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| Christ the Redeemer in Rio |
That is the point of the parable about the grain of wheat.
Just as religious Jews on March 31 will start to celebrate their Passover/seder, so too we at the Easter vigil will celebrate Jesus’ passage or “Passover” from death to life: a passage that liberates us from death and gifts us with God’s life. Jesus has opened up to us new possibilities of life: yes, eternal life. And Jesus, transfigured into a new heavenly reality, anticipates our own future when God will transfigure us into a new heavenly reality.
This challenges us to remember our ultimate purpose: salvation and eternal life with God. Yes, Jesus is indeed our savior, our salvation. But what means salvation?
We live in a culture that advertises countless phony forms of instant salvation.
In the Gospels, Jesus “saves” when he heals, when he forgives, when he satisfies our spiritual hunger.
St. Paul uses several words to describe salvation: liberation from death, justification or a right relationship with God.
Salvation is really a life-long process, not a quick fix. In following Jesus, we continually have to struggle against the darkness within ourselves.
The word “salvation” tries to answer a fundamental question: what is my ultimate purpose? The Catholic answer acknowledges the brevity and fragility of human life. It also acknowledges our freedom to choose good over evil. And vice versa, unfortunately! Hence each of us is responsible for how we choose to live.
Tragically, some people do choose evil. Some deny people their basic human rights. People do do violence to one another. Witness Syria and the Congo. We call this “original sin”: the tendency or pull within us to sometimes choose wrong over right, evil over good, falsehood over truth.
Yet, human beings cry out for healing, salvation. But who can save us? Some have looked for answers in things, in “isms” of one kind or another.
The Catholic tradition looks beyond, to a God who is not indifferent to our brokenness. Our God is All-Good who loves us unconditionally. Jesus is the living, breathing face of God’s mercy.
Yes, God became flesh in Jesus and is alive by the power of the Spirit—alive within us by virtue of the waters of baptism; alive in our midst in the Scriptures and in the signs of bread and wine.
Salvation ultimately means God abiding in us and we in God. I pray that we will recharge ourselves to seek God first in our everyday lives, that we will reenergize ourselves to be a leaven in this world by living a God-centered, other-centered, mercy-filled life.
Our faith proclaims that God’s life leaps out of death; beyond the agony of our Good Fridays is the ecstasy of Easter. Yes, Jesus Christ is risen. And because he lives, we live.
