The Queen: Editorial: Victory Over Sin and Death: Do We Understand What This Means in Our Daily Lives?
Fr. James McMillan, SMM
Victory Over Sin and Death
We have become so accustomed . . .
. . . to reading about and hearing about the resurrection of Christ from the dead that this event, the most astounding in the history of the human race, fails to impress us as it should.
Even the Apostles Were Confused
In a way, this attitude is quite understandable. The gospels show us that not even the Apostles were as impressed by the Resurrection of Christ as they undoubtedly should have been. For one thing, they did not expect Christ to come back to life, even though He had predicted His rising. For another thing, they failed to see what possible connection this could have with their notion of the Messiah. They were looking for victory over the oppressors of Israel. What Christ gave them —and us— was victory over sin and death.
Like the apostles, we find it difficult, with our human way of thinking, to fully accept a Messiah who will not give us immediate Paradise here on earth. And again, like the apostles, we know that Christ is our Redeemer, that He has the power to wipe out sickness, suffering and death. That He can, right now, give us all the peace and prosperity that we long for. We still hanker for an earth-bound redemption, one that we all would prefer to the kind of redemption Christ came to bring us.
It is Our Faith in Christ . . .
It is our faith in Christ that tells us otherwise, that permits us to accept the redemption that He gives us. And it is a faith not easy to attain, one that comes to us through reflection and prayer, through remembering that a suffering Head of the Body of Christ entails the necessary suffering of the members of that Body. What Christ said of Himself is true also of us: “Was it not to be expected that the Christ should undergo these sufferings and so enter into His glory?”
We are just bringing to a close what our Holy Father has called a “Year of Redemption,” It was a year specially dedicated to stimulating prayerful thinking about the suffering, death and Resurrection of Our Lord. It was intended to draw us all closer and closer into the mystery of the salvation of the human race.
Of course, it takes more than just a year of consideration and prayer to give us even a glimpse of what Christ our Lord has done for us. It will take all of eternity for us to grasp, even inadequately, the love that Christ has shown us: “Greater love than this no one has, than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
Editorial
From time to time, The Queen will republish Editorials or create new Editorials on various topics.
The Resurrection of Christ is a pledge, a guarantee of our own eventual rising from the dead. It tells us that we, like Christ, must go through suffering and death in order to rise again with Him. It tells us, as it told the apostles, that we must think as Christ thought about what is best for us.
It tells us to put aside, with the help of God’s grace, our petty human notions of how we should be redeemed. It tells us to look forward to the glory of our rising again, to put our faith in Christ’s power and love.
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The Resurrection of Christ . . .
The Resurrection of Christ is a pledge, a guarantee of our own eventual rising from the dead. It tells us that we, like Christ, must go through suffering and death in order to rise again with Him. It tells us, as it told the apostles, that we must think as Christ thought about what is best for us.
It tells us to put aside, with the help of God’s grace, our petty human notions of how we should be redeemed. It tells us to look forward to the glory of our rising again, to put our faith in Christ’s power and love.
. . . is a Pledge
The Apostles came, in time and with the help of the Holy Spirit, to a more profound realization of the meaning of the death and Resurrection of Christ. They learned to live that meaning in their own lives, in their apostolate throughout the known world, in their finally giving up their lives for the sake of spreading the meaning of the Redemption to others.
But it was no doubt Our Blessed Lady who came to the deepest understanding of what the Redemption of the human race means. Unlike the Apostles, she never wavered in her faith in her Divine Son. She stood at the foot of the cross, probably not fully understanding what was taking place, possibly wondering why this crucifixion was necessary, but never for a moment doubting that Her Son was truly accomplishing the Redemption of mankind.
What she came to realize later on was that this suffering led inevitably to a glorious resurrection, a resurrection for Christ Himself and a future resurrection for all of us.
