Christ is Alive!

SOME THOUGHTS ON THE RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST

by Sr Valery Walker 

For so many reasons we all rejoice in the resurrection of Our Lord.  We rejoice that

our Saviour no longer suffers; we rejoice that his resurrection has taken “the sting” out of death (it is no longer a ‘dead end’!); we rejoice that even suffering has gained a positive side: Our Lord assures those who suffer persecution for their faith: “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in Heaven.”   We rejoice because the resurrection confirms Jesus’ promises – the one just mentioned and also others.  In reply to Peter’s question as to what they who had “left everything” to follow Jesus, could expect as reward, Jesus promised “a hundredfold.”

The feast of the resurrection is therefore a time of special deep rejoicing for those who – priests, religious, consecrated persons – have, like Peter and the Apostles, “left everything” to follow Christ; have made a complete offering of themselves, their lives, their future, to the following and service of Jesus in his saving work.  Christ is alive!  his call to them has been made with a living human voice – not that of a man dead 2000 years ago.  Christ lives and from his glory in Heaven guides and directs his Church through his Holy Spirit, fulfilling and completing the saving work he achieved on Calvary.

Christ is alive! and those whose love of him has drawn them to put  love and friendship for him exclusively before all others, know that they are united to someone living and accessible – as the lives of many before us have shown.  Christ is a living friend; a demanding friend, it is true, but one who, as he himself would say, loves each one of us as no-one else loves; indeed, as no-one else can love, with a love both human and Divine, the love of God –made-man!

The feast of the resurrection is a feast of faith and love, but above all, a feast of  joyful, confident hope – joyful confidence in the final fulfilment of Christ’s love and promises.