The Dynamism of Easter
and the Trajectory of the Christian Life

by Fr. Francis Martin

The whole trajectory of the Christian life is a successive dying to Sin, to its surrounding impact, to the deep wounds and vicious energy that lie in the depth of our being: it is the flowering of the gift of dying and living, a share in the dying and rising of Christ, that is communicated to us by the direct action of the Holy Spirit, as well as his action in baptism, the other sacraments, and the living and active Word of God.

“The death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:10-11).”

The death of Christ is his entrance and ours into the realm of Life. For our part, this trajectory is worked out in and through the inextricable enmeshing of Sin and Grace within us. The power by which we live is the power of the act of love in which our Lord Jesus Christ surrendered his life to the Father amid the murderous attempt of Sin and hatred, and then rose again: “The death he died he died to Sin, once for all, the life he lives he lives to God” (Romans 6:10). This victory is imparted to you when you are baptized into his death, the act of love in which he handed over everything to the Father: “So you too count yourselves dead to Sin but living to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11).

This Easter season celebrates the power of the life of Christ in the Church, this same radiant power that is purifying us. If we yield to it, it will endow us with a love for everyone, including our enemies. And with the Holy Spirit, it will penetrate our understanding of the inevitable outcome whereby the Church’s radiant presence will attract men and women to Christ (the Church is a Sacrament, the link between two worlds), so that it will be true of us as well that the death we die, physically or not, we die to Sin, and the life we live is the life of Christ, wholly moving to the Father.

Easter 2014