He was crucified and died, and on the third day he rose from the dead or he rose again…
I believe in the Resurrection of the dead and the life everlasting…So what? Well, life “in Christ and with Christ” makes a difference in my life! With devotion and great fervour we the members of the Christian Community are observing the Holy Season of Lent desiring a renewal of our life in and with Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. As people who make the confession of their faith saying, “we proclaim your Death and profess your Resurrection until you come again,” keep seeking salvation from Him who is “Victorious” over Satan, sin, and death. Salvation through Jesus Christ is the ongoing need for us human beings. The journey in this holy Season of Lent is a fresh opportunity given for “personal appropriation of the redemption” offered to us who are the baptized members of the Christian Community. We are supposed to have died and risen with Jesus Christ who died and rose on the third day. But, we all realize that we have not fully died to sin which destroys the life we have received in and through the Risen Christ. All that we observe and do in the form of prayer, fasting, and charitable works besides sacrificing some of the legitimate pleasures and enjoyments, are supposed to lead us to a renewal and revival of our life in Christ and with Christ! For this, we have to go beyond the formal and traditional practices that we observe. A tangible transformation should be desired and experienced as the fruit of the Holy Season of Lent, “the spring time of grace.” It should bring about a renewed joy in and with Christ! This is the meaning of renewing the “Baptismal vows” during the liturgy of the Easter Vigil and on Easter Sunday with the lighted candles in our hands. This renewal has to be more than a formal act done along with the rest of the Community members. Therefore, a personal preparation has to be there for true change and conversion from all that is negatively affecting our “life in and with Christ.”
Life “in and with Christ” to be lived where we are placed…
Our life is always in a living context and with or in the midst of other human beings. We cannot be indifferent to the fellow human beings who like us are also striving to live their life bound by the daily tasks and relationships in the life context they are placed. Therefore, for all of us it is a major challenge to live in good relationships, family and blood relations, friends and acquaintances, and neighbors from different walks of life and different religious or cultural or linguistic traditions, etc. We can give what we have or cannot give what we do not have, “nemodat quod non habet.” So, when we have in us a life lived “in and with Christ,” imperfect though we might be, in some measure it will reach others with whom we live and relate. Now, our life “in and with Christ” means that we are in contact and communion with Christ in our thoughts, words and actions. We take all the possible care that nothing in our way of living goes (or is) contrary to what Jesus Christ stands for, what He teaches and what He expects of us. As we advance in years as believers in Christ and as members of the believing community, the Church, we keep learning from Our Lord Jesus Christ and from the Church about what it means to be “in Christ and with Christ.” It can happen that the best among us can end up living contrary to what we are called or expected to be. We can continue to live in that way, partially or fully, while claiming (because of membership in the Church) that we are “in and with Christ.” In our way of living with others and our interaction with them, in our priorities and life style, actual truth about our claim to be “in Christ and with Christ” will manifest itself and others would experience the real truth about our life.
Life “in Christ and with Christ” should gradually lead to a transformation into “Christ-like” persons!:
There is something called formation of our person and personality. It is an ongoing continuous process. It is the result of voluntary and involuntary thoughts, decisions and actions that keep happening in one’s life. As one advances in years coming out of childhood, he or she begins to have one’s own way of thinking and acting. Behind this formation there is the family, the school, the neighbourhood, religion and religious practices, society and culture, and of course, there is also the inherited realities and situations of given family. While one’s uniqueness and individual identity remains more or less intact, there is a transformation and a change in thinking and acting, especially when one deliberately choses and commits oneself to a particular vision or ideology. For a Christian believer it is Jesus Christ, His person and His Vision, His teachings – the Good News of the Kingdom of God – that should form and transform his or her life. See what Saint Paul says in his letter to the Galatians giving a personal testimony about his own life in Christ: “I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:19b-20).We know from other accounts in the Acts of the Apostles and other letters of Saint Paul how his life totally changed and transformed. A new life altogether!! As a good pastor, we see Saint Paul writing to or speaking to the Baptized members in the Community about becoming like Christ or about the image of Christ to be formed in the believers: “My little children, for whom I am again in the pain of childbirth until Christ is formed in you” (Gal 4:19). In a similar manner he tells the Philippians: “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus” (Phil 2:5).
Introspect to see if we are being formed and transformed…
Now, each of us should enter into our lives and see if and to what extent we are being formed and transformed as the result of “our life in Christ and with Christ.” An ‘osmosis like’ process has to go on between us and Our Lord Jesus Christ whom we are encountering or meeting in His Word and in the Sacraments, and in the living Community, the Church! How does one gage or measure to know about the transformation of our life because of our life “in and with Christ?” It has to be an attitudinal change: Like Christ, be in communion with God through personal prayer; seek to do God’s will by being faithful to the entrusted mission seeing it as “God-given;” being merciful and compassionate towards the poor and the needy; receiving others with respect, concern and love, especially with those who are ‘marked’ or ‘branded’ as bad people or sinful people; and above all, have some basic human qualities like being truthful, honest and just, respect and regard for fellow human beings, and faithfulness to the “word given” and “promises made,” and not to live selfishly only for oneself but have enough space for others. For this kind of formation and transformation, one has to be involved in the process with a deep desire to be like Jesus Christ. Mere wishing to be “like Jesus” will not be sufficient. In all the choices, small and big, one has to seek “the way of Christ.” For this, we have to keep “learning” from Christ and His Church! To learn one has to be open and receptive to what is being taught by Christ, and be willing to follow it in one’s life.
Life “in Christ and with Christ” leading “to live for Christ.”
Our Lord entrusted to his apostles the mission of proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom and to be “his witnesses.” These apostles, we know, went through formation for about three years. During those three years their journey was a gradual growth in their understanding of their Lord and Master and persevered in their discipleship though not all. It took time for them to fall in line with the way of the Lord Jesus – from doubts, lack of understanding, misunderstanding about His kingdom and kingship, even abandoning him when their Master was arrested, condemned and crucified, and died on the cross! Some of them asked him about what they would get and even recommended themselves, James and John, for positions, like self-promotion! They were unhappy when their Lord and Master was speaking about His suffering, passion and death! Their encounters with the Risen Christ brought them back to the revival of their faith in the Lord Jesus as the Messiah, Christos and kyrios! It was as if it was a second phase of their formation. They were confirmed in their faith and conviction about the Lord Jesus. Finally, it was the anointing in the Holy Spirit that set their hearts with fire and true to their Master’s command they went about proclaiming Lord Jesus, as the Messiah, Saviour and Lord. They began to “live for Christ and for the Mission entrusted to them” directed and guided by the Holy Spirit. They lived and died “for the Lord” and for the mission entrusted! Now, we as members of the Church today are called to “live for Christ” and to strive to be “His witnesses” like the apostles and disciples of the first generation and others down the history “who lived and died for the mission.” For this, we need to be strong and consistent to live “in and with Christ.” We have to be formed in the school of discipleship of Jesus Christ. We have to be prepared “to live and die for Him.” No self-promotion, seeking safety and security, but only self-sacrifice and self-denial if we have “to be in Christ, with Christ and for Christ.”
“Then Peter said, “Behold, we have left everything and followed you. What then shall we have?” Jesus said to them, “everyone who has left houses or brothers of sisters or father or mother of children of lands for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life” (Mat 19:27,29).