Liberation from Slavery to Oppressive Behaviors, that is from Sin

Liberation from Slavery to Oppressive Behaviors, that is from Sin

In today's first reading, Exodus 14: 21-15:1, we are given the story of the Israelites being freed from the oppression of the Egyptians.  God divides the waters of the sea, "with the water like a wall to their right and to their left," the Israelites are able to cross the sea on dry land.  Once safely across, God instructs Moses to stretch out his hand over the sea, "that the water may flow back upon the Egyptians."   None of them survive.  "When Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the seashore and beheld the great power that the Lord had shown against the Egyptians, they feared the Lord and believed in him and in his servant Moses."

This story is not only about the Israelites. It is about you and me, as well!  God also frees us from our oppressors: the oppression of selfishness, prejudice and hatred that holds us back from being a true disciple of Jesus.  It is about the ways, through baptism and the other sacraments that Jesus frees us from the oppressing blindness and deafness that deprives us of the ability to recognize Jesus in others and from hearing the voice of the Spirit guiding us to do good and avoid evil.

The story of God freeing the Israelites from the slavery of Egypt is a precursor of Jesus freeing us from sin as He offered His life for our salvation and rose from the dead, death and sin having absolutely no power over Jesus.  In baptism we died with Christ and rose with Him to new life, a life in which we are empowered to live as brothers and sisters and mothers of Jesus, that is as persons doing what the Father wills of us (see today's gospel, Matthew 12: 46-50).

Happy Easter!

In today's Gospel, Luke 24: 1-12, Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Mary the mother of James went to the tomb at daybreak with spices they had prepared to anoint Jesus' body. They found the tomb empty. While these women,  and others who accompanied them,  were puzzling over the empty tomb, "two men in dazzling garments appeared to them...and said to them: 'Why do you seek seek the living one among the dead? He is not here, but he has been raised. Remember what he said to you while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners and be crucified, and rise from the dead.'"  The women shared their experience with the apostles, who dismissed it as nonsense. Peter, however,  went to the tomb to check the women's story and found only the burial cloths. He returned "home amazed at what had happened."

Death had no power over Jesus. Neither will it have any power us, as St. Paul reminds us in Romans 6: 3-11. "Brothers and sisters: are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life....If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has power over him...." nor over us who believe in Him and live like Him.

Alleluia!

Cherishing oneness with Christ

“We hold …[a] treasure in earthen vessels” (2 Cor 4:7).  Because Christ lives and breathes and moves within us and we in Him, we are “always carrying about in…[our bodies] the dying of Jesus,  so that  the life of Jesus…[His rising is also]  manifested in our [bodies]” (2 Cor: 4: 5-6). What does the dying and rising with Christ look like in our daily lives?  Every day, like James and John in today’s Gospel, we are faced with the temptation to be looking for that which this world deems essential to our well-being—getting  privileges,  lording it over others, being number 1, etc. and/or  we come face to face with sin in us, that is, with our envy, jealousy, deceitfulness, pride, selfishness , sloth or unjustified anger.  Dying means not giving life to these tendencies, letting them die, and rising to new life in Christ Jesus.  Thus, when we encounter sufferings that come with dealing with the worst in human nature, that which is not of God, we have two choices: 1) to traverse the most travelled road or 2) to choose the least traveled road where we are transformed into Christ by the purifying fire ignited by the suffering itself, embracing the pain, addressing it and resolving it as Christ resolved it:  through love, forgiveness,  and reconciliation with those with whom we are at odds.   Living in this way, our lives “cause… thanksgiving to overflow for the glory of God’( 2 Cor 4: 15).   Transformed into Christ by what we suffer in living a life for and with God, “…the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and place us…in his presence” (2 Cor 4:14).

Am I willing to live life on this level of meaning and with this kind of faith?