Happy Easter!

The Easter Season lasts for seven full weeks, perhaps to give us ample time to savor the joy it brings. It ought to be a lingering and ever growing inner joy. Why?

Because Christ's victory over sin and death is ours too. It is somehow akin to the joy we experience when our sports team wins a game, but much much more than that. Christ's victory over sin and death is our real victory, too, not just vicariously (as in sports). Even now we are already risen to a new life, although our Full Divinization and Glorification is yet to come. Our physical resurrection to a glorified body like that of our Risen Lord's will happen on the Last Day, but even now we are (or we were) already resurrected spiritually.

At Baptism we already died with Christ and rose with him sacramentally to a new life –a LIFE IN CHRIST, literally, through His Holy Spirit in us. This divine life in us is beyond intellectual analysis or emotional reaction because it is in the deepest core of our being, in our soul. The Holy Spirit, which Jesus merited for us by His atoning Sacrifice on the Cross (and His Resurrection), now becomes the Soul of our soul. We are truly DIVINIZED, partakers of the divine nature (cf 2 Peter 1:4).

So then how is it that we don't always seem to experience the power of this new life, this divine life in us? Why don't we seem to experience this rising to a new life?

Perhaps it is because we do not seriously endeavor to die to sin. We ought to deepen our detestation, hatred of, and detachment from all sin, in thought, word, and deed (and ommision). Then we make a worthy reception of the Sacrament of Penance; we die to sin, and rise to life– life in Christ through His Holy Spirit in us. [Every good confession is a rising to new life; Penance is the so-called ‘second plank’ after the shipwreck, baptism being the first.] This life is a life of love (love of God and neighbor). For "the love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given us". (Rom. 5:5).

Then, as we allow the Holy Spirit to transform us more and more interiorly, we will eventually manifest this love exteriorly, concretely in our daily dealings with others. It starts with a good will for everyone, even those we do not like; then as it grows we become more and more ready to act for the good of another, even to the point of sacrifice. This takes practice wrought by regular acts of self denial. But if we do our reasonable best, the grace of the Holy Spirit will never be wanting. This is what it means to love as Jesus loves. This is life in Christ, our risen Lord. This is our risen life now, which will be completed in the Resurrection on the Last Day. But even now we rejoice and live this new life in our Risen Lord.

We may seem to be losers now, by worldly standards, perhaps suffering in some way or another, reeling from some failures of sorts. But if we are living this risen life in Christ, then we
are winners, victors in the deepest sense. It's only a matter of time before we fully enjoy the glory merited for us by Jesus.

May we greet each other more profoundly a joyous Easter Season!