Reflection:  Christ is Risen!  Hallelujah!

Crucial to our reflection of Easter Sunday is the First Reading, taken from the Acts of the Apostles.  It is a fast forward account of events after Jesus’ ascension to heaven, and the Holy Spirit’s descent upon the apostles.  Peter, filled with the Spirit of God, speaks to pagans and teaches them about Jesus, and how, as God’s anointed, He went about doing good, healing the sick, driving out demons, and been nailed to the cross by the Jews, but God raised Him from the dead on the third day.

Peter relates how he along with the other apostles were witnesses to all these events and how they were commissioned to preach to the people and testify that Jesus is the one appointed by God.

As disciples, that commissioning has been extended through the ages to us.  We too are to testify to Christ’s work, death and resurrection.  As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5: 20 “we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us.”  We too need to help reconcile the world to God.  Just recently, our new pontiff, Pope Francis, reminded us that the Church’s mission is to the poor, not just by ministering temporally to them through corporal works of mercy, but by evangelizing the poor in spirit as well.  This means we need to be witnesses.  But what does it mean to be a witness?  A witness is one who was present when the event in question happened and who heard what was said.  How can we today be witnesses to an event at which we were not physically present?  To be authentic witnesses to Christ today, we ourselves must have undergone our own resurrection experience.

Our personal resurrection may not be a onetime, big conversion event.  Most of us experience a series of ups and downs, peaks and valleys of conversion.  Our conversion may be a process rather than a single event.  It doesn’t matter.  The Lord is not counting.  It’s the rising from the fall, the struggle to get back on track — these are the signs of resurrection.  Are we winning the battle for resurrection?  Is Christ victorious in our life?  Does He continue to come to life in our lives?

How do we know if Christ is winning the battle in us?  If we no longer hate as much, envy as much; if we get into less disagreements as we did the day before; if we dismiss lustful or unfaithful thoughts faster than we did yesterday; if we are more patient, more kind, more humble, more forgiving, more trusting… if we can honestly say that we have made continuous improvements in our behaviour, if we can truly say that we are making progress in our spiritual life — praying more, listening more, obeying more, and studying the Word more ardently… then we are becoming more fruitful.  Many of us may say we have improved much as a person since joining the Community.  If so, ask yourself another question, especially if you have been in Community for 10 years or more: do you continue to grow or have you stagnated? If you have remained stagnant from the time you had your conversion experience, then you have really deteriorated, not stayed where you are.  A living organism that has stopped growing is virtually, if not actually dead.  How much harvest has the Lord received from us?  Have we become barren since we made that initial change?  If so, then our conversion may be incomplete, or compromised.  We have not really had our resurrection experience.

For example, are we a know-it-all as a covenant member of the Community?  Have we become un-teachable?  If we still shepherd during LSS, do we even bring along our bible and shepherd using God’s word or just rely on our wits and tired experiences?  When we teach, are we Word-based?  When we share, do we glorify ourselves, and not God’s victory in us?  When we hold positions of authority and responsibility in Community, has power gone to our heads? Have we become abusive or inconsiderate, legalistic, leading by our own word or by the letter of what is policy rather than by the law of love?

The theme for this week therefore reads: We reform our ways and bear fruit when we preach and testify to Christ’s resurrection.  It might have been preferable to reverse the theme to read, “We preach and testify to Christ’s resurrection when we reform our ways and bear fruit”.

The promise for this week may need to be examined carefully.  It is from Colossians 3: 4 and says: “When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with Him in glory.”   It does not simply speak of our physical resurrection when we come to meet our Lord.  More importantly, it means that when Christ appears in our life, He increases as we decrease.   When we begin to bear the fruits of the Spirit that is when we are glorified by Christ Himself.

Reflection Question:
1. If I were to prioritize the weaknesses from which I need to resurrect, what would the top three be?

2. In which other personal struggles have I made progress?

This Week’s Daily Mass Reading Guide:

March 31, 2013 (Sun)        Acts 10:34,37-43/Ps 118:1,2,16,17,22,23/Col 3:1-4 or 1Cor 5:6-8/Jn 20:1-9 or Lk 24:13-35
April 1, 2013 (Mon)           Acts 2:14,22-33/Ps 16:1,2,5,7-11/Mt 28:8-15
April 2, 2013 (Tues)          Acts 2:36-41/Ps 33:4,5,18,19,20,22/Jn 20:11-18
April 3, 2013 (Wed)          Acts 3:1-10/Ps 105:1-4,6-9/Lk 24:13-15
April 4, 2013 (Thur)          Acts 3:11-26/Ps 8:2,5.6-9/Lk 24:35-48
April 5, 2013 (Fri)             Acts 4:1-12/Ps 118:2-4/22-27/Jn 21:1-14
April 6, 2013 (Sat)            Acts 4:31-21/Ps 118:1,14-21/Mk 16:9-15

“Ignorance of the Bible is ignorance of Christ.  Read your Bible daily!”

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