Word of Life April 2010 Happy Easter to everyone!
"I am the resurrection and the life" (Jn 11:25)
Word of Life April 2010
Jesus spoke these words at the death of Lazarus of Bethany , then the fourth day He rose again. Lazarus had
two sisters, Mary and Martha.
Martha heard that Jesus came, he ran to him and said, 'Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died. " Jesus replied: "Your brother will rise again." Marta said: "I know he will rise last day." And Jesus said: "I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he die, shall live and whoever lives and believes in me will never die."
"I am the resurrection and the life."
Jesus wants to understand who he is for man. Jesus has the most precious thing you could want: the Life, the life that never dies.
If you read the Gospel John, you will find that Jesus also said, "As the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself."
And since Jesus Life, can communicate.
"I am the resurrection and the life."
Even Martha believes in the final resurrection: "I know he will rise last day."
But Jesus, with his wonderful statement: "I am the resurrection and the life", makes you realize that it must wait for the future to hope in the resurrection of the dead. Already, in the present, he is for all believers, that divine Life, ineffable, eternal, that will never die. If Jesus
is in them, if he is in you, you will not die. This life in the believer is of the nature of the risen Jesus, and then very different from the human condition in which it resides.
And this extraordinary life, which already exists in you, will be fully revealed on the last day, when you participate with your whole being, the future resurrection.
"I am the resurrection and the life."
Certainly Jesus with these words does not deny that there is physical death. But it does not cause the loss of true Life. The death will be for you, as for everyone, a unique, strong and perhaps feared. But no longer mean the meaninglessness of existence, will not be the most absurd, the failure of life, your end. Death, for you will no longer really a death.
"I am the resurrection and the life."
And when you came into this life that never dies? In
baptism. There, even in your condition as a person who has to die, you got it from Christ the immortal Life. In baptism, in fact, have received the Holy Spirit who is the one who raised Jesus And
condition for receiving this sacrament is your faith, you said through your godparents. Jesus, in fact, the resurrection of Lazarus in the episode, talking to Martha, said: "Whoever believes in me will live even though he dies" (...) "Do you believe this?" .
"Believe", here is a very serious, very important, does not just accept the truth announced by Jesus, but to join with the whole being.
To have this life, then you say your 'yes' to Christ. And that means adherence to its words, its commands: to live them. Jesus confirmed: "If anyone keeps my word will never see death." And Jesus' teachings are summed up in love.
You can not, therefore, not be happy in you is Life!
"I am the resurrection and the life."
In this time when we are preparing for the celebration of Easter, let us help to make that steering, which must be constantly renewed, to the death of our ego because Christ, the Resurrected, living in us right now.
Chiara Lubich
