Happy Easter! (2017 Edition)
Καλό Πάσχα, Δ.Α.! Χριστός Ανέστη!
The crucified has risen!
[Disclaimer: This post is going to roam around my religious believes. So... You might not like it very much. Nevertheless, it is incredible how today's Easter Vigil mass's homily was a direct continuation of my previous 3 posts. I am writing this post so that one day it may become a reminder for me of what I am called to live.]
What does Christ's resurrection provides us with? What does faith in the resurrection provides us with? What is the whole deal with it?
Well, before there is resurrection, there was the cross...
I believe that the first victory of Christianity is Christ's cross. For us, Christians, Christ took to the cross of all of our miseries, pains, sufferance, and death. And at the same time, all of our miseries, pains, sufferance do not stop Him from loving us, from loving us until the end, from loving us until love's extreme. In not few occasions, I've experienced that my pains, my suffering, my anxieties can take me away from love... I've noticed they can slow-down in me love's movement. They can put in suspension my love for God and for those around me. But nothing could suspend El Señor Jesus's love for His father and for humanity and for each one of us. Nothing can stop El Señor Jesus's love from loving us until the end, until his death on the cross.
If everything would end at his death. If there was the cross without the resurrection, we could still be attracted to El Señor Jesus. We could still say: "It's Him who I want to imitate." "It is Him whom I want to follow." But at the same time, we could say "I'm not capable." "I cannot forgive as He forgave." "I cannot abandon myself to God, to the Father, the same way he did." "I cannot teach solidarity or sharing the same way that he did."
I could aspire, and desire to be like, and follow El Señor Jesus but I will do it through my own strengths. El Señor Jesus would be like a model to follow, a model of love, a model of compassion, a model of presence, a model of attentiveness, a model of word, a model of wisdom. But it would only be model of which I could follow through my own strengths. And seriously, Who can imitate El Señor Jesus if left alone to his/her own strength?
El Señor Jesus has risen. El Señor Jesus is alive. In prayer, in the liturgy, in the sacraments (specially in the Sacrament of Eucharist) we can find El Señor Jesus. And when we find El Señor Jesus, we find him with his love for us. And when we find Him we don't just find Him loving us but also we find Him enabling us to love! Because, when we encounter El Señor Jesus and we hear his call to love, we hear his call to follow Him, and we desire to follow Him as disciple and live as a disciple. We receive from El Señor Jesus the Grace to follow Him. We are not left to our own strengths to follow Him.
So, we could say one of the first consequences of the cross it's that we'll always turn our gaze there and expect from El Señor Jesus not just the way of a real love but also the grace to walk in truth with love. With the cross and the resurrection, we can receive from El Señor Jesus the grace to love like Him. It is the first fruit of the cross. A love which bases itself not only on its own strengths but also in Christ's grace, who has loved until love's extreme.
There is another fruit that comes from the mystery of the death and resurrection of Christ. Normally, when we talk about resurrection, it is something that will happen at the end of times. This could make us think that the only thing that we are called to share with Christ is his cross. Through Christ's grace we are invited to share God's love through the cross. But there is another fruit that comes from the resurrection of Christ: Peace.
El Señor Jesus has the power to give us peace. When we present Christ, in prayer, our desire to love Him and to love those around us, and also our fears, our sufferings, our falls, our sickness, we receive from El Señor Jesus Peace. When we offer all that touches our life, Christ makes us part of Him and shares with us his Peace. Come what may in our life, El Señor Jesus has the power to give us His peace.
There are a lot of reason why we could be worried. There are so many personal perspectives, or from family and friends, from school or work, from society that can influence us. They could turn off the fire to love Christ and others to the end. While we cannot do much about worrying about certain things, we should not let it turn off the love that is within us, the faith that is within us, the hope that is within us.
This victory of love and peace that Christ brings to us is because of His resurrection. Even if we cannot see Him, he can transform our lives. Nobody can transform our interior lives (our hearts, our souls, our spirit) like El Señor Jesus risen with the power of His love on the cross.
There is also another fruit of the resurrection: Free love. The love that we are called to live is a love where we love without expecting anything in return. We are called to love God, and we are called to grow in love and love others as they are. The same way we love God just because He is, He exists, He is love. Just because He is. This enriches the love in our own lives. We love our wives just because she is. We love our children just because they are. We are called to a free love. A love that is given freely, for God and others. That is the love that Jesus lives.
To believe in Christ risen, if it was just an opinion, it wouldn't have that power. The faith in the Risen Lord, finds its consequence when we open our hearts to El Señor Jesus. And it is through this transformation that El Señor Jesus brings us that we become witness that Christ is alive. We haven't seen Christ with our senses, but we have experienced being saved by Him. We have experience a free love, we have experience a love that gives peace, we have experienced a love that is always with us through grace.
To love like Christ... It's not easy. There will be moments where it might be really hard (if not impossible), but through Christ's grace, love always triumphs in us, and through us.
The crucified has risen!
[Disclaimer: This post is going to roam around my religious believes. So... You might not like it very much. Nevertheless, it is incredible how today's Easter Vigil mass's homily was a direct continuation of my previous 3 posts. I am writing this post so that one day it may become a reminder for me of what I am called to live.]
What does Christ's resurrection provides us with? What does faith in the resurrection provides us with? What is the whole deal with it?
Well, before there is resurrection, there was the cross...
I believe that the first victory of Christianity is Christ's cross. For us, Christians, Christ took to the cross of all of our miseries, pains, sufferance, and death. And at the same time, all of our miseries, pains, sufferance do not stop Him from loving us, from loving us until the end, from loving us until love's extreme. In not few occasions, I've experienced that my pains, my suffering, my anxieties can take me away from love... I've noticed they can slow-down in me love's movement. They can put in suspension my love for God and for those around me. But nothing could suspend El Señor Jesus's love for His father and for humanity and for each one of us. Nothing can stop El Señor Jesus's love from loving us until the end, until his death on the cross.
If everything would end at his death. If there was the cross without the resurrection, we could still be attracted to El Señor Jesus. We could still say: "It's Him who I want to imitate." "It is Him whom I want to follow." But at the same time, we could say "I'm not capable." "I cannot forgive as He forgave." "I cannot abandon myself to God, to the Father, the same way he did." "I cannot teach solidarity or sharing the same way that he did."
I could aspire, and desire to be like, and follow El Señor Jesus but I will do it through my own strengths. El Señor Jesus would be like a model to follow, a model of love, a model of compassion, a model of presence, a model of attentiveness, a model of word, a model of wisdom. But it would only be model of which I could follow through my own strengths. And seriously, Who can imitate El Señor Jesus if left alone to his/her own strength?
El Señor Jesus has risen. El Señor Jesus is alive. In prayer, in the liturgy, in the sacraments (specially in the Sacrament of Eucharist) we can find El Señor Jesus. And when we find El Señor Jesus, we find him with his love for us. And when we find Him we don't just find Him loving us but also we find Him enabling us to love! Because, when we encounter El Señor Jesus and we hear his call to love, we hear his call to follow Him, and we desire to follow Him as disciple and live as a disciple. We receive from El Señor Jesus the Grace to follow Him. We are not left to our own strengths to follow Him.
So, we could say one of the first consequences of the cross it's that we'll always turn our gaze there and expect from El Señor Jesus not just the way of a real love but also the grace to walk in truth with love. With the cross and the resurrection, we can receive from El Señor Jesus the grace to love like Him. It is the first fruit of the cross. A love which bases itself not only on its own strengths but also in Christ's grace, who has loved until love's extreme.
There is another fruit that comes from the mystery of the death and resurrection of Christ. Normally, when we talk about resurrection, it is something that will happen at the end of times. This could make us think that the only thing that we are called to share with Christ is his cross. Through Christ's grace we are invited to share God's love through the cross. But there is another fruit that comes from the resurrection of Christ: Peace.
El Señor Jesus has the power to give us peace. When we present Christ, in prayer, our desire to love Him and to love those around us, and also our fears, our sufferings, our falls, our sickness, we receive from El Señor Jesus Peace. When we offer all that touches our life, Christ makes us part of Him and shares with us his Peace. Come what may in our life, El Señor Jesus has the power to give us His peace.
There are a lot of reason why we could be worried. There are so many personal perspectives, or from family and friends, from school or work, from society that can influence us. They could turn off the fire to love Christ and others to the end. While we cannot do much about worrying about certain things, we should not let it turn off the love that is within us, the faith that is within us, the hope that is within us.
This victory of love and peace that Christ brings to us is because of His resurrection. Even if we cannot see Him, he can transform our lives. Nobody can transform our interior lives (our hearts, our souls, our spirit) like El Señor Jesus risen with the power of His love on the cross.
There is also another fruit of the resurrection: Free love. The love that we are called to live is a love where we love without expecting anything in return. We are called to love God, and we are called to grow in love and love others as they are. The same way we love God just because He is, He exists, He is love. Just because He is. This enriches the love in our own lives. We love our wives just because she is. We love our children just because they are. We are called to a free love. A love that is given freely, for God and others. That is the love that Jesus lives.
To believe in Christ risen, if it was just an opinion, it wouldn't have that power. The faith in the Risen Lord, finds its consequence when we open our hearts to El Señor Jesus. And it is through this transformation that El Señor Jesus brings us that we become witness that Christ is alive. We haven't seen Christ with our senses, but we have experienced being saved by Him. We have experience a free love, we have experience a love that gives peace, we have experienced a love that is always with us through grace.
To love like Christ... It's not easy. There will be moments where it might be really hard (if not impossible), but through Christ's grace, love always triumphs in us, and through us.
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