Surrexit Christus
hodie! Jesus Christ is risen today! Alleluia,
alleluia, alleluia!
Haec dia quam fecit
Dominus; exsultemus et latemur in ea! This is the day the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad! Alleluia,
alleluia, alleluia!.... Psalm 118:24
Now Lent has given its way to Eastertide, through the
Paschal Triduum. Now we have 50 days until Pentecost to savor what the
Resurrection of the Lord means. But, in order for us to truly appreciate what
the Resurrection is about, we must cultivate a good hindsight.
While the 40 days of Lent is a journey to transform our
heart into the kind of clean heart, as described in Psalm 51, the 50 days of
Eastertide is develop a deeper insight of who Jesus is, as two disciples did on
their way to Emmaus, as described in Luke 24:13-35. In this sense, what
characterize Eastertide is these words of Kierkegaard, ”Life is lived forward but
understood backward”.
We continue to move
forward during Eastertide, as guided by the risen Christ and the Holy Spirit,
as the Father wills. That is why the
First Readings for Sunday Masses during Eastertide are taken from the Acts of
the Apostles, which describes how the disciples lived beyond the Resurrection,
Ascension, and Pentecost, which Gospel readings, primarily from John’s Gospel, help
us develop the necessary hindsight.
This way, by the time Eastertide ends with Pentecost, we
will be in a better position to recognize Trinity in full circle, as we can see
how the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are related as one triune
God. Thus, counting from Ash Wednesday,
we are on this special journey to deepen our relationship with our Triune God.
On Good Friday, through the death of Jesus, we hang our
sinfulness on the Cross, as Paul says in Galatians 5:24. On that day, stumbling
blocks for us to live the way of the Holy Spirit died. Because of this, we have become better suited
to focus on the way of the Holy Spirit, as we let go of the way of the flesh. As the Paschal Lamb, Jesus has delivered us
from the enslavement of our carnal desires, which often defile us.
On Easter Sunday, Jesus has risen. But, not our ego, not our carnal desire, as these have been taken away since Good Friday.
Just as only unleavened bread is eaten during Passover and
the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which follows Passover, our ego and carnal
desires are now removed upon the new ultimate salvific Passover that Jesus, as Agnus Dei, the Paschal Lamb, was its
price for – just as yeast was removed form dough to make unleavened bread.
This is why the Eucharistic bread, as Sacrament, is always
unleavened, in the Catholic Church.
Some people argue that leavened bread should use for
communion, because Jesus is risen. But, this view really misses the very meaning
of the Resurrection.
As it is not dough that rises, neither are our ego nor
carnal desire, as Jesus died and is risen.
Otherwise, why we have worked so
hard to let our ego and carnal desire go during Lent? If we were to use
leavened bread for communion, it would symbolize that we were still living with
“fungus” that raises our ego and arouses carnal desires.
Such “fungus” in our
heart is a major stumbling block for the Holy Spirit, which raised Jesus from
the dead (Romans 8:11).
It is not dough that is to rise.
It is neither our ego nor our carnal desire that are to
rise.
It is only Jesus, the Christ, and the Holy Spirit that rise.
And, as we let “fungus” in us be crucified on Good Friday, our clean heart is
also raised by the rising Holy Spirit.
This is what Easter is about.
Yes, Jesus Christ is risen today! Not the “dough” – what our
ego and flesh, because the “fungus” in us died on Good Friday. Our clean heart
is free from “fungus”, thanks be to God, whose immeasurable love let His only
begotten Son, to remove it by dying, yet rises him with the Holy Spirit – so that
our clean heart also rises with the soaring Spirit.
With our humble heart, symbolized with unleaven bread, we can thank and praise the Lord better! With our clean heart, we can rejoice in God better!
Praise the Lord!
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