Pope Francis has written that “Christ’s resurrection is not an event of the past: it contains a vital power that has permeated this world. Where all seems to be dead, signs of the resurrection suddenly spring up. It is an irresistible force”. (Evangelii Gaudium, nr 276)

This invites us to rethink our attitude towards the Paschal Mystery of Jesus’ Passion, death and resurrection that has reached its liturgical culmination today.

Clearly, in one sense, both Jesus’ terrible Passion and the Lord’s glorious resurrection on the third day happened in the past, in the Holy Land some 2,000 years ago. They are in that sense historically and geographically circumscribed.

We may have taken part in the liturgical re-evocations of the Passion and resurrection that bring us close to the Lord, first in his suffering and humiliation and then in his triumph. If we limit our belief in the Paschal mystery to a devout recalling of past events, its influence on our lives will be very limited. We may, of course, find comfort in our present sorrows in the Lord’s Passion and in Mary’s sufferings. But the importance of the resurrection at work today will escape us.

Science has helped us to wonder at certain aspects of the world around us. We are amazed, for instance, at the tremendous energy that is released when the nucleus of an atom is split.

Jesus’s resurrection is, in truth, an even more powerful and irresistible force at work in history, now. It is hard to affirm that when you are faced by injustice and crass selfishness, if not by outright evil and cruelty. But in spite of the darkness and death, light and life always re-emerge. Such is the power of the resurrection.

The challenge therefore for us as Christians living the Paschal mystery is to look for the crucified Jesus present among us, while also seeking signs of Jesus’s powerful resurrection acting in history now.

Christ crucified can be found in all who suffer – the sick, the materially poor, those treated unjustly, those (often refugees) not made welcome, those suffering in marriage or because of a broken marriage, those living with the loss of a very dear person…. In these and similar situations we can say that the crucified Lord is present here and now. To some extent, we have been used to making this link between Jesus who suffered two thousand years ago with Jesus who is crucified now.

It is less usual and common to look for the glorious Jesus present in history, to contemplate his risen life in the signs around us now. It is vital to do so if we are to keep up our Christian hope.

Beyond the Scripture, the sacraments and prayer, signs of Christ risen in daily life can be found, for instance, in the life or smile of a child, in the enthusiasm of a young person, in those selflessly serving the poor and the sick, in all efforts to further the cause of justice and affirm the dignity of human beings, in the beauty of nature and the countryside, in the desire for learning…

Through Jesus’s resurrection, there is in human reality – in spite of elements of negativity – also a powerful, positive irrepressible force that renews and recreates. God’s Spirit is active and transformative in human history. This is a call to seek and find God in all things, not only in the more strictly ‘religious’ realities. The Scripture, the sacraments and prayer, in fact, should open our hearts and eyes to wonder at God’s action in history.

Horrible things have happened in human history; they still do. We may get discouraged. God seems absent. But, to quote Pope Francis again, Christian “faith also means believing in God, believing He truly loves us… that He is mysteriously capable of intervening, that He does not abandon us and that He brings good out of evil by His power and His infinite creativity”. (Evangelii Gaudium, nr 278)

Fr Robert Soler is a member of the Society of Jesus.

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