Resurrection and Resilience
by: Ron Calderon [cjm]
Today we celebrate Jesus’ rising from the dead. The most important event in the New Testament and the most central reality for all the Christian faithful. When Jesus resurrected on that first Easter morning, he conquered sin and death and, from that moment, has been conquering death for all who believe in him.
Christ’s resurrection is the moment in history when Jesus showed the way to eternal life. This is the ultimate reason why he asked people to follow him in the gospels. He declared that the secret to the truth of our existence is through our discipleship to his very person. Through the resurrection, Christ’s message clarifies that we are not only meant for this world. This is a great mystery that lifts our fragile, weak and finite life on earth into eternity. It is the completeness of the declaration in scripture that humans are created from earth but nevertheless in God’s image and likeness.
The salvation through Jesus Christ's resurrection is for all but the key to attaining his saving power from the decay of earthly life lies in our openness to his word, to his truth, to his person. St. Peter in the first reading tells us that “…This man God raised on the third day and granted that he be visible, not to all the people, but to us, …, who ate and drink with him after he rose from the dead.” We, in our time, could understand it that to be a disciple of Christ, to see him and to claim his promise of victory over sin and death means to live in whole-hearted acceptance of Jesus as a true friend. “…to eat and drink” with our Lord means to share our life with him as part of our family. When this takes place from the depth of a person’s heart, Jesus will not hesitate to reveal himself and to share in his resurrection. Thus, we can say that God’s chosen ones are the ones who chose to be God’s friend.
How could we achieve a personal and familial relationship with Christ? We can do this in living the
resurrection in our day-to-day. With patience and perseverance in our faith in the Risen Lord, our daily victories over the challenges and sufferings of life make us more and more his disciple and friend. A maturing person in Christ leads an ascending path in seeing more clearly the face of Christ once veiled by the cloth of sin and darkness. We have to accept that this veil is hard to set aside. At times, we easily succumb to sin and so are drawn back into darkness. Though our efforts lead us to go back and forth in our pursuit in seeing Christ’s face, we need not worry. Jesus resurrected precisely so that he can be present even to us, the present generation. He is constantly at our side in our struggle to discipleship so we should not lose hope. In the later part of the resurrection narrative of John, Christ appears to Mary Magdalene to comfort her in sadness. The same way, when we fall in the brink of hopelessness, Christ will be there to comfort us.
The key to our journey to discipleship and to reach our goal of unlocking life’s meaning could be summarized in the phrase “hopeful resilience.” To desire a share in Christ’s resurrection, we are invited by our personal God to live with a patient and persevering faith and be conscious that in everything we do for ourselves, for the people around us and for the earth, we choose the way of Jesus in his virtues of love, kindness, mercy and humility. Remember that Jesus is with us waiting patiently so that the veil in our eyes could eventually be rolled aside so that we may see the fullness of his glorious eternal face at the end.
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