Saturday, April 2, 2016

Living the Resurrection (Trinitarian article)

 

Fr. Tony’s Letter to the Trinitarians
April 2016
Living the Resurrection

The Great 50 days of Easter this year last from March 27 to May 15, commemorating the 40 day ministry of the risen Lord, his Ascension, and the 10 additional days until the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost.   But every Sunday of the year is a feast of the Resurrection, reminding us that we should live in light of the Resurrection all year round.  Here are some suggestions of how to live into the resurrection based on details in the stories of Jesus’ appearances after his death. 

Touch the risen Lord. “Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have” (Luke 24:39).   In the story these words underscore the concrete reality of the Risen Lord.  In our lives, we have many ways of making Jesus less concrete, less real:  taming him and making sure he never says anything that challenges us or makes us question our lives and assumptions, thinking of him purely as “meek and mild,” concerned only with spiritual or interior truth, and a place in a heaven by and by after this life.  To live the resurrection, we must keep focused on the crazy Jesus of the Gospel narratives, the one who demands social justice here and now, and advises radical hospitality and welcome here and now, especially when it makes us the most uncomfortable.  We must listen to him as he calls us to challenging and unexpected things.  

Cast away fear.  “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified.  He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said” (Matthew 28:5-6).  We often say with our lips “I believe that Christ is raised from the dead” at the same time that we cultivate the habits of fear and caution in our hearts.  Forgetting the profligate, overwhelming love of God that Jesus taught and that was proven in the resurrection, we often act as functional atheists:  we make decisions and take courses of action as if death is the end of us, as if there were no loving God at all.  At the least, we should remember from “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” that “in the end, all things will be well” and know that if all things are not well, then it is not yet the end.  We should feel in our hearts, with St. Julian of Norwich that “all things shall be well, all will be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”  At the most, we should hear Jesus in the Beatitudes and know that with God, there is blessing and happiness even in life circumstances seen as misfortunes (“blessed are the poor, the hungry, those who mourn.”) 

Cast away worry.  “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” (Luke 24:5).   Realizing that all will be well relieves us of the need to worry about our lives.  This is what Jesus taught on the Mount:   “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?   … Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’” (Matt 6:25-31).

Know that God deeply loves you and others.  When the angels and Jesus say again and again “do not fear” and “do not worry,” this is based on a firm experience of God as loving and benevolent, not just to a few, but to all.   Love casts out fear. 

Be bold and share your experience and faith with others.   Again and again in the stories, the disciples are told “go and tell the others what you have seen and heard.”   Sharing the faith helps us formulate it better in our minds and hearts.  Simply telling others what our experience has been is enough:  that’s what the word witness means. 

Prodigally share with others and let others share with you.  “When [the disciples] had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread.   [The Risen] Jesus said to them, ‘Bring some of the fish that you have just caught”  (John 21:9-10).   One of the signs of faith and confidence in the risen Lord is a lack of stinginess, of concern for preserving one’s scarce resources.    “God gives the blessings of rain and sunshine both on the righteous and wicked alike,” taught Jesus, “… be complete in this, as God is complete” (Matthew 5:45, 48).   Service, almsgiving, contributing to worthy causes, and giving service, offerings, and tithes to build the Church without fear of scarcity are all signs of a resurrection faith.   So is the ability to graciously accept gifts from others. 

Admitting our dependence on God, turning things over to God, giving up care and worry, and sharing in community our possessions, energies, and our experiences are all signs of a life rooted in the Resurrection of Jesus. 

Easter may be 50 days, be we should live as though it’s 365. 

Grace and Peace,
Fr. Tony+

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