’s world, where we are against the current, when we die, by the grace and mercy of God we shall resurrect to eternal life, eternal award, and not for conviction.

And the word of God, which attests to the resurrection of Jesus, we aim also to his glorious coming. We are between these two wonderful events, seeking in each Easter, our resurrection and new life. At the same time, we turn to the happy expectation of the coming of Jesus in glory, and we turn, every day, by the powerful action of the Holy Spirit who was given to us. You see: the same Holy Spirit,-tells us the Scriptures –, who raised Jesus from the dead, has been given to us and dwells in us, to enact in each of us the resurrection of Christ and to lead us to new life!

Your brother,

Monsignor Jonas Abib
Founder of the community Canção Nova

Portuguese version