3 STEPS TO A RISEN LIFE!

From the Catholic Liturgy for the 3rd Sunday of Easter, April 15, 2018. Readings: Acts 3:13-19, 1 John 2:1-5, Luke 24:35-48. Theme: 3 Steps to a Risen Life!

  

There once lived in Egypt a beautiful young Catholic girl named Mary. She came from a very troubled home. By the time she entered her teenage years she had become a prostitute. Mary did extremely well in the world’s oldest profession, she became very rich. She decided to go on a Catholic pilgrimage to shrines of Jerusalem, not out of any religious devotion but for the thrill of seducing the men. But then God, in His mercy, did something absolutely amazing.

One day when all the pilgrims were going to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher to venerate the cross and tomb of Jesus, Mary joined the gang solely out of curiosity. Everyone passed through the church doors…except for Mary. Oh, not that she didn’t try…but every time she DID try an invisible force prevented her from being able to walk through the threshold. She looked up above the doorway and as she saw the picture of the Blessed Mother hanging there she heard a voice inside her say, “Repent of your sins. Ask forgiveness and change your ways. Then you shall enter.” Mary begged a nearby priest to hear her confession, and promised to change her ways. Going back to the entrance of the shrine, she walked right through without a problem and spent the entire day there in prayer and meditation.

Today’s readings all place before us this same message that Mary was given: that through Jesus of Nazareth God is calling us to give up a way of life that leads to spiritual death and to accept the gift of a new risen life; a new life begins for us, as it did for Mary, by experiencing three things: repentance, forgiveness, and conversion.

Repentance means a deep regret or heartfelt sorrow over some attitude or behavior that is holding us back from living as an authentic Christian. True repentance comes from the heart and is born from love. It is our response to an experience of God's love. This love of God changes me. I do not change in order to obtain God's love, rather, the realization that He is passionately in love with me changes me.

Forgiveness, is the transforming mercy that comes from God and it means so much more than simply being pardoned.  Pardon is just one aspect of forgiveness but it still allows the sins to exist, at least in the history of our lives.  I am sure you have heard the expression, "I can forgive but not forget." That’s the level on which we selfish humans forgive. But God’s forgiveness in Christ is immense, unlimited and unconditional just like his love. When God forgives, He does, indeed, forget.

When we come repentant before the Lord, especially in Confession, His forgiveness isn’t simply pardon but it is called absolution. It is total and obliterates our sins. It is all-powerful and annihilates our sins.  When we leave the sacrament we literally leave our past behind, as far as God is concerned.  It no longer exists, the history of our lives is wiped clean! It is as if we had never committed those sins in the first place!  

Repentance and forgiveness lead to conversion. Once we have encountered the passionate love of God and have been deeply touched by His unconditional mercy, we are changed from the inside out, like St. Mary of Egypt. We come to see a new way of thinking, a new way of looking at life and others, a new way of living. So, we see in our Scriptures today and in the real-life experience of St. Mary of Egypt, that a life-changing relationship is possible between each one of us and Jesus of Nazareth, crucified for MY sins and risen to give ME new life.  This relationship is at the heart of the message of the Gospel. It is planted in us by our repentance, grows within us through forgiveness, and blossoms in our lives as something beautiful for God and for the world.