April 8, 2009

The risen Christ secures our lives

By Roxanne King

John’s Gospel tells us that when the risen Christ appeared to his disciples who were afraid and huddled behind locked doors, his first words were, “Peace be with you” (20:19) and he showed them his wounds. They rejoiced. Christ had conquered death, sin and evil.

They had nothing to fear anymore. We have nothing to fear anymore.

“(Christ’s resurrection) means no matter what comes our way—no height, no depth, no creature that lives, nor death nor life—can separate us from the love of God,” said Jonathan Reyes, former president of the Augustine Institute and incoming president and CEO of Catholic Charities for the Denver Archdiocese. “That’s what it means.

“It means that our happiness is never at risk,” he added. “It means the cause of our unhappiness in itself does not have the ultimate say in the world—injustice, poverty, sickness. It is captured beautifully in Pope Benedict’s (encyclical) ‘Spe Salvi’ (‘In Hope We Were Saved’), it’s the hope of the world. It means no social problem, no personal problem can ever rob from us our true happiness and joy. And I don’t mean that in a trite way, because suffering is suffering. But it means it doesn’t get the last word.”

Despite the sometimes insurmountable-appearing problems at home and across the globe, because of Christ’s resurrection and the gift of the Holy Spirit—St. Paul writes, “Are you not aware that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? (I Cor 3:16)—we can face our own sufferings, our crosses, our crises with faith and hope.

“So when it comes to Catholic Charities, it means I don’t have to solve all the world’s problems and I don’t despair of that,” Reyes said, “we solve those that we can touch.”

The Holy Spirit that raised Jesus up is working in our hearts so that we may embrace the Christian mystery and become Christians, said Anthony Lilles, professor of spiritual theology and academic dean of St. John Vianney Theological Seminary.

“So many people try to live the spiritual life and they come up against the limits of their own humanity,” he said. “They get discouraged and give up and think their faith isn’t working for them. But God brings us to the limits of our humanity, to that wall of our self reliance, so we can finally begin to rely on him and experience the power of the Holy Spirit in full.

“As the Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts and his power is unleashed in our lives, as we cooperate and say yes to God in our lives, a transformation happens and we become like another Christ,” Lilles said. “St. Paul says, ‘I live no longer my own life but Christ lives in me’ (Gal 2:20).  He’s speaking about a transformation that happens because of the Spirit’s presence in our hearts.”

The Spirit gives us everything that belongs to the risen Jesus, including the aspirations that conquered death, Lilles said.

“Those things are communicated to us through the indwelling of the Spirit,” he said, “and our lives become more and more conformed to Christ.”

As we die to our old way of life a new way of living comes into our hearts, Lilles said. The power of the resurrection in us allows us to make the same movement of sacrificial love that Jesus revealed on the cross, but with our own bodies.

“Everybody knows when you really try to love someone you come up against certain limits in your person,” Lilles said. “You want to love them more, you know you should, but sometimes you pour out everything you have and realize it’s not enough. This person or situation demands more than what you have.”

It’s as if all that is good, noble and true is subject to a certain type of futility—a certain kind of death, he said.

“Without Christ that’s the last word,” Lilles said. “Without our faith in Christ we can’t go beyond that. But because we believe in Jesus, that he is risen from the dead, and because Jesus gives us the power of the Holy Spirit, we become capable of a love without limits—if we trust in him.” 

We experience this love in a transitory way on earth.

“We get to taste it here and there,” Lilles said. “But could you imagine an existence of love with no limitations or obstacles? Where we were finally free to be who we were meant to be and give the gift of our true self: never fatigued or tired or dissipated or out of energy but fully present to one another? That’s the resurrected life that Jesus opens up. That’s the hope of humanity—that we will be able to realize who we truly are. We’ll be able to realize authentic human freedom, which is the freedom to live in an unceasing symphony of love.

“That’s what our resurrected life in heaven will be.”