Should this not be our desire too? Is this not the goal and purpose of the Christian life? For sure, those of a cynical turn of mind might suggest that such a desire or hope is grandiose or simply a platitude – but they are wrong. St Paul understood that the Christian vocation is fundamentally to be more and more like Christ.
But how do we achieve this? How can we grow and mature in our knowledge, understanding and experience of the resurrection life? The answer will be the same for all time: it is through faith and baptism that we acquire the resurrected life of Jesus.
Jesus taught that in order to enter the kingdom of God we must be born again – an actual re-birth must occur through water and the Holy Spirit (see John 3). Our natural lives and powers are simply ineffective and overwhelmed when dealing with evil, sin and death. Evil, sin and death conquer and vanquish us all, from the greatest to the least, from the holiest of us to the greatest sinner. Evil, sin and death are our true enemies and our greatest afflictions. Faith and baptism hold out to us the hope of being reborn into the resurrected life of Jesus. We can live in a way which far exceeds our natural abilities or gifts. St Paul expressed it well when he said: ‘I can do all things in him who gives me strength’ (Phil. 4:13).
Reflecting Jesus’ teaching, St Paul saw this re-birth as being actualized and realized in the sacrament of baptism. He taught that in baptism we die with Christ: ‘We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead to the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life’ (Rom. 6:4). In and through baptism we are actually united to the death of Jesus so that our own sinful humanity is put to death, and so too in baptism we rise to share in Christ’s divinity: ‘Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come’ (2 Cor. 5:17).
Because we are new creations in Christ, we share in the power of his resurrection. This means that where once we were slaves to sin we are now empowered to live holy and righteous lives. No longer need temptation and sin dominate our hearts and minds, for we now possess the risen power of the Holy Spirit and we can resist and overcome by God’s grace. Moreover, the Holy Spirit living in us empowers us to think and act as Christ himself thought and acted. Confident of this, St Paul exhorted the Colossian believers, ‘Do not lie to one other, seeing that you have put off the old nature with its practices and have put on the new nature, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator’ (Col. 3:9-10). And to the Ephesian church he wrote, ‘Put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts and be renewed in the spirit of your minds and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness’ (Eph. 4:22-24). Through the gift of baptism we have received the power of the resurrection and by it we can live a new life, for we have been recreated into the likeness of God in Christ. It is through living by this risen power of the Holy Spirit that we are able to be transformed.
God wants our life to be one of continual progress, growth and maturity in living the life in the power of the Holy Spirit. It is by living by this power of the risen Lord that change is possible on a daily basis, leading to transformation. Yes, for sure, we may struggle, and yes, for sure, we are involved in a daily battle and struggle, but we can be assured that ‘he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world’ (1 John 4:4). Ultimately the power of the risen Jesus allows us to conquer all sin. In daily beholding the glory of the risen Jesus, we ‘are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit’ (2 Cor. 3:18).
St Paul taught that the Holy Spirit guarantees that what is mortal is being ‘swallowed up by life’ (2 Cor. 5:4). In other words, our daily lives here on earth are being taken over, consumed if you like, by the power of the risen Lord. This risen life is the life of the Holy Spirit in us. Consider and reflect on this because it is an important part of our faith. Remember, too, that this risen life encompasses the daily reality of our lives, including paying the bills, raising our children, struggles at work and in the home, and so on. All aspects of our lives are being ‘swallowed up’ by the Lord so that he can transform us into the likeness of the risen Christ. This process which is on-going in our lives is the fruit of our baptism but is also the joy, excitement and adventure which is the Christian life.
But you ask: how is my old life swallowed up by the new life of Christ? This holy process takes place in our hearts in our prayer and in our reading of Scripture but also and supremely so in the receiving of the Eucharist.
Jesus taught that he is the bread of life that has come down from heaven and that the bread that he gives us is his own flesh and blood: ‘I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh’ (John 6:51). When we receive Jesus in the Eucharist, we do not receive the pre-resurrected body and blood of Jesus but the risen body and risen blood of the Lord. We consume and swallow the risen Jesus and in so doing the risen resurrected life swallows us up, conforming us into the image and likeness of Christ himself.
We can give witness to the life in the Spirit; we can be powerful witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection and risen life. We can, in short, live a life worthy of the calling we have received. It is for this reason that St Paul exhorts the believers in Ephesus, ‘Therefore, putting away falsehood, let everyone speak the truth with his neighbour, for we are members of one another…Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for edifying, as fits the occasion, that it may impart grace to those who hear it. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption’ (Eph. 4:25, 29-32).
This season of Easter and Eastertide climaxing so wonderfully on Pentecost Sunday we are invited to experience the risen Lord and the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit wants us to know the power of the resurrection especially when we receive the Eucharist for here in this sacrament, the source and summit of the Christian life, we receive every blessing, every grace, every gift, every charism and every spiritual blessing in Christ by which we can love God and our neighbour.
But you ask: how is my old life swallowed up by the new life of Christ? This holy process takes place in our hearts in our prayer and in our reading of Scripture but also and supremely so in the receiving of the Eucharist.
Jesus taught that he is the bread of life that has come down from heaven and that the bread that he gives us is his own flesh and blood: ‘I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh’ (John 6:51). When we receive Jesus in the Eucharist, we do not receive the pre-resurrected body and blood of Jesus but the risen body and risen blood of the Lord. We consume and swallow the risen Jesus and in so doing the risen resurrected life swallows us up, conforming us into the image and likeness of Christ himself.
We can give witness to the life in the Spirit; we can be powerful witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection and risen life. We can, in short, live a life worthy of the calling we have received. It is for this reason that St Paul exhorts the believers in Ephesus, ‘Therefore, putting away falsehood, let everyone speak the truth with his neighbour, for we are members of one another…Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for edifying, as fits the occasion, that it may impart grace to those who hear it. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption’ (Eph. 4:25, 29-32).
This season of Easter and Eastertide climaxing so wonderfully on Pentecost Sunday we are invited to experience the risen Lord and the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit wants us to know the power of the resurrection especially when we receive the Eucharist for here in this sacrament, the source and summit of the Christian life, we receive every blessing, every grace, every gift, every charism and every spiritual blessing in Christ by which we can love God and our neighbour.
