The Risen Christ at Work

With the inestimable glory of the Octave of Easter behind us, let's try to focus on how to live our lives in the new light of Our Lord's Resurrection. A good starting point might be to remember that now that Lent has passed we don't want to slip back to who or what we were before Lent began. So as we prepare for work today, we turn to some advice from Father Bernard Wuellner, S.J.

The Christian puts to himself one searching question at Easter: Am I risen with Christ? One proof that one is living the risen life of grace is a heart burning with love of Christ and all that belongs to this Friend of our souls. For this must be a feature of the new life of grace, that we have a buoyant interest in Christ and a keen ambition to possess His treasures. If we listen to the Church urging us to live the Christ-life more fully these days, we will spiritually rise from our religious sloth, our moral faults, and our absorption in worldly interests that take the mind and heart away from the risen Lord. It would be a pitiable mistake to let the slackening of the Lenten penances become at Easter a signal for a decrease in our daily living for and yearning for Christ. The paschal season ought rather to be a sustained climatic union of our souls with His joy and victories…. The swinging of the mind towards higher things and its flight from the lower may be a critical moment in the development of the interior Christian life. As the divine captures our attention and deepens our motives, we begin to get rid of our preferences for bodily comforts, worldly honors, and temporal blessings. These things lose their former importance in our estimation. Earth, after all, is but for a little while; heaven is forever.

Yes, our lives in this world are but a passing moment. And Our Lord's Resurrection should remind us all of this most important fact. The Risen Christ shows us His glory that we might see the glory that awaits us all. His suffering and death, as we all know, derives its full meaning from His Resurrection. Having joined in His Passion through our Lenten discipline, we now need to join Him in His Resurrection. Just how we might do that is what Father's remarks address.

Do our hearts burn with love of Christ and all that belong to Him? Or will we pack ourselves off to work and slip back into the comfortable, self-centered, pleasure-seeking patterns that mark the life of the typical lukewarm Christian-in-name-only? As Father points out, "It would be a pitiable mistake to let the slackening of the Lenten penances become at Easter a signal for a decrease in our daily living and yearning for Christ."

Let's remember this today as our work begins to takes up our full time and attention. Next time, we'll continue with more good advice from Father Wuellner.