Dynamism of Our Life in Christ
Throughout the fifty days of the Easter Season, we hear the accounts of the appearances of our Risen Lord to the Apostles and other disciples. In all of the accounts, there is a single message: by His Dying and Rising, Christ has gone ahead of us and, by His outpouring of the Holy Spirit, He meets us in the Church. He is our faithful companion along the pilgrimage of our passing earthly life and He waits to welcome us at our destination, our lasting heavenly home.
By His Rising from the Dead and Sending of the Holy Spirit, Christ fills the Church, fills us, with the dynamism of His own divine love. He did not permit the Apostles and disciples to cling to His glorious Body, when He appeared to them. Rather, He taught them that He must ascend to the right hand of the Father, in order to remain with them always and to be with all who would become His disciples in every time and place.
When our Lord had ascended to the right hand of the Father and sent forth the Holy Spirit, the Apostles and first disciples were filled with a remarkable enthusiasm and the energy. They indeed put aside the doubts and fears which assailed them during our Lord's Passion and Death. By the grace of the Holy Spirit, they finally understood what our Lord meant when He said that He must rise from the dead. They understood that Christ had made them heirs of His divine life.
The Holy Spirit, dwelling within them, inspired them to live in Christ in a world which had rejected Him or did not even know His name. Filled with love of Christ, they desired to know ever more deeply the truth of the faith, which He teaches in the Church. They were faithful in prayer and worship, especially participation in the Holy Eucharist. They were obedient to the Apostles whom Christ had consecrated to be their shepherds. Under the pastoral guidance of the Apostles, they placed their gifts at the service of all, so that the love of Christ might reach all, without boundary.
New Evangelization and Stewardship
Celebrating the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, we, like the first disciples, hear Christ's call to meet Him in the Church. Hearing His call, we are filled with enthusiasm and energy to accompany our Lord as He continues His saving work in the world. Although the challenges of living in Christ today are formidable, as they certainly were formidable for the first disciples, the Holy Spirit helps us to put aside our doubts and fears. Through His sevenfold gift, the Holy Spirit leads us to a deeper knowledge of Christ. He inspires in us a more ardent love of Christ, especially through daily prayer and devotion, participation in Holy Mass, especially on Sunday, and regular Confession. Finally, He disciplines us to put our gifts at the service of all.
Stewardship, that is the wise and courageous use of our gifts to the glory of God and for the service of others, is a principal work of the Holy Spirit within us. Through our stewardship, the dynamism of the Resurrection manifests itself through committed participation in the works of the Church, in accord with the particular talents and means God gives us. Alive in Christ through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we cannot do otherwise. When we are tempted to hoard or to squander our gifts, the Holy Spirit disciplines us to understand that, even as our final destiny is to be with Christ in the Heavenly Kingdom, so the destiny of our earthly goods is to help others to know Christ and His love of them.
