Christ is Risen!

We have just finished a long and grueling recollection of the Crucifixion, and now we have begun an equally long celebration of the Resurrection, but for most of us it is almost impossible to appropriate this Resurrection in our daily lives. How do we find a way to let the events of this moment into the day-to-day events of our lives?

When Julian had come through her own personal “recollection” of the crucifixion, and then recovered from her illness, she found the solution to this by committing herself to an ever more intentional recollection of God’s goodness and love, expressed above all by a deep spirit of trust. Eventually, she gave this a specific form by becoming an anchorite. This is what she herself could do: seek, suffer (that is, endure and bear), and trust, led patiently by Jesus, in this way opening herself to God’s work of resurrection. Resurrection reality is not a work which we can effect for ourselves, for resurrection will happen in us only by allowing God to bring it about.

Our faith in this God of Resurrection is through Jesus, our once-Crucified and now-Resurrected Lord. Our reason and senses may still have to search for proof that it is all different; that Divine Love enfolds us; that death in all its forms—sickness, pain, frustration, disappointment, loneliness—is not the last word but only parts of speech, the very path to glory. Easter night has shown us that nothing can separate us from the love of God’s Christ who is transforming the world. And God is calling each of us to become what baptism has already made us. Eternal life has already begun in us. We are the sons and daughters of God—incorporated into Christ’s Body. God’s Spirit lives in us. Our sins are forgiven. The darkness of our ignorance and the weakness of our will are even now being healed. It only remains for us to become what we are and to enjoy what we already possess. “Wouldst thou know thy Lord’s meaning in this thing? Be well aware: Love was His meaning.”

“Jesus, light of the world, dwell in us! Alleluia!