Gifts from the Easter Christ
As we slip back into Ordinary Time, what did we learn from another holy season of Easter? As we unpacked the meaning of the feasts we celebrated during the more than fifty days after Easter, has anything stayed with us to enrich our lives in the Spirit?
If we are open to new graces, we doubtless picked up some inspiration and wisdom from the Spirit. A visiting priest helped me to a new understanding of the Trinity on that Sunday celebration.
In my eighty years of Easter Seasons, I had never even noticed a central teaching of the Catholic Church about the Eucharist. In the Eucharistic prayer the priest says, “Send down your spirit upon them [these gifts] like the dew fall, so that they may become for us the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
In our very presence, “In the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist ‘the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ is really, and substantially contained.’” Therefore the whole Trinity is truly present. That is the church’s teaching. (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1374).
Wow! I had not ever thought of it that way. One theologian suggested after receiving the Eucharist, we might well spend time reflecting about the presence of the Trinity in us. We can ask each of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit to animate our lives by being present in us.
We can ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten us, inspire us with his gifts and fruits.
We can ask Jesus to enable us to love others, to help the poor, the needy, and those around us.
We can ask the Father to enable us to be co-creators in the physical world, the cosmos, around us, and to use our artistic talents to create a better world.
If we spent several hours here, we might begin to unpack the other mysteries of Easter – like The Resurrection. That is one of my favourite topics. I have written twenty-nine articles beginning with the word Easter. In one of my four articles beginning with The Resurrection I said:
At Calvary everyone understood that dead people do not rise again. God’s people knew a Savior would come, sooner or later. “Sometime before dawn a spike-torn hand twitched. A blood-crusted eyelid opened. The breath of God came blowing into that cave, and a new creation flashed into reality.” (Russel Moore, from Tempted and Tried: Temptation and the Triumph of the Cross).
When Jesus rose from the dead the disciples and we, knew. This was it! The old world had ended, and a new creation started. The old things had passed away. The Resurrection, like a trailer for a movie, shows us what end times will be like.
We could continue unpacking the mysteries of the readings from Acts that we have been hearing since Easter. That should be enough to convince us of the Resurrection truths. All the healings Peter and the disciples did in the name of Jesus. Even the presence of the resurrected Christ eating and drinking with the apostles must convince us. “Here, Thomas,” Jesus said, “put your hand in my side and believe that I am really here.”
Then there are the Ascension, Pentecost, Trinity and Corpus Christi Sundays which we have celebrated. If we are open to the Spirit without reservation, then we should be able to hear God’s messages. This applies to us individually and as a people gathered together by the Spirit.
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