Calling to faith in the Resurrection of Christ
The faith in the Resurrection of Christ leads us to the deep experience of the unconditional love of God which transforms souls for ever. However, sometimes the declaration that Christ has risen does not speak to us. It is not our personal joyful event, and we worry a lot about many things. Sometimes it happens that we live as if He was partly alive and partly in the grave. On the one hand we do believe in His resurrection, on the other hand we cannot see it in the context of our life. There are areas in our hearts, which are enlightened by His presence. There are also areas in the same hearts, which are half darkened or even dead. Statistically, the part-time hearts, the part-time Christianity, is not an unusual reality. Half planted faith in the resurrection brings both much hope and many uncertainties at the same time.
The worst outcome of this ambiguous condition would be the abandonment of faith or obsession by sadness that we are not up to the standards of faith. The worst thing would be also to berate ourselves that we are not full-time believers. On the contrary it is good to see where we really are in our life. It is good to see the truth. It is good to see that various kinds of tensions of faith call us to adhere to the Lord. We are people who are born from the calling of Christ and we are led by His calling all the time.
All the disciples were born into faith from the permanent calling to faith. It happened to Peter many times and we can observe different stages of his adherence to the Lord. The purification of Peter’s heart from his illusions, from pride and from the lack of sensitivity of a sinner, including the great experience of acknowledgment of his nothingness without Christ, was then built into his heart. Peter understood that literally everything is given for free and the radiance of the resurrection shines forth in his heart. On that base, Peter was able to become the rock on which Christ has built His Church. The faith in Risen Christ led him into the deep personal experience of the unconditional love of God which transformed him forever.
Fr Stan
Categories: Reflections