Contemplative Focus
Entering into the JOY of the Risen Lord
“All this I tell you that my joy may be yours and your joy may be complete” John 15.
Easter! For those of us who prayerfully live the Liturgical Year throughout all its seasons, surely there is no more unadulterated joy than the resurrection of Christ to new life. AW Tozer puts it so beautifully in words I could never improve on:
“How exquisitely fitting it is to celebrate the rising of Christ in the season of spring. When nature is waking to life again after her long winter of sleep, it is then that the thoughts of Christians everywhere are turned to the wonder of the Savior's coming out of the tomb after his ordeal with sin and death. Christ's resurrection was an act once accomplished at a given moment in history. It does not in any sense depend upon seasons or celebrations, nor does the miracle of springtime add anything to the glory of the once-done deed. Nature does, however, cast a warm light upon God’s work in redemption and the springtime of life in the earth illustrates the miracle of life in the new creation”.
Perhaps we are given a greater capacity for experiencing this joy, when we have also been invited to share in Jesus’ sufferings by willingly entering, for love of him, first into the darkness of our own winter nights, whether these be physical or spiritual, or both. Plunged into this inner bleakness we too remain for a time, in the image of nature, seemingly barren and without hope, but then faith and the delight of each new bud tell us this is not the whole story. The winter wonderland is truly pregnant with exuberant new life in which we also, shall share. The leafless tree on which the Savior died springs into bloom.
What had been stark death before becomes life at the touch of God, and the cross, the gate to everlasting life.
And AW Tozer continues:
“One thing the resurrection teaches us is that we must not trust appearances. The leafless tree says by its appearance that there will be no second spring. The body in Joseph's new tomb appears to signify the end of everything for Christ and His disciples. The limp form of a newly-dead believer suggests everlasting defeat. Yet how wrong are all these appearances. The tree will bloom again. Christ arose the third day according to the Scriptures, and the Christian will rise at the shout of the Lord and the voice of the archangel.
Faith can afford to accept the appearance of defeat, knowing the true believer cannot be defeated finally. "Because I live, you also will live." That is the message of Easter. What a blessed message for the whole world if all humankind would only believe it.”
And so let us truly enter into the joy of the risen Jesus and be glad!
Quotes from ‘This World: Playground or Battleground” by A. W. Tozer
www.christianbook.comSr. Clorinda Stockalper, O.C.D.
Reno Carmel
