LIVING AN EASTER FAITH

 

 

We now enter into the fifty days of Easter. This is not an add-on to Easer but a time for the people of the Church to work out what it means that Christ has risen and has been given to us. 

This is reflection time. What are the implications that Christ is actually risen?

 

There is a certain strain of unreality among many people who identify themselves as believers. They figure that their religious faith should never make demands on them or cause them any difficulties. This is an expectation that will prevent them from ever growing up in the faith. 

 

We are going to hear next Sunday of the ‘doubting Thomas.’ The gospel writers wanted to show how difficult it was for many of the disciples to come to terms with the resurrected Jesus. In their doubt, they were wrestling with reality: was the resurrection real or just a made-up story?

 

Each one of us needs to walk in shoes of these doubters. If the resurrection of Jesus was real, what implications does it have for my life? The life of my Church? For many born-Catholics the struggle may be painful but it can become so life-giving.

 

The resurrection of Jesus is the giving of God to humanity. Each believer is given the Holy Spirit; God alive and working in us. The sharing of the Holy Spirit is the living extension of the risen Jesus. This is a debilitating weakness on the part of so many born-Christians. They are not aware that the risen Jesus must now come alive in us.

 

We are the ones sent to continue and make real the love, mercy and mission of Jesus Christ in our own space and time. 

 

The risen Chris comes alive in us when we pray with our co-worker in the hospital. Her recovery is very slow and some days she is very frightened that her illness could be fatal. You care. Your listening and  supportive presence are made real in your prayer for her recovery. It is very simple and so very human; but the risen Christ is shared in those moments.

 

The couple who sit two benches ahead of you in Church volunteer at the food bank. They work with Christian believers, people from other religions and the religious indifferent ones. They try to bring respect and understanding to each of the clients they encounter at the food bank. They never tell you of their respect; they just do it! Even if many of their religiously indifferent co-workers do not understand how they practice their faith, they are putting the resurrected  Jesus into practice. They are making the resurrected Jesus come to life through their hands and through their smiles. 

 

These next fifty days are a time of exploration for the Church. How can the resurrected Jesus come alive among us? What are the signs of the presence of the resurrected Jesus in our lives? 

Where are the moments that we recognize the presence of the resurrected Jesus and blurt out like the apostle Thomas, “My Lord and my God.”