Living Now in the Hope of Eternity: The Resurrection, Are You Ready?
Spirit's indwelling presence within should be unceasingly fostered through prayer, for those in a state of grace are God's sanctuary in the Spirit (see 1 Cor. 6:19). If we find ourselves frequently forgetting for an extended period of time the fact that God is immanently present, if we have become largely unaware that God is indeed sustaining us moment by moment, and if the resurrection seems more a fantasy than a future reality, then perhaps our priorities are distorted and our life has taken a wrong turn. If that should be the case, what is to be done?
The Christian Faith: A Life-Changing and Life-Sustaining Hope
It must be remembered that life in and through and with God is a particular way of life: it is a sacramental life lived in full communion with holy mother Church; it is a life lived by way of the cross in union with Christ; it is an interior life of humility and unceasing prayer in adoration of God in which we are conscious of the indwelling Spirit within, whose compassion and love shapes us and guides us toward our final end of eternal beatitude; it is a life infused with wondrous sanctifying grace in complete abandonment to Christ. It is a life lived in intimate union with a Person -- not simply with a "something." It is a wholly new life as royal members of the household of God.
If we are not living this Christian way of life, then it is time to reverse course. "Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation" (2 Cor. 6:2). Like the lost son, it is necessary to take stock of a dire situation, recognize its futility and dangerous nature, and thus return with profound sincerity and humility to the Father, that he may place a ring on our finger and sandals on our feet, that the fatted calf may be killed and the celebration begun (see Lk 15:11 ff.).
The Easter season is a sublime and sacred time in which our heart sings: "The Lord is risen!" The wondrous mystery of the resurrection and eternal life awaits, for if we have lost our life for the sake of Christ (Mt. 10:39), if we have been "united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his" (Rom. 6:5). Sustained by this wondrous and astonishing promise that Christ himself has won for us, our life ought to be re-energized with a new and lasting hope that transforms us beyond what we formerly were: "Indeed, the Lord is risen!"
The Holy Father asks us if the Christian faith is for us today a life-changing and life-sustaining hope. "Is it 'performative' for us -- is it a message which shapes our life in a new way, or is it just 'information' which, in the meantime, we have set aside and which now seems to us to have been superseded by more recent information?" (Spe Salvi 10 § 2). That is a profound and serious question; one which each of us must ponder in his or her own heart.
"O God, who on this day, through your Only Begotten Son, have conquered death and unlocked for us the path to eternity, grant, we pray, that we who keep the solemnity of the Lord's Resurrection may, through the renewal brought by your Spirit, rise up in the light of life" -- The Roman Missal Collect for the Sunday of The Resurrection.
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F. K. Bartels is a Catholic writer who knows his Catholic Faith is one of the greatest gifts a man could ever receive. He is a contributing writer for Catholic Online. Visit him also at catholicpathways.com
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Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.
Keywords: Easter, resurrection, Christian faith and hope, Christ's resurrection, F. K. Bartels
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Helen, thanks for your thoughts and taking the time to try and understand the meaning of my post.
Mike
this was very great way of explaimg easter and why jesus is so important today,
Juneau, I was going to say something rather flippant but I changed my mind. Instead, I want you to know that I understand what you are saying. There are people, believers and non-believers alike, who are not living this life here on earth. They are wrapped up either in the past or in the future. The here and now is lost for them.
For me, the here and now, the past and the future are somehow one and the same. We can't possibly understand what life after death means. This debate always reminds me of blind people arguing over the color blue.
You have chosen to be an atheist. I have chosen to be a Catholic. There is little point in our arguing over which one of us is right. I am grateful that I can believe. I have hope not only for the here and now but for the future as well. I have the best of both worlds. I can live life now before death and have in addition to that gift, I have the gift of hope.
Helen
I had always wondered why, in all that I would read about the faith, that most of it referenced not enterity, but life of this world. It is that most of the way people think of faith, it is that it is for this world. I have noticed that is the way most people think of it or at least of which I read of most of what I read of it of the faith. That to too many people faith in Jesus is for this world and not of eternity, which eternity is what the faith truly is. This is unfortunate, as eternity is what the faith should focus on more than this world. What this world is for is to live the faith in this world for the sake of enterity and not to live faith for the sake of this world. I have noticed that a lot of people think otherwise. They are too caught up in this world.
As an atheist, I believe in life before death.
Mike
Good reminders of how to live.
Keeping away from a life of indulgences which is never ending & increasing by the day is to a Sacrifice, & to the pricking of the Conscience in the indulgences & in order to Justify or satisfy the prick, man goes into Idolatry, which is worshiping god in the indulgences, except that all his idols are dead ones, which is the basic truth of Paganism, into its evolution of the day to Atheism, which is to deceiving himself through loosing "himself to himself" thus disconnecting him from his very source . As to the question, to the benefits of non indulgence can be understood- to the fall of the first parents into the indulgences against the word of God, for had they kept the word they would have developed what is known as "The Power of Resistance", which for eg. Biologically, in Physical terms the word Resistance is essential to survival today against the various diseases, even so more in the Spiritual, concerns all aspects to life since the Spiritual is the Basis of the Physical, moreover to GOD being Spirit & to this is come the Way, Life & Truth in Christ against the fall into the death, by His words "Overcome just as I Overcame", through Him to the Resurrection to The Life.