To
Live Is Christ
TUESDAY, Easter week seven: May 10, 2016
The Responsorial Psalm continues yesterday’s
Psalm, emphasizing that God saves and provides for us. The response is the
same: “Sing to God, O kingdoms of the
earth” (Psalm 68).
In Acts 18: 20: 17-27 Paul gives an
account of his ministry, knowing that he is on the road to death. He recalls:
“I lived among you… serving the Lord with all humility… enduring the trials
that came to me…” and “did not shrink from doing anything helpful, proclaiming
the message… to both Jews and Greeks.” When he concludes, “I do not count my
life of any value to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry
that I received from the Lord,” he gives the key to all Christian life: we live
to let Christ live in us. We live only to continue his mission through all that
we do. That is all we live for. We have “died” to everything else in order to
live only as the risen body of Jesus: “I
have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is
Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:19-20;
Romans 12:2, 14:7-8; 1Corinthians 7:29-31; 2Cor. 5:14-21; Colossians 3:1-5 Philippians 1:20-24).
This
sounds and is very radical, but it is all in the First Commandment (Deuteronomy 6:5; Matthew 22:37). That Commandment, however, was based on the
Covenant between God and his People, while our commitment follows from our identification with Christ through
Baptism. The authentically Christian life is to live for absolutely nothing in
this world except to be Christ and
continue Christ’s mission. Insofar as our personal gratification is concerned,
we relate to everything we own and to everyone we know as if we were already
dead (Matthew 19:21; 10: 37-39; 13:
44-46; Luke 14:26). We live to let
Christ live in us; that is all. And in us Christ lives only to serve and to
save. That was Paul’s life. It is ours. It is glorious. “Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth.”
John 17: 1-11 is Jesus giving to the Father
before he dies what Paul gave to the Ephesians: an account of his ministry. “I
glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do…. I have
made your name known to those whom you gave me… and they have kept your word.”
Now he asks the Father: “Glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you.”
Jesus is “glorified” — the truth and value of his life, and the victory of his
defeat in death are revealed — through the evident presence and power of his
life in his disciples: “I have been glorified in them.” We glorify Jesus by
letting him live and work in us without restrictions or reserve. That is what
it means to be a prophet: to visibly
embody Christ, be a credible witness to the risen Jesus, give flesh to his
words in action.
Initiative: Be a
prophet. Live only to let Christ live in you.
And, in living for Christ, without reserve, we find real joy, real peace, which the world cannot give. In fact, the world cannot even comprehend that joy and peace.
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