Learning To Find The Risen Christ, Even In The Midst Of Evil And Despair
Our human minds can never fully grasp the full meaning of Jesus’ Resurrection. For the Jewish people, Jesus was executed as a “common criminal” outside Jerusalem. Thus, Jesus was considered to be condemned by God with no hope of salvation. But God – as Pope Francis proclaimed on Easter Sunday – is full of surprises! In raising Jesus from the dead, God proclaimed that Jesus is not only NOT condemned, but is indeed “the way, the truth and the life.” For all who believe and serve him, Jesus is the source of eternal life.
Easter, Ascension and Pentecost are the fulfillment of the Incarnation. Jesus’ coming down from heaven and taking on human flesh was the beginning of his sacrificial life poured out in living service of all. God’s eternal Son left the glory of heaven to walk our human way of life. Indeed it’s a wonderful life; but it is also a life filled with problems, sickness, struggles and the worst we must face – death. Yet, Jesus did this, as St. Paul proclaims, while we were still sinners. In his Resurrection and Ascension, Jesus has taken our humanity into the very presence of God where it is forever glorified. The unity between God and the human family – once destroyed by Adam’s sin – is now restored in Christ Jesus. We enter this union through baptism, confirmation, Eucharist and a life of faith and love.
Easter also means that precisely there where God seems to be most absent in Jesus’ life, God has worked his greatest miracle. We have all experienced God’s silence in the midst of physical, emotional or spiritual suffering. It “feels” as if God is a million miles away. The cross and resurrection invite us to believe otherwise – precisely in our darkest hour, God is present bringing life out of death. God asks us only to be patient and surrender ourselves into his hands – not easy to do when darkness and pain overwhelm us. But can we be exempt from the cross if the Master was not?
The Sunday following the Boston Marathon bombing, Deacon Tom Evans preached a very inspiring homily. I hope my words do justice to his homily. He began by recalling that “the shocking bombing in Boston this past week leaves us all seeking answers. How could this happen? Why would anyone, let alone a very well-liked 19-year-old college student with his older brother, carry out such senseless violence?
“The problem of evil is not a new problem of course. The Bible reveals that evil extends as far back as the first humans. St. Augustine was asked to explain evil when the Christian city of Rome fell to pagan barbarians in 410 A.D. People asked how this was possible. Why didn’t God protect the Christians of Rome? The pagans of Rome pointed fingers at the new Roman converts accusing the Christian God -- ‘The pagan gods had protected Rome for centuries; yet this Christian God was not able to protect Rome for even one century!’
“Augustine wrote a parable imagining the struggle between good and evil as a struggle between two cities – the earthly city and the City of God. The two cities exist in the world together like ‘weeds and wheat.’ Their citizens are entangled, like roses among thorns. The citizens of the two cities are distinguished by what they love. The citizens of the City of God love the eternal God. The citizens of the earthly city love the things of the world that are passing away. The citizens of the City of God live in peace, unity and charity, while the citizens of the earthly city live in the midst of violence, hatred and greed; and foster them.
“The citizens of the earthly city have no response to the senseless violence for they have nothing to believe in and nothing to hope for. The citizens of the City of God live in hope, because of their faith in the risen Christ, one with the Father, who became man, suffered and died at the hands of the citizens of the earthly city; and thus, defeating sin, evil, and death for all through his Resurrection. The Risen Christ is still alive and active in our world.
“St. Augustine tells us that the people of every age must make a choice. Who or what do we love more -- God or the things of the world. If we choose God then we are obligated to build up the City of God in the earthly city by how we live. Evil will always be with us; however, we respond to evil through faith and hope in the Risen Christ. And we live with the awareness of his presence with us in the midst of evil.
“As those called by the risen Christ to build up the City of God here on earth – although it will only be a foreshadowing of the glory that will be ours in the ‘new heavens and the new earth’ in the life to come – we are empowered by God’s very own Spirit. God does not leave it up to our own power and abilities to build up the City of God. On this great Solemn Feast of Pentecost, we believe that God has poured forth upon the world and into our hearts his very own spirit as the dynamic energy to work with God to build up God’s City. As Catholic Christians, I believe we need to come to a greater awareness of the Holy Spirit working in our lives, to detect the Spirit’s inspirations so that we can grow in God’s own divine life, and become ‘holy just as God is holy’ (Eucharistic Prayer for Reconciliation I). In so doing, we will also work with God to build up God’s City, God’s Kingdom among us.”
Next week, I will continue to present Deacon Tom’s homily because he helps us see where we can find the risen Christ even in the midst of the Boston Bombing and even our own personal struggles and times when our crosses seem overbearing to us.
