There are two more weeks until Easter. We are on the threshold of one of the most significant moments of our lives. Do we expect to meet the risen Christ this Easter? The risen, glorified Jesus is about to come to us in a special way. Easter is nothing less and can be nothing more. However, to experience the resurrection, we must be willing to die. Only the dead can come to life.
"I solemnly assure you, unless the grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat. But if it dies, it produces much fruit" (Jn 12:24). We must accept the deaths of repentance, sacrifice, obedience, suffering, and persecution, or we do not have the prerequisites for resurrection. "Continually we carry about in our bodies the dying of Jesus, so that in our bodies the life of Jesus may also be revealed. While we live we are constantly being delivered to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may be revealed in our mortal flesh" (2 Cor 4:10-11).
The old song says: "Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die." We might paraphrase it: "Everybody wants the resurrection without the crucifixion, the glory without the cross, Easter without Lent."
| PRAYER: | Jesus, may the next two weeks be a real-life "way of the cross." |
| PROMISE: | "I will place My law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be My people." –Jer 31:33 |
| PRAISE: | Praise Jesus, the Suffering Servant, Who laid down His life and picked it up again. |
Reprinted with permission from Presentation Ministries, a lay association of the Catholic Church that focuses on evangelization and discipleship through Bible teaching, daily Mass, the charisms of the Holy Spirit, and Small Christian Community. Their ministries include:
· One Bread, One Body
· Daily Bread Radio Program
· Annual Bible Institute
· Discipleship Retreats
· Guadalupe Bible College