More Sunday Thoughts About Taking Easter Seriously to Start the Week Off Right
Last Sunday we started a discussion of what Easter really means and how it should affect our lives. We referenced some passages from the spiritual writing of Fr. Bernard Wuellner, S.J. We left off with Father urging us to seek a "sustained climactic union" of our souls with the Risen Christ's joys and victories. Let's continue that discussion on this 3rd Sunday after Easter.
First of all, let's recognize the raised eyebrows some of you may have about the idea of us everyday folks achieving a "sustained climactic union" with Christ. Such a union isn't reserved for saints only. Whether you have ever considered this or not, that's what we all should be working in some fashion to achieve - a sustained climactic union with Christ.
And let's put to bed any doubts you may have about your ability to achieve such a union. None of us has this ability. We have to rely on God's grace - completely. What we do have is the ability to desire this union. That's it: the desire.
I hope we can all agree that we ought to have this desire - further that we, in fact, do have this desire. Whoever has issues with this needs to step back and take a good long look at themselves. Can there really be any doubt about the desirability of union with Christ?
If you're still inclined to think this is all rather "high-falutin'," think again. The development of our interior life really does depend on such a desire. (And if "the interior life" doesn't click, start with the Wiki entry and work your way up from there.) Here's how Father puts it:
"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."
NB the use of "critical" here. We must lift ourselves up out of our everyday surroundings and seek "higher things." It's just what we Catholics do. And the Easter Season really is the ideal time to do it.
We've all been captivated by the Resurrection, beginning with Easter Sunday. And, ideally, we didn't allow ourselves to be freed from that captivity now that Easter Sunday has passed. We need to be steeped in "Eastertide" - a season that lasts longer than Lent and does so for a reason: Lent culminates with Easter and Eastertide expands that culmination into a weeks-long grace-filled time.
Shaking ourselves out of our typical spiritual doldrums during Lent with our special acts of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving should result in an awakening - most definitely not a falling back into a spiritual sleep. We don't forget all about our spiritual discipline just because we're not pursuing those more stringent Lenten practices. They were meant to build up our spiritual muscles, not exhaust them.
We're not taking Easter seriously if we've let our spiritual life flounder now. So assuming we are taking Easter seriously, what should we be seeing now?
"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."
And lest we think this too much to expect, note carefully that Father specifically says we begin to get rid of those preferences. We don't flip a switch at Easter and become the "new man" that St. Paul so eloquently describes. Yes, he urges us to "put on" the new man. But this new man isn't some sort of costume. We don't take it off a rack, stick in our head, arms, and legs and zip it up.
Remember St. Paul's conversion was a relatively unique event. It's likely none of us has ever been knocked off our horse, made blind, and instantly turned away from our previously sinful existence to go out and turn the hearts of the gentiles to Jesus Christ. Even for most of those whom we recognize as saints, it took some doing to turn away from sin and turn to Christ.
Earth, after all, is but for a little while; heaven is forever.
Once you get that, you'll get this too:
"The means, the goods of time, are far below the end – God – in value. A true rating of the worth of earthly things is sometimes spoken of as contempt for them. Though we need not regard them as wicked or worthless, yet part of the spiritual effort to live with Christ risen must consist in counteracting all those desires that shut spiritual goods out of our lives. Those things which the world, hostile to Christ, our own unreasonable flesh, and the tempting devil, would give us if we but wanted them, must be banished from our choices. We must not let ourselves be overthrown by worldly desires, as was the rich young man who approached our Lord. "
And once we get this, we're in the thick of the struggle that characterizes our spiritual life.
Love of the pleasures of sense is cockle that chokes the good seed of Christ’s truth in the lives of average sinners. Love of honors in this world pulls other stronger souls away from Christ. All such desires that stand against Christ’s mastery within us must be controlled, starved, and never allowed to compete with our desires for the gifts of Christ.
This struggle lasts a long time - and "long time" means, for most of us, our entire lives.
"To win this freedom from choosing these earthly, selfish, and evil things usually takes long spiritual training. That is why the ascetic life must mark those who are risen with Christ. A religious vocation, by demanding daily sacrifices, greatly assists this denial of self; and this death of self leads to detached purity of heart with regard to lower goods. But in or out of the religious state, every Christian who would be close to Christ must labor for his spiritual freedom from all things except God and His will.”
It's not an easy life. It's not a life that readily attracts those who don't know Jesus Christ. But if we make the effort to understand His Passion and His Resurrection, that should push us to take the challenge and get down to the daily struggle and love Him as He loves us.
Just tell Him you love Him. Ask for the grace you need to really love Him as He loves you. Hey, it's Eastertide. You know the grace you need will be there for you before you know what hit you.
First of all, let's recognize the raised eyebrows some of you may have about the idea of us everyday folks achieving a "sustained climactic union" with Christ. Such a union isn't reserved for saints only. Whether you have ever considered this or not, that's what we all should be working in some fashion to achieve - a sustained climactic union with Christ.
And let's put to bed any doubts you may have about your ability to achieve such a union. None of us has this ability. We have to rely on God's grace - completely. What we do have is the ability to desire this union. That's it: the desire.
I hope we can all agree that we ought to have this desire - further that we, in fact, do have this desire. Whoever has issues with this needs to step back and take a good long look at themselves. Can there really be any doubt about the desirability of union with Christ?
If you're still inclined to think this is all rather "high-falutin'," think again. The development of our interior life really does depend on such a desire. (And if "the interior life" doesn't click, start with the Wiki entry and work your way up from there.) Here's how Father puts it:
"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."
NB the use of "critical" here. We must lift ourselves up out of our everyday surroundings and seek "higher things." It's just what we Catholics do. And the Easter Season really is the ideal time to do it.
We've all been captivated by the Resurrection, beginning with Easter Sunday. And, ideally, we didn't allow ourselves to be freed from that captivity now that Easter Sunday has passed. We need to be steeped in "Eastertide" - a season that lasts longer than Lent and does so for a reason: Lent culminates with Easter and Eastertide expands that culmination into a weeks-long grace-filled time.
Shaking ourselves out of our typical spiritual doldrums during Lent with our special acts of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving should result in an awakening - most definitely not a falling back into a spiritual sleep. We don't forget all about our spiritual discipline just because we're not pursuing those more stringent Lenten practices. They were meant to build up our spiritual muscles, not exhaust them.
We're not taking Easter seriously if we've let our spiritual life flounder now. So assuming we are taking Easter seriously, what should we be seeing now?
"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."
And lest we think this too much to expect, note carefully that Father specifically says we begin to get rid of those preferences. We don't flip a switch at Easter and become the "new man" that St. Paul so eloquently describes. Yes, he urges us to "put on" the new man. But this new man isn't some sort of costume. We don't take it off a rack, stick in our head, arms, and legs and zip it up.
Remember St. Paul's conversion was a relatively unique event. It's likely none of us has ever been knocked off our horse, made blind, and instantly turned away from our previously sinful existence to go out and turn the hearts of the gentiles to Jesus Christ. Even for most of those whom we recognize as saints, it took some doing to turn away from sin and turn to Christ.
Earth, after all, is but for a little while; heaven is forever.
Once you get that, you'll get this too:
"The means, the goods of time, are far below the end – God – in value. A true rating of the worth of earthly things is sometimes spoken of as contempt for them. Though we need not regard them as wicked or worthless, yet part of the spiritual effort to live with Christ risen must consist in counteracting all those desires that shut spiritual goods out of our lives. Those things which the world, hostile to Christ, our own unreasonable flesh, and the tempting devil, would give us if we but wanted them, must be banished from our choices. We must not let ourselves be overthrown by worldly desires, as was the rich young man who approached our Lord. "
And once we get this, we're in the thick of the struggle that characterizes our spiritual life.
Love of the pleasures of sense is cockle that chokes the good seed of Christ’s truth in the lives of average sinners. Love of honors in this world pulls other stronger souls away from Christ. All such desires that stand against Christ’s mastery within us must be controlled, starved, and never allowed to compete with our desires for the gifts of Christ.
This struggle lasts a long time - and "long time" means, for most of us, our entire lives.
"To win this freedom from choosing these earthly, selfish, and evil things usually takes long spiritual training. That is why the ascetic life must mark those who are risen with Christ. A religious vocation, by demanding daily sacrifices, greatly assists this denial of self; and this death of self leads to detached purity of heart with regard to lower goods. But in or out of the religious state, every Christian who would be close to Christ must labor for his spiritual freedom from all things except God and His will.”
It's not an easy life. It's not a life that readily attracts those who don't know Jesus Christ. But if we make the effort to understand His Passion and His Resurrection, that should push us to take the challenge and get down to the daily struggle and love Him as He loves us.
Just tell Him you love Him. Ask for the grace you need to really love Him as He loves you. Hey, it's Eastertide. You know the grace you need will be there for you before you know what hit you.
Happy Easter!
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