Excerpt of the writing, “The Resurrected Christ” from the upcoming book Transforming Grace (by Anne, a lay apostle)
If we desire a share in the divine life during our time on earth, we must be willing to allow the Resurrected Christ to live in us and through us. This will be accomplished through our willingness to stare into Easter Sunday joy, yes, and also Good Friday suffering and death. We will suffer, dear friends, during our time on earth and will offer our bodies to the Father at the end of our time, just as Jesus offered His body to the Father at the end of His life. Jesus died after fulfilling the promise of His life by death on the cross.
We can live, even during trials, the life of the Resurrected Christ. Let me explain. It is the same thing as saying the word ‘HOPE’. Hope is the road on which we travel through suffering safely. Hope protects us from idleness in the spiritual life in that there is no greater call to do our spiritual work cheerfully than when we are suffering. Being convicted about hope is the way we immunize ourselves from cynicism, which might be somewhere near the opposite of hope. When we sustain a series of sufferings, we can find that our hope is flat. We may kick it, metaphorically speaking, throw water on it, and even try to shock it electrically through our favorite Scripture or devotion. And what occurs? Nothing. Hope does not leap. Hope sometimes lies still. This is a frightening state of affairs for those who are naturally buoyant. Humanity often only recognizes a suffering in another which he himself has suffered.
To examine hope that is accessible, let us look to Jesus on Easter Sunday morning. He sits outside of His tomb, which had enclosed His broken body, the remnant of His expired humanity. Death had seemingly overcome Him. He was certainly not preaching with His mouth when He lay wrapped in burial cloths. No. there was no evidence of His divinity visible to human beings as the stone was rolled across the opening of the tomb. The crowds dispersed. For those who had been inspired to hope through the life of Christ, all hope would seem to have died. Imagine them walking away. Would it be accurate to say that their legs carried them away from the savagery of the Passion only through the action of the Spirit of hope remaining in them?
My friends, breathing itself illustrates some degree of hope. And it is for that reason, the absolute requirement of hope to keep a person inhaling oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide, that Satan cannot extinguish hope in humanity. Only God, who breathed hope into humanity when He breathed life into humanity, can reach into our humanity through our souls and draw back life into Himself. When we take a life, through violence or euthanasia, we are trying to be God. We, through the very gift of our free will, given to us by the Creator, attempt to force God to submit to our will. How embarrassing is a belief that we hold anything near to the wisdom of the Creator! Abortion, euthanasia, and indeed any murder, makes us pitifully arrogant. We are pretending that we hold the wisdom to extinguish hope because when we extinguish life, we have decided that no hope should exist in the life God created. If life is cooperating with the oxygen God provided, there is hope. Period.
But hope is a funny thing. It is just like oxygen in that it is invisible. It is like the wind in that it can often only be recognized by its effects. A mother feeds a sick child. She has hope that the child will be restored or she would stop feeding the child. A terminally ill patient is given water. Why? We have hope that the person will be sustained and comforted, but for what purpose? So that he can continue to inhale and exhale oxygen, thus, preserving hope for all of humanity until that person has completed his or her time in humanity. When, through God’s decision, that person surrenders his body to the Creator and advances into timelessness, hope is not extinguished, it simply transfers into those who remain with even greater abundance. Who would deny that they feel the spirit and presence of their ancestors who have gone before them, if only for an instant? No, hope is something like oxygen. We must be careful never to pollute it, deny it or damage it in another. And the Resurrected Christ lives in each one of us who welcome Him. We must never be more certain of this than when we are suffering desolation.
When the Lord viewed His Passion and death from the place of His resurrection, He saw that He had all he could manage on the cross in the physicality of his suffering. He, who possessed hope for all humanity, fought the greatest battle ever fought for hope. He did not die in desolation, despite the circumstances of His death. He died in hope because He retained His hope against the enemy’s effort to destroy all hope for all time for all people. The Lord looked upon the physical reaction to the suffering, which, it must be said, took place not in one part of his body but in all parts of his body. He was wounded simultaneously and thus, as a human being, was trying to tend to himself in that suffering in many, many areas, physically, emotionally, spiritually, and psychologically…the Lord truly took it on in every area all at once.
We resemble Christ when this happens to us, that is, many sufferings at one time. One suffering can impact all of these areas and we will have to be busy tending to all of the areas during the time of the suffering and after.
What will we look like when we are suffering grave trials?
Well, did Christ look like a King when he trudged up the hill, bleeding, powerless, mocked and rejected? Did He look like a King when they took away even His very clothing, rendering Him naked before cruelty? Did Christ look like a King when they nailed His beautiful hands and feet to wood, something the Father created in His great benevolence? The answer is no. And each one of us is a treasure, like Christ, in that we were created by the Father to be reverenced and assisted by others as we make our way through the sufferings in our lives.
Apostles, when people are suffering the many aching passions in their lives, they will show signs of wear and tear. Christ is the jewel of humanity. Christ is the only perfect specimen. But He did not look like that when they turned on Him, distorting his Kingship to the furthest possible extent by disempowering Him completely. What emerged from this situation?
The King emerged. Untarnished. Undiminished. Undaunted.
How did Jesus feel on Easter Sunday? He felt like God. But He did not feel like that as He suffered on the cross.
The Resurrected Christ, this Jesus Christ who returned to life on Easter Sunday, wishes to live in us. In so far as we allow Him, He does so. When people around us are suffering, they will not necessarily feel the extent of either their beauty nor their sanctity. It is we, the brothers and sisters who surround them, who must remind them that they are beautiful, that they are holy and that God is filled with hope about them. This applies to those who are suffering addictions, suffering marriage failures and family disunity, and those who are not feeling joy in their vocations.
Jesus was probably not smiling and joking from the cross and our own humanity will reflect our suffering as the Lord’s humanity reflected His suffering. We must minister to others accordingly, with compassion, understanding and a great deal of tolerance with how their humanity is recoiling at the cross.
For ourselves, we must go to our safe place, our sanctuary, and, with all of the kindness and compassion of the Savior who also suffered humanity, we acknowledge “I was afraid, and then I did this. I was alone, and then I did this. I was hurt, and then I did this. I was addicted, and then I did this. I was in grief, and then I did this.” This formula or method of examination will predispose us to mercy for ourselves and also understanding for others.
Young people who come into the faith early and learn to self-examine properly are so very blessed. They begin the hard work of appropriate self-examination young and thus do not store it up for a big job later. If one is only beginning real self-examination at an old age, one may have an awful lot to examine. This method of doing the hard work in our heads will leave us very free. Nobody will be able to convince us that we are without value. And nobody will be able to convince us that any created child of God is without value.
It must be so that Jesus, looking back at the figure of Himself on the cross, feels reverence at the extent of His suffering, but also reverence at the extent of what was given to humanity through His suffering. Because He, as God, is aware of the gift given, redemption, He, Jesus, would do it all over again for each person if such a thing were necessary.
We must accept the reality of that gift now, in advance of our death, because if we do so then we will be living the Resurrected Christ. He will be living through us dynamically, impacting the world freely through our presence. This is what He wants for us and this is the plan for renewal. It takes study of both the light and darkness in us. It takes willingness to transform. It takes determination, not to point at others but to be willing to examine ourselves.
If we desire a share in the divine life during our time on earth, we must be willing to allow the Resurrected Christ to live in us and through us. This will be accomplished through our willingness to stare into Easter Sunday joy, yes, and also Good Friday suffering and death. We will suffer, dear friends, during our time on earth and will offer our bodies to the Father at the end of our time, just as Jesus offered His body to the Father at the end of His life. Jesus died after fulfilling the promise of His life by death on the cross.
We can live, even during trials, the life of the Resurrected Christ. Let me explain. It is the same thing as saying the word ‘HOPE’. Hope is the road on which we travel through suffering safely. Hope protects us from idleness in the spiritual life in that there is no greater call to do our spiritual work cheerfully than when we are suffering. Being convicted about hope is the way we immunize ourselves from cynicism, which might be somewhere near the opposite of hope. When we sustain a series of sufferings, we can find that our hope is flat. We may kick it, metaphorically speaking, throw water on it, and even try to shock it electrically through our favorite Scripture or devotion. And what occurs? Nothing. Hope does not leap. Hope sometimes lies still. This is a frightening state of affairs for those who are naturally buoyant. Humanity often only recognizes a suffering in another which he himself has suffered.
To examine hope that is accessible, let us look to Jesus on Easter Sunday morning. He sits outside of His tomb, which had enclosed His broken body, the remnant of His expired humanity. Death had seemingly overcome Him. He was certainly not preaching with His mouth when He lay wrapped in burial cloths. No. there was no evidence of His divinity visible to human beings as the stone was rolled across the opening of the tomb. The crowds dispersed. For those who had been inspired to hope through the life of Christ, all hope would seem to have died. Imagine them walking away. Would it be accurate to say that their legs carried them away from the savagery of the Passion only through the action of the Spirit of hope remaining in them?
My friends, breathing itself illustrates some degree of hope. And it is for that reason, the absolute requirement of hope to keep a person inhaling oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide, that Satan cannot extinguish hope in humanity. Only God, who breathed hope into humanity when He breathed life into humanity, can reach into our humanity through our souls and draw back life into Himself. When we take a life, through violence or euthanasia, we are trying to be God. We, through the very gift of our free will, given to us by the Creator, attempt to force God to submit to our will. How embarrassing is a belief that we hold anything near to the wisdom of the Creator! Abortion, euthanasia, and indeed any murder, makes us pitifully arrogant. We are pretending that we hold the wisdom to extinguish hope because when we extinguish life, we have decided that no hope should exist in the life God created. If life is cooperating with the oxygen God provided, there is hope. Period.
But hope is a funny thing. It is just like oxygen in that it is invisible. It is like the wind in that it can often only be recognized by its effects. A mother feeds a sick child. She has hope that the child will be restored or she would stop feeding the child. A terminally ill patient is given water. Why? We have hope that the person will be sustained and comforted, but for what purpose? So that he can continue to inhale and exhale oxygen, thus, preserving hope for all of humanity until that person has completed his or her time in humanity. When, through God’s decision, that person surrenders his body to the Creator and advances into timelessness, hope is not extinguished, it simply transfers into those who remain with even greater abundance. Who would deny that they feel the spirit and presence of their ancestors who have gone before them, if only for an instant? No, hope is something like oxygen. We must be careful never to pollute it, deny it or damage it in another. And the Resurrected Christ lives in each one of us who welcome Him. We must never be more certain of this than when we are suffering desolation.
When the Lord viewed His Passion and death from the place of His resurrection, He saw that He had all he could manage on the cross in the physicality of his suffering. He, who possessed hope for all humanity, fought the greatest battle ever fought for hope. He did not die in desolation, despite the circumstances of His death. He died in hope because He retained His hope against the enemy’s effort to destroy all hope for all time for all people. The Lord looked upon the physical reaction to the suffering, which, it must be said, took place not in one part of his body but in all parts of his body. He was wounded simultaneously and thus, as a human being, was trying to tend to himself in that suffering in many, many areas, physically, emotionally, spiritually, and psychologically…the Lord truly took it on in every area all at once.
We resemble Christ when this happens to us, that is, many sufferings at one time. One suffering can impact all of these areas and we will have to be busy tending to all of the areas during the time of the suffering and after.
What will we look like when we are suffering grave trials?
Well, did Christ look like a King when he trudged up the hill, bleeding, powerless, mocked and rejected? Did He look like a King when they took away even His very clothing, rendering Him naked before cruelty? Did Christ look like a King when they nailed His beautiful hands and feet to wood, something the Father created in His great benevolence? The answer is no. And each one of us is a treasure, like Christ, in that we were created by the Father to be reverenced and assisted by others as we make our way through the sufferings in our lives.
Apostles, when people are suffering the many aching passions in their lives, they will show signs of wear and tear. Christ is the jewel of humanity. Christ is the only perfect specimen. But He did not look like that when they turned on Him, distorting his Kingship to the furthest possible extent by disempowering Him completely. What emerged from this situation?
The King emerged. Untarnished. Undiminished. Undaunted.
How did Jesus feel on Easter Sunday? He felt like God. But He did not feel like that as He suffered on the cross.
The Resurrected Christ, this Jesus Christ who returned to life on Easter Sunday, wishes to live in us. In so far as we allow Him, He does so. When people around us are suffering, they will not necessarily feel the extent of either their beauty nor their sanctity. It is we, the brothers and sisters who surround them, who must remind them that they are beautiful, that they are holy and that God is filled with hope about them. This applies to those who are suffering addictions, suffering marriage failures and family disunity, and those who are not feeling joy in their vocations.
Jesus was probably not smiling and joking from the cross and our own humanity will reflect our suffering as the Lord’s humanity reflected His suffering. We must minister to others accordingly, with compassion, understanding and a great deal of tolerance with how their humanity is recoiling at the cross.
For ourselves, we must go to our safe place, our sanctuary, and, with all of the kindness and compassion of the Savior who also suffered humanity, we acknowledge “I was afraid, and then I did this. I was alone, and then I did this. I was hurt, and then I did this. I was addicted, and then I did this. I was in grief, and then I did this.” This formula or method of examination will predispose us to mercy for ourselves and also understanding for others.
Young people who come into the faith early and learn to self-examine properly are so very blessed. They begin the hard work of appropriate self-examination young and thus do not store it up for a big job later. If one is only beginning real self-examination at an old age, one may have an awful lot to examine. This method of doing the hard work in our heads will leave us very free. Nobody will be able to convince us that we are without value. And nobody will be able to convince us that any created child of God is without value.
It must be so that Jesus, looking back at the figure of Himself on the cross, feels reverence at the extent of His suffering, but also reverence at the extent of what was given to humanity through His suffering. Because He, as God, is aware of the gift given, redemption, He, Jesus, would do it all over again for each person if such a thing were necessary.
We must accept the reality of that gift now, in advance of our death, because if we do so then we will be living the Resurrected Christ. He will be living through us dynamically, impacting the world freely through our presence. This is what He wants for us and this is the plan for renewal. It takes study of both the light and darkness in us. It takes willingness to transform. It takes determination, not to point at others but to be willing to examine ourselves.
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