Resurrection - Redeemed and Restored

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Resurrection - Redeemed and Restored

Fr Anthony Charanghat

Central to Christian faith is our belief that God’s original plan for the wholeness of all the dimensions of His creation was distorted and corrupted by the Fall (O Happy Fault!). However because of the historical Resurrection of Christ, we have the power to be redeemed and restored, in our relationship to God, to wholeness within ourselves, to each other and to God’s creation. The redemptive work of the passion, death and Resurrection of Christ has made it possible to be restored to our pristine glory and to be whole again living together in the love, joy and mutual concern of God’s original creation.

Christianity’s pivotal article of faith is the glorious bodily Resurrection of Our Lord and Saviour. Jesus was a flesh and blood person after His Resurrection and we believe that we too can share in His glory. If we truly believe this then it will impact the way we live our lives now. If God intends to renew all of creation - a process already begun in the Resurrection of Jesus - then our responsibility as Christians is to anticipate this renewal by working for hope and healing in today’s world.

The conviction of our faith calls us to reflect, albeit very inadequately, the image of our loving God. We are called to model something of God’s new world of restoration and wholeness. Our concern about the growing needs in our changing world beckons us to be Easter (shalom) people, living a life that celebrates the joyous hope of the Resurrection and focuses on God’s redemptive work in the world. We see our Christian parishes as a network of communities of the followers of Jesus that seek to live as redemptive people who embody something of the aspirations and values of the dream of God in both modern and post-modern culture.

So how can we learn to live as wide-awake people, as Easter people? In concrete it means that the followers of Jesus have to work towards a redeemed (restored) relationship to God through, regular personal prayer, Scripture study, times of listening in solitude (contemplative prayer) and an active liturgical participation in regular communitarian worship - a priority of the Bombay Archdiocesan Synod 2001 goals.

A redeemed relationship with our own inner being is brought about through repentance, confession of sins, reconciliation and living a profound life in the Spirit assisted by an ongoing faith formation. Restoration of relationship with God’s community is effected through practise of a common life of sharing, forgiving and dialogue with others. This implies being a service-oriented community in solidarity with the marginalised in their struggle for rights. It also means an exercise of economic stewardship that encourages mutual concern - not amassing obscene wealth to the neglect of the poor - recently labelled a social sin by Pope Benedict XVI.

Setting relationships right with God’s creation is manifested by a responsible ecological stewardship. This is expressed by a caring attitude to the environment and striving to sustain the integrity of God’s creation in the face of ever increasing consumerist culture that depletes energy and threatens environmental disaster (included in the new list of sins). The goal can be achieved when we recognise the sacredness of creation using it as an invaluable means to connect to God who reveals Himself in His creation.

In particular, if Lent was a time to give things up, Easter ought to be a time to take things up. If Calvary means putting to death things in our life that need to be rooted out, then Easter means planting, watering, and nurturing Christ’s values in our life (personal and communitarian) that ought to blossom and in due course bear fruit of a new glorious life in Our Risen Lord.