Photo: Matthew Biocich/Catholic Education Western Australia.
The last year revealed the best and the worst of divided human nature. In the COVID-19 crisis, there have been extraordinary instances, for example, of medical staff risking their lives to care for victims, particularly before appropriate equipment became available, but also people fighting over toilet paper.
We have seen too Commonwealth and State Governments collaborating initially, but this being undermined, sadly, by venal party politics. We have seen many other examples which reveal the inner division in human nature and the personality of each of us.
Why Jesus came
The Resurrection of Jesus reminds us that we should be people of hope. The hundreds who saw the Risen Christ recognised him as divine as well as human. His divine nature and life shone through his humanity.
Earlier, Jesus had taught he came to share his divine life with us: ‘I came that they may have life and have it to the full’.
He taught that we receive this life through Baptism. This is why we celebrate Baptism each year at Easter.
The need to nurture ‘to the full’
Jesus taught too the need to nurture this life so that we can experience it ‘to the full’. Then the power of the divine life grows within us and is revealed increasingly through our human behaviour.
He taught, for example, ‘If you do not eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.’ ‘Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood, has eternal life’. Many baptised do not experience growth in the divine life because they suffer eucharistic malnutrition.
As the divine life grows in us, we are empowered increasingly to rise above the division in human nature; to rise above weaknesses and sinfulness, to behave in more Christ-like ways. Imagine our relationships and society if all could rise above selfishness to love like Christ; to rise above self centredness to live Christ-like compassion.
What would it be like if people could forgive always; turn the other cheek; have special concern for others in need; pray for persecutors and do good to those who hate us?
The peace only Christ can give
Christ’s Last Supper promise was to give his followers peace, ‘my own peace I give you, not a peace the world can give.’ How different would our lives and society be if all were growing in this peace instead of suffering inner division?
How different would they be if we were freed gradually of desires weakening our consciences; emotional stresses causing sleepless nights; feelings controlling our thinking; temptations to sin conquering desires to love and to do good.
As Jesus’ Resurrection revealed his divine life, growth in the peace he alone can give follows the personal ’resurrections’ his power makes possible: as we ‘rise’ above temptations, human failings and weaknesses, and vices.
The path to accepting Christ’s peace
For this, of course, we need actually to choose the path of divine life. We need to reject all in our lives that is not God’s will. Jesus warned that, unless we make this choice, we will remain in the thrall of divided human nature.
The path to his peace, therefore, is to seek God’s will each day as Jesus did always, and to take up our crosses daily and follow him. Many today, however, seek ‘the peace this world can give’, instead of the peace Christ alone can give.
Increasingly, people today speak, for example, of ‘personal well being’, the need for freedom from inner stresses and conflicts. Unresolved, these can affect our physical health.
In our increasingly atheistic society, this trend towards ‘well being’ reflects psychological approaches which do not acknowledge the spiritual or the power of Christ. They would not accept the emotional and other challenges of taking up our crosses: challenges such as resisting temptations; suffering as a result of choosing differently from our feelings; struggling to love selflessly and to forgive; to be focussed on the needs of others and not see ‘everything is about me’.
The only path to the peace the Risen Christ offers is to nourish and nurture the divine life within: to focus not upon emotional stresses and other consequences of inner division, but upon questions such as ‘What is God’s will for me in this situation?’ ‘Are my inner stresses caused by doing what I feel to be good rather than God’s will?’ ‘What is the cross I am being called to carry?’
Let us renew our efforts
Let us renew our efforts to grow in Easter peace by looking into the eyes of Jesus on the cross and renewing our commitment to accept the daily crosses which come from resisting inclinations caused by divided human nature. Let us commit ourselves to following Jesus by striving each day to live as God calls.
Then we will grow in the peace Christ gives, not just psychological ‘wellbeing’, and the hope his Resurrection brings.
Happy Easter to you all.
+ Most Rev Gerard J Holohan
Bishop of Bunbury