Participation in the Victory

Dear Parish Family,

Over the course of these past weeks, we have been focusing on the victory won in Christ Jesus. Easter is the season of victory, when we celebrate how Jesus has redeemed us from our sins and invited us into a new way of life, placing Him at the center of our existence. But we also admit that life is not just smooth sailing when we begin to follow.

Two weeks back, we focused on how Thomas saw and believed in order to participate in Jesus’ victory, even receiving the eerie invitation to put his finger and hand into our Lord’s glorified wounds; gives me goosebumps! Thomas was doubting and questioning, wrapped up in his own thoughts. Only through this beautiful and moving encounter with Jesus in the Upper Room, gathered with his friends, could he move beyond his skepticism and rumination in order to profess his faith.

Last week, Peter came front and center. He, too, was not sure of the path forward and longed for the familiarity of fishing. Although Peter had left everything, with his brother and sons of Zebedee to follow this new rabbi three years ago from the same shore, he had returned to a former path. By Jesus’ invitation and encouragement, Peter came to a place where he could receive the Lord’s invitation: “Follow me.”

This week, our attention centers on Paul, who is probably the apostle that made the most dramatic change in his life. Actually, that is hard to say. We can never know all the factors weighing on one’s heart and mind in the making of a decision. Each decision to follow our Lord is one that costs, that causes a death in a way and allows one to begin a new life in Christ.

Paul had been a Pharisee and a persecutor of those who followed the Way; this is how Christians were known even before they were called Christians (Acts 11:26). Paul, known as Saul, was even present when Stephen was martyred. He was very committed to stamping out this new sect of Judaism that was taking root. And yet, after his conversion and time away in the desert, Paul became the great evangelizer and apostle to the gentiles. Without Paul’s efforts, it is hard to picture how the church would have grown in those early days.

Paul has many great phrases, captured by his letters in the New Testament. Here is one that depicts in a mysterious way how he shares in Jesus’ victory:

“For through the law I died to the law, that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ; yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given Himself up for me.”
(Gal 2:19-20)

Paul speaks mysteriously about what it means for him to place Christ at the center of his life. No longer to live by the law and his own sense of what is true, but to surrender and allow faith to be his north star. He has come to know the love of Christ and now he lives for Him who was crucified to redeem us. It is a beautiful exchange. 

One of the big questions in this series is: how do you see Christ’s victory resonating in your life? What are the ways that you recognize the power of the risen Lord in your life? And I suppose a follow up to that question, especially if you struggle to name specific things, would be: what could you do (or not do) to better share in Christ’s victory?

Our sharing in redemption is not automatic. It is a gift from the Lord, first received at Baptism and then confirmed and sealed at our Confirmation, but we also must strive to live in the light of the Gospel, to walk in the ways of the Lord, to enjoy the warmth of the rays of God’s love. There are many ways of trying to depict the same reality. To participate in the victory of our Lord’s Passion, Death and Resurrection, we too are invited to die of self to live for God. And we are seeing in the lives of His first followers that participating in the grace of redemption is not one and done. It is the project of our lives. We come to moments of doubts, crossroads, struggles, time and again. Each time, we are blessed to hear the invitation: “Follow me.”

Gratefully,
Fr. Joel