Transformed by the Resurrection

The joyous sound of Easter hymns and triumphant alleluias are still ringing throughout our

convent along with the scent of Easter flowers. We are just about halfway through the Easter season! While Lent is most certainly a season of unique graces and conversion, I am finding the Easter season to be a deepening of the work Jesus began in those Lenten days - Jesus desires to come to me now, not in His sufferings, but as the Resurrected Christ, to deepen and continue the work of conversion in my heart. And the words He first spoke to the Apostles after His resurrection, He is speaking to me in this Easter Season.

“Peace be with you” (Lk. 24:36) 

“Do not be afraid” (Mt. 28:10)

 “Do not be unbelieving but believe” (Jn. 20:27)

We’ve been hearing in the daily Mass readings the various accounts of the Resurrection proclaimed and this year, I was struck anew by the state of the Apostles and perhaps you could even say the state of the early Church. We hear them described as fearful, afraid, unbelieving, and hiding. Perhaps they were even experiencing guilt or shame at having abandoned our Lord, fleeing at the hour when He was most in need. Jesus, when He comes into their midst after His Resurrection, encounters them in this humanity and speaks directly to their hearts, “Peace be with you”, “Do not be afraid”, “Do not be unbelieving but believe”.

If the Apostles, who spent intimate time with Jesus while He was here on earth, experienced struggle, fear, and doubt, I can breathe a sigh of relief and know that I also have many places where Jesus can meet me in my own humanity. Our Lord through His tenderness towards His beloved friends, His dearest Apostles, is showing me that there is absolutely no obstacle to His love and He never tires of speaking His message of peace, hope, and faith into my life. The Resurrected Christ comes to me as He did to the Apostles and the invitation is to stay in the presence of His glory, His redemption and allow Him to transform me.

What does this transformation look like, what does it bring about? We see it so beautifully lived out in the lives of the Apostles, particularly St. Peter. There is a profoundly powerful moment in Acts 3: 1-10 where Peter and John are going up to the temple area to pray. A crippled man is begging at the gate for alms. When they encounter this beggar, Peter says “I have neither silver nor gold, but what I do have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, rise and walk.” Scripture continues “then Peter took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his ankles grew strong.”

This same Apostle, Peter, who denied Christ three times and was so fearful after Jesus’ death, now speaks with such confidence, authority, conviction, and I imagine with great tenderness towards the beggar. When I think on Peter’s past and all the ways we could say he “failed”, I am deeply moved by the depth of Peter’s faith as he proclaims, “What I do have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, rise and walk.” And as Peter takes the crippled beggar by the right hand, he puts that faith into action. He doesn’t just help the beggar rise to his feet but Peter helps faith rise up in the beggar’s heart, for we hear that “leaping up he stood and walked and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.” What a joyful sight that must’ve been!

 St. Peter shows us the power of allowing ourselves to be encountered by the Resurrected Christ; this is the transformation the Lord can bring in our lives. It is experiencing Jesus’ loving gaze upon our humanity as He speaks His words of peace upon us. This is what is deepening my faith this Easter season. I pray that I may be able to join my voice alongside all the holy men and women since St. Peter and the Apostles and in my own poverty proclaim the power of the Risen Christ. I have neither silver nor gold, but what I do have, namely Jesus Christ, I give you.

Alleluia! He is Risen!

Sr. Pia , CFR Novice