Living the new life of Easter ....to the fullest!

Apr 04, 2024

As I was contemplating - Fr Gerard Steve Theraviam

The poignant drama of Holy Week and the Sacred Triduum, and the feelings and emotions that are evoked, can dissipate soon after Easter Sunday as we move on with life... if we are not careful. Our songs of praise to God can slowly become dirges and laments when life is hard. The real enigma is how we are to continue living the New Life of Easter throughout the year. The Lord wants us to experience abundant, overflowing life, and this is not to be momentary. Our Alleluias must joyfully ring out unceasingly, in season and out of season.

I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly. (John 10:10)

The risen life is lived even when we go through the dark and bitter valleys of life that we encounter, but we move on, buoyed by the hope and trust of the Risen Lord. Thus, we may be experiencing crisis, loss and pain on the outside but within us, God’s presence and grace gives us the strength and courage to joyfully carry on…. from helplessness to hope.

We are to always live life victoriously because we are fuelled by the Holy Spirit, instead of only relying on our own resources.

The risen life we live needs to not be hoarded for our own selves or kept secret, but generously shared with all and sundry. We move from despair to declaration…. The Good News needs to be infectious, to touch the lives of others so that they might ask us the reason for our joy. It is no secret! It is to be shouted from the mountain tops!

And so, we joyously sing:

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow!
Because He lives, all fear is gone! Because I know He holds the future
And life is worth the living, just because He lives!

The Resurrection brings us out from Fear to Freedom of the children of God!

That doesn’t mean everything is going to be easy-peasy. The Cross does not somehow disappear! No pain, no gain! We will still have to confront our fears, real or imagined. Yet we do so never alone, knowing that we have been strengthened by God’s grace and power to carry our crosses. If we have died with Him, we shall also live with Him. (2 Timothy 2:11)

The Cross is not to be feared or rejected, but accepted and lovingly embraced as it leads us to the Resurrection. Easter does not happen without Good Friday! We will have to die to our selfish wants and desires, and even pet sins and allow God to give us new hearts that live through Him, with Him and in Him.

The Resurrection helps us to move away from self-centredness and self-absorption towards service towards others. We are called to move from being cocooned individuals to being Community. After all, we carry our crosses with the support, help and encouragement of our sisters and brothers in the community and, sometimes, even strangers. Hence, it is also right that we learn to reciprocate in love. The washing of the feet on Holy Thursday compels us towards humble service to all people. The Eucharistic words of Christ to Take, Bless, Break and Give is not just about Holy Communion but also about how we are to live Communion in our lives, to allow God to take us and use us a blessing for others. We are to allow God to break us - to break us from our old ways of thinking and living, to break us from selfishness and sin and to give us as food to a hungry world.

All this needs to be sustained as we move from mere ritual to relationship with God. It is not enough to just say prayers, but genuine prayer will lead us to a living and loving relationship with God. This then also changes the way we relate with our sisters and brothers and all of creation. Just as Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane asked that we might accompany Him for an hour in prayer, likewise, prayer must be a part our daily reality in order that we might sustain that relationship with God. This current Year of Prayer is an invitation for us all not just to pray but to also deepen our prayer life through perhaps discovering new ways to pray that we might further seal our relationship with God.

Many persons are crippled by a fear of death. Perhaps we are not ready to leave behind our loved ones or our unfinished projects. Yet our Christian faith tells us that this present life is not all there is to Life. We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and that, in the same way, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. (1Thessalonians 4:14) Thus, Life is to be experienced even more fully beyond our current earthly realities. We are citizens of heaven! We are here on earth temporarily but we can already celebrate and live Life as we hope to be welcomed into our heavenly home.

With St Paul, we should be able to bravely declare: Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:55,57) The first Preface to the Eucharistic Prayer of the Funeral Mass that is commonly used boldly states: Indeed, for your faithful, Lord, life is changed not ended, and, when this earthly dwelling turns to dust, an eternal dwelling is made ready for them in heaven.” Thus, let us look at death with hope and trust and welcome and celebrate it when it inevitably comes because we will have prepared for it well, having lived Life well.

To live out Easter joy at all times, we need to have a renewed mind-set. No longer should we moan and groan that Life is hard! Instead, Life is beautiful! It is beautiful despite the ups and downs because the light of the Lord shines on us all.
I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, (Deuteronomy 30:19)

May we always CHOOSE LIFE….and live it to the fullest!

A Blessed Eastertide!

(Fr Gerard Theraviam is the Parish Priest of the Cathedral of St John the Evangelist in Kuala Lumpur, as well as the Spiritual Director to the World Community for Christian Meditation, Malaysia)