ധ്രുവദീപ്തി : Christianity // Easter //
The Power of Resurrection //
Fr. Sebastian Thottippatt.
 |
| Fr. Sebastian Thottippatt. |
The Power of the Resurrection
Easter is the central celebration of Christianity because it is the very heart of our faith. For this reason, Easter season is the longest liturgical season during the year, consisting of 50 days. “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is empty and our faith comes to nothing.” (1Cor.15:14) The resurrection, therefore, forms the basis of the Christian faith. However, it does not suffice to be accepted merely as a doctrine of faith but as the reality upon which Christian spirituality is built. It affirms the truth of Christ’s life and teachings. “God so loved the world that he sent his only Son into the world so that whoever believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (Jn.3:16). The God who became flesh and dwelt among us did not appear among his people in all his divine majesty but was born as a helpless baby in the cave of Bethlehem, lived as the son of humble parents helping his foster father to earn their livelihood by working daily as a carpenter at Nazareth. Even after leaving his home in Nazareth, he made no effort to proclaim his divinity but rather lived as a man with all its ordinary implications.” Though divine in nature, “Christ did not cling to his equality with God but emptied himself, taking on the nature of a servant, made in human likeness and in appearance found as a man” (Phil.2:6-8) As circumstances or needs of people required, Jesus used his divine power to heal and make whole whoever was seen by him as broken in body, mind or spirit. He even multiplied food and fed multitudes but withdrew from crowds to prevent them from making him king or finding in him the solution to all the problems of life. Christ’s intention in becoming human was to experience humanity in its rawness, not to make matters easier for humanity, so that everyone would know that human experiences are within God’s own purview.
In his life at Nazareth as well as in the company of his apostles, Jesus endured the grit and grime of human life. By means of his closeness to people he understood very well the pain and joy of being human. He, therefore, is the perfect model for every man or woman to live their human life as it should be lived. Christ worked wonders for people who suffered and relieved them from it but when he himself underwent bitter sufferings at the hands of human beings who failed to understand him, he refused any extraordinary means of escaping from pain but endured it to the very hilt, knowing it was his Father’s will to bridge the perceived gap between God and human beings. But once the salvific mission was accomplished with his death, the resurrection was the natural consequence of what he had accomplished in accordance with his Father’s plan. He rose again from the dead, victorious over death and every kind of suffering. But it wasn’t a return to his earthly body but to a glorious body devoid of earthly limitations. Through that Christ was taking the whole of humanity to a different plane of existence by means of their faith in him. St. Paul speaks of it in his letter to the Philippians, “I want to know him and to experience the power of his resurrection and share in his sufferings and become like him in his death so that I might attain to his resurrection.” (Phil.3:10-11). It is the highest goal of a Christian to know the Risen Christ personally. That implies that he or she knows him first in his death so that they might experience the power of his resurrection. The power of the resurrection can only be known by one who knows the death of Christ in himself. The little human self must die if Christ the higher self in the person should rise.
What does it mean to know Christ? It is to know his sufferings in our person and endure it with Christ. We are certain that he does not leave us alone in our trials and tribulations but is closely with us from within. The ‘I’ who suffer and Christ who suffers with us are one. Meister Eckhart said, “The eye with which I see God is the same with which God sees me.” It is the power of the resurrection that makes this possible. The human person becomes capable of doing astounding things and enduring immense amount of sufferings as the martyrs did in their life. They did not falter in front of wild beasts who were ready to devour them, nor did they succumb to the tortures of flames that engulfed their bodies at the stakes.
During the Easter season we hear repeatedly the refrain, ‘Christ is risen; He is alive’. These are not to be heard as mere words but experienced as reality at the personal level. It is a truth that every one of us must recognize to experience the power of Christ’s resurrection. It is not a power that comes from outside of us as though the risen Christ were outside of us; rather it emanates from us who are branches of the same vine, The Risen Christ is not an outside partner that Christians take along to fight the battle of life with them. The Risen Lord is, on the other hand, the core inner force within us waiting to be acknowledged. It is unfortunate that in our current day living of Christianity, Christians seem to be bridging the gap between themselves and the Risen Lord through strenuous personal efforts. On the contrary, we ought to recognize that the power of the Risen Lord is granted to us who live the life of the ‘Vine and the branches.’ There is only one life that is passed on to the branch from the vine plant. For this to take place, the branch must acknowledge that it has no life of its own but the one that it receives from the vine. It is the mystical death that must take place at the branch level. We do not carry our identity as separate persons with a name and history of our own. But rather we remain as actively passive witnesses of the effects of the actions of the Risen Lord within us and deeply grateful in glorifying the Lord who chose us for his saving action.
The life in the Risen Lord is the new life that we embrace through baptism. “By baptism we were buried with Christ into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so that we too might walk in a new life.” (Rom.6:4) Further on Paul continues in the same strain: “We know that our old self was crucified with Christ; the part of our being that had been enslaved to sin has to die so that we may no longer be slaves to sin…But if we have died with Christ, we believe we will also live with him” (Rom.6:6-8). This is the truth that the Christian must hold firmly not merely as a belief but as one’s personal experience. The resurrected life is not a glorious life that comes automatically at baptism without the pangs of sufferings as it was with Christ. In other words, the Christian must be in intimate relationship with Christ and taste the cup that he drank before he/she can taste heavenly glory even while on earth. It arises from a relationship of love that is constantly sustained. It gives one the power of his resurrection to face the toils and tumbles of life in peace and tranquillity. Thus, we meet with persons who refuse to give up on life in the face of acute and bitter sufferings. By observing the way they suffer the pains of life, we experience Christ the Risen Lord at close quarters and learn to discover that power within ourselves too.
Anjana George from Cochin, Kerala, was a promising Jesus’ youth leader who was struck with cancer of the jawbone suddenly in the prime of her youth. But she became an all-time model of one who faced suffering joyfully and with grace. Despite intense pain in walking, she walked to her parish church daily holding onto her mother only to attend Holy Mass and receive the Lord in Communion. Even when she was unable to open her mouth wide enough to receive Communion because of her tumour, she received Communion with the sacred Host being diluted in water; so intense was Anjana’s love and desire for the Eucharist. She went to her eternal reward at the early age of 27 being an inspiration to thousands of young people of the joy of the Risen Lord in the midst of her suffering. The first Indian saint Alphonsa is another remarkable example of a person who knew intense physical suffering and was willing to suffer even more if the Lord wanted it. St. Mariam Thressia, the foundress of the Holy Family Congregation, was given the painful stigmata on her body which left her in real pain every Friday. Blessed Rani Maria FCC, who was stabbed 54 times, uttered the name of Jesus at every stab wound, thus declaring in unmistakeable terms the power of the Risen Lord during her agonizing ordeal. Yes indeed, the Risen Lord does not manifest himself without his cross. The visionary of Lourdes, St. Bernadette Soubirous who died of asthma and TB at the age of 35 with a smile on her face said, “I am happier in my bed with my crucifix than a queen on her throne.” Her exhortation to all Christians is: “You must learn to love suffering. The Lord gives his crown of thorns to his friends. Seek nothing better.”
Easter, then, is the climax pf the Paschal mystery we must embrace along with Christ’s Passion and death to make our lives resemble that of Christ whose manner of living should ever serve as the best model of human life. He was God and man in the same person. But we are privileged to be conjoined to him through baptism and share his life while living out our own lives individually in union with Christ, the crucified and Risen Lord. The words of Paul to the Philippians: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” are most relevant here, provided they are understood in the right context. It must be borne in mind that Paul was in chains awaiting death while writing these words. In other words, he was facing acute pains in mind and body. Nevertheless, he was certain of the presence of Christ with him to endure his sufferings. We may be weak and worn out in our strength but if we trust in Christ, the apparently impossible can happen through us. The focus is on Christ and his strength, not ours. This is the faith that can move mountains in our life. This is what is meant by the above verse from St, Paul. It has no reference whatsoever to what we accomplish with our strength, but what is accomplished by faith in him. It makes for all the difference between human strength and divine power. It is not our success story but Christ’s success story in our being. We realize post factum what has been done through us and remain in wonder. It is the same recognition that Paul had when he declared: “It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. I now live my mortal life through faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Gal.2:20) //-
********************************************
Browse and share: https://dhruwadeepti.blogspot.com
ഈ ബ്ളോഗില് പ്രസിദ്ധീകരിക്കുന്ന അഭിപ്രായങ്ങളുടെ ഉത്തരവാദിത്തം അതെഴുതുന്ന വ്യക്തികള്ക്കു മാത്രമായിരിക്കും. സഭ്യമല്ലാത്ത ഭാഷയും അപകീര്ത്തിപ്പെടുത്തുന്ന പദപ്രയോഗങ്ങളും ഒഴിവാക്കുക-
https://dhruwadeepti.blogspot.comfor up-to-dates and FW. link Send Article, comments and write ups to :DHRUWADEEPTI ONLINE LITERATURE.Published from Heidelberg, Germany, in accordance with the European charter on freedom of opinion and press.DISCLAIMER: Articles published in this online magazine are exclusively the views of the authors.Neither the editor nor the publisher are responsible or liable for the contents,objectives or opinions of the articles in any form."
*******************************************************
************************************************
