St. Andrews by the Lake

EASTER MUSINGS #3

     There are two important questions for Christians to live into during this season of Easter:

          –What difference does my baptism make?

          –How will we know the risen Christ is in our lives today?

      The Great Fifty Days of Easter (known as Eastertide) became the honeymoon season for all Christians. For fifty glorious days we sing and dance, party and celebrate a dream come true, a vision made reality, eternal life in the present. In the early Christian Church, it was a time for those recently baptized to explore the ‘mysteries” of their faith.  The early church called this period of the process mystagogia.  Today the whole church enters into this period of uncovering anew the mysteries of faith expressed in sacrament, word, and life lived for others.  Remember what we say in Eucharistic Prayer A:   “We proclaim the mystery of faith: Christ has died, Christ is risen. Christ will come again.”

     How will we know the risen Christ in our lives today?  Again, let’s let Richard Rohr (OFM) speak to us of his perception of the Cosmic Christ:

     “Let me put it this way: Jesus is the microcosm; Christ is the macrocosm. There is a movement from Jesus to the Christ that you and I have to imitate and walk. A lot of us have so fallen in love with the historical Jesus that we worship him as such and stop there. We never really followed the same journey which he made — which is the death and resurrection journey. That is the journey we need to make to become the ‘Body of Christ’.  Unless we make the same movement that Jesus did - from his one single life to his risen and transformed state - we probably won’t really understand what we mean by the Christ. That is why he said, ‘follow me.’ The Jesus that you and I participate in, are graced by, and redeemed by, is the RISEN Jesus who has become the Christ — which is an inclusive statement about creation.  If you stay with this in the days to come, you will see how it is central enough to change the way you see everything!”

(Adapted from The Cosmic Christ)

     Delve into the mysteries of the Christ-life.  Keep asking yourself how your baptism makes a difference in your life and others. Keep looking for the risen Christ in your life today - and tomorrow - and on……

    Christ fills everything everywhere with Christ presence.

Blessings in this Eastertide.    Cindy