Christ is risen! Part 3: The song of new life
And somehow, all those attempts to say, “Hah! All your hope of new life was all an illusion! Look, hatred and injustice have triumphed after all” – all those attempts failed. The followers of Jesus said, “No, he is risen! We have not lost him.” And when today – in our rightful scepticism – we say, “Prove it! This is impossible; it cannot have happened”, his followers say, “But we experience all that Jesus promised us. The Springtime of new life in the Spirit has come, and we are living it.”
“Christ is risen” is the song of the human spirit liberated from sin and evil, from death and the fear of death. It puts into words our deepest longing that goodness will prevail and evil be overcome. After even a lifetime of disappointment and failure, after giving up to despair, after suffering torment and betrayal – or imposing that on others – there is a secret antidote that restores the light in your eyes and the hope in your heart. It is miraculous, but not a miracle in the traditional sense; it is an entirely natural transformation, a lifting of the dead weight from your shoulders, the lead weight from your heart. I say it is a secret, but it is really very simple. It’s just that we don’t have the ability to do it – till Jesus taught us, and now we do. It is having the will to care for others rather than ourselves, and granting them our forgiveness and our loving service. And doing this whether they want it or not, and certainly whether they deserve it or not. There are ways in which the liberation works that you need to respect – we’re not waving a magic wand here, and the biggest one is that the gift you’re offering has to be accepted. Once you have accepted that you are completely and utterly loved by God, you can let go of all your egotistical fear and greed. As you don’t have to protect your self-esteem – because you know you are held securely in God’s friendship – you are free to care for others and to want the best for them, because your greatest joy is to see others set free from all that degrades life, in the same way that you have been set free. “Christ is risen” is the joyful prayer of thanksgiving as we lay to rest our selfishness and take up the task of caring for others. It is what we say as God blesses us with his gift of peace.
Spiritual Devotion 