The Power of the Resurrection

In Easter, with Jesus' resurrection "a new way of living has opened up, a way of living focused in Jesus and the power of his resurrection" (WAU, p.22).

What does this mean? How is our life this week any different than life last week? After all the resurrection, the actual event, happened many, many years ago. How does it affect my life today?

Jesus is the same "yesterday, today and forever". What He did all those years ago, He can do today. In a supernatural but real way, the power of the resurrection is the same today as back then.

What did the resurrection accomplish? Simply put, it changed lives. It transformed the apostles. It made it possible for them to understand, to see and to comprehend the truths of Jesus' teachings.

It is true that the most dramatic changes happened after Pentecost. The time between the resurrection and Pentecost was a slow unfolding of the life that begun when Jesus left the tomb. That Easter time seemed to have gradually affirmed, in the mind of the apostles, the reality of what they had witnessed. I picture them, growing more assured with each apparition of Jesus. Each encounter deposited more confidence in their souls and made them thirst for more. The resurrection began it all.

It was the resurrection, that ultimate miracle, what made believing easier. If God could raise Jesus from the clutches of death, what couldn't He do? With the resurrection everything becomes possible. The resurrection creates an expectant faith.

An expectant faith is fertile ground for receiving the Holy Spirit. Faith that awaits opens itself. Like thirsty ground waiting for water, a soul who expects will receive the Holy Spirit and produce abundant fruit.

The Church, full of wisdom, uses the liturgical year to help us re-live these truths. During Lent our family focused on certain readings. We read the story of the woman at the well. Jesus was for her the Living Water. We read about the man born blind. Jesus was light for him. We read about Lazarus. Jesus was life for him. We meditated on these stories. Jesus is for every person what that person needs.

Now is Easter. Easter comes during spring time, when nature all around us is freeing itself form the grasp of winter. New life is everywhere. It is time for us to have new life too. It is time to make those truths we read about during Lent, be our truth. It is time to let Jesus, who is Living Water, Light and Life, be our Living Water, our Light and our Life. It is time to make the power of the resurrection OURS.