The
Cross had asked the questions; the Resurrection had answered them…. The Cross
had asked ‘Why does God permit evil and sin to nail Justice to a tree?’ The
Resurrection answered: ‘That sin, having done its worst, might exhaust itself
and thus be overcome by Love that is stronger than either sin or death.’
Thus there emerges the Easter lesson
that the power of evil and the chaos of the moment can be defied and conquered,
for the basis of our hope is not in any construct of human power but in the power
of God, who has given to the evil of this earth its one mortal wound—an open
tomb, a gaping sepulchre, an empty grave.
Fulton J.
Sheen Cross-Ways
This morning as we
rejoice in the joy of the Risen Lord, as we are filled with joy, with hope and
with love, we can reflect on what the Resurrection does: when Jesus comes and
stands among the disciples he says ‘Peace be with you’ Christ’s gift to the
world in His Death and Resurrection is Peace, the Peace ‘which passes all understanding’.
He shows the disciples his hands and side so that they can see the wounds of
love, through which God’s Mercy is poured out on the world to heal it and
restore it. In this peace Christ can say to them ‘As the Father sent me, so I
send you’ as the baptised people of God the Church is to be a missionary community
– one sent to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ to the world, that it may
share the joy and life of the Risen Lord.
As well as giving the Apostles the Holy Spirit, ordaining them
as the first bishops of the Church, we see that the power of the Cross to bring
peace to the world is also the power to absolve sins – priests and bishops can
absolve the people of God in God’s name, and by God’s power – this is what the
Cross achieves – reconciling us to God and each other. The Church, then, is to
be a community of reconciliation, where we are forgiven and we, in turn,
forgive, where we are freed from sin, its power and its effects.
When Christ breathes on the disciples and says ‘Receive the
Holy Spirit’ it is this gift of God’s Holy Spirit which transforms them from
frightened people sat in a locked room in fear into the confident, joyous proclaimers
of the Gospel, such as Peter in his sermon to the people of Jerusalem. In
Peter’s sermon we see that all that Christ is and does is confirmed by
Scripture – it is the fulfilment of prophesy, such as we find in Isaiah 25:6—9:
On this mountain the Lord of hosts
will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of
rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. And he will swallow up on
this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is
spread over all nations. He will swallow up death for ever; and the Lord God
will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will
take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. It will be said on that
day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This
is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his
salvation.”
As the Church we know that Jesus is the Messiah, the one who
gives freedom to Israel, a freedom from sin – a bringing to completion of what
God started in the Exodus, in the crossing of the Red Sea – we too are free,
freed by the waters of baptism, sharing in Christ’s Death and Resurrection.
Thomas was not present with the disciples, he cannot believe
in the reality of Jesus’ Resurrection unless he sees with his own eyes, and
feels with his own hands – such is his grief, such is his love for Jesus. Our
Lord says to him ‘Doubt no longer but believe’ which leads to his confession
‘My Lord and my God’. Blessed are we who have not seen and yet have come to
believe, and through this belief we have live in Christ’s name, we have the
hope of eternal life and joy with him forever.
The disciples go from being scared and stuck in an upper room
to missionaries, evangelists, spreading the Good News around the world, regardless
of the cost, even of sacrificing their own lives to bear witness to the fact
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that he died for our sins,
and that he rose again, on this day for us, that God loves us and
tells us to love Him and to love one another. It is a simple and
effective message which people still want to hear – we need to tell it to them,
in our thoughts, our words and our actions.
The heart of our faith and the Gospel is forgiveness – no
matter how many times we mess things up, we are forgiven. It is this reckless
generosity of spirit which people find hard – to believe that they too
can be forgiven, by a loving God, and by their fellow Christians. That we can,
despite our manifold shortcomings be a people of love, and forgiveness, and
reconciliation. That God’s Grace will in the end not abolish our nature,
but perfect it, that being fed by Christ, with Christ: so that we too
may become what He is. That faced with the sad emptiness of the world, and its
selfishness, its greed, we can be filled with joy, and life, and hope. That
like the first apostles we too can spread the Gospel: that the world may
believe.
It’s a
tall order, perhaps, but one which God promises us. That is what the reality of
the Resurrection is all about, it’s either nothing, in which case we are the
most pitiable of deluded fools – idiots who are more to be pitied than blamed, or
it is the single most important thing in the world. It should affect all
of us, every part of our life, every minute of every day, all
that we do, all that we say, all that we are. This may not fit in
with a reserved British mentality, we think we’re supposed to be polite and not
force our views on others. But this simply will not do. We are, after all,
dealing with people’s souls, their eternal salvation, it’s a serious matter.
And what we offer people is entirely free, can change their lives for the better,
and make life worth living.
So let
us be filled with the joy of the Resurrection this Easter, let us share that
joy with others, may it fill our lives and those of whom we meet with the joy
and love of God, who has triumphed and who offers us all new life in Him, that
all that we do, all that we are, all that we say or think may give glory to God
the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, to whom be ascribed as is
most right and just, all might, majesty, dominion and power, now and forever.
No comments:
Post a Comment