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The Catholic Telegraph
April 21, 2000The Lectionary offers us a wide range of choices for the readings for the Masses on Easter Day. The gospel reading can be the empty tomb narrative from John 20 or the Emmaus story from Luke (for a Sunday evening Mass) or a rereading of the gospel from the vigil. For the second reading, two possibilities are offered, one from Colossians and one from First Corinthians. Here we offer some reflections on the reading from Colossians.
In this letter, the author is dealing with a local church that had been incorrectly taught that, in addition to faith in Christ, salvation also demanded attention to certain angelic powers and involvement in specific ascetical practices. The letter’s message is that Christ is all that’s required to receive what God wants us to have.
The reading offered for Easter day comes just before the section of the letter that is concerned with moral behavior. It offers the principles that were to govern the every day practical lives of believers. Its message is really quite simple.
The text reminds the readers that they have been made participants in the death of Christ, and therefore sharers in His resurrection, that their life is now enfolded into the life of the risen Christ and that they would share His glory when His final manifestation takes place. In view of that, there is a certain mind set that is appropriate for them and certain goals for them to pursue more in harmony with Christ’s glorious life in heaven than with the earthly pursuits of unbelievers. "Seek what is above. ... Think of what is above."
This text highlights and summarizes the themes that we have been dealing with during the season of Lent.
The resurrection of Jesus wasn’t just something nice that the Father did for Jesus in view of the faithfulness and obedience that Jesus expressed in his suffering and death. It was the Father’s response to the whole life that Jesus had led. Here was, at last, a human life in accord with what the Father had wanted from human beings from the beginning. Moreover, this life was the human life of God. It was therefore too good, too precious, too important to come to an end on the cross. It would continue, a human life of a human Jesus, but in a new mode that admitted of no diminution or suffering, in a way that could be shared by those who were willing to accept it.
Our attachment to the life of Christ takes place through our baptism. When we accept baptism into Christ, we are gifted with His life. We give up what we have been and take on His faithfulness and obedience as well as the new mode of being that was His as a result of His resurrection. As our live letter puts it for this Sunday, "you have died ... you were raised with Christ ... your life is hidden with Christ in God."
But there are some expectations. Because we come to share the life of the risen Christ through baptism, we are expected to live in accord with the implications of that life. Those implications include things like love for our brothers and sisters in Christ, the selfless giving of ourselves to the service of our heavenly Father, respect for our bodies which are now instruments of the risen Christ. It is not the case that we earn our salvation, our participation in the life of the risen Christ by "being good." It is rather that we respond to what we have been given and maintain and deepen our salvation by living in accord with the risen life of Christ that we have received. "Seek what is above. ... Think of what is above."
Final preparation for baptism and entrance into the Church, renewal of baptismal fervor on the part of long-time members, getting ready to celebrate the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus - that’s what Lent has been about. And each of these three agenda items for Lent finds its fulfillment on Easter, in the celebration of Jesus’ new and glorious life, a life that still continues. Those who were baptized at the Easter Vigil now have a new dimension in their life, a dimension constituted by the life of the risen Christ. The long-term members who have kept Lent conscientiously have been gifted with renewed energy by their participation in the journey of the Church’s new members and by the renewal of their own baptismal commitment. All of us who have reflected on the life context of Jesus’ suffering and death, on the meaning of what He endured in His final days find ourselves enlivened and encouraged by a new appreciation of the significance of the resurrection, a new perception of our salvation by Jesus, a new energy in carrying out the implications of what Jesus accomplished for us.
Easter is the greatest liturgical feast in the calendar. On this day we celebrate the fullness of the life of Jesus and His desire to share that life with us. We celebrate the meaning of our life in Him. And we celebrate the eternal glory that will be ours in company with Him.
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Conversation Questions
How do I direct my life to "what is above?"
How does the life of the risen Christ manifest itself in me?
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