Rise Up!
Resurrection. A word that comes from the Latin, meaning to rise up again. And today, Easter Sunday, is the Day of the Resurrection. The Resurrection. It is that great, glad festival day, “blest day that art hallowed forever; day wherein Christ arose, breaking the kingdom of death.”
There are many ways to rise again. We do it every morning when we awake from sleep and rise from our beds, refreshed and ready for the new day. We see it elsewhere in nature’s great annual cycle. It is no coincidence that it is around this time of Easter that the season of spring welcomes back to life the world of nature, where flowers and trees that have stood dormant through the long cold winter days now burst forth with new life. Easter lilies fill the air with the fragrance of spring, their flowers like trumpets ready to proclaim forth in silent fanfare the glories of God as Christ himself rises from the tomb. Trees, once dead and leafless, are coming back to life, rising again more magnificent than ever, their branches resplendent with blossoms that brighten our days. Even the days themselves are getting longer, with the sun rising up in the heavens earlier in the morning and remaining longer in our skies to banish away the cold and the darkness of those long winter nights. These are mere objects in nature, inanimate or vegetative, but which reflect nevertheless the glory of the Resurrection of our Lord that far outshines them all.
This comparison of the jubilant resurrection of the flowers of the field and the sun in the sky with Christ’s own risen glory, should give us pause. After all, if these mere “things” so gloriously reflect the Resurrection of the Son of God, how much more should God’s greatest creation, Man, shine forth with renewed beauty of soul. After our self-examination of Lent and contemplation of our blessed Lord’s sufferings for the past six weeks, surely we are ready this Easter morning to rise again from the death of sin, resolute in our determination to reach for perfection. With our immortal souls, we are greater than the lilies of the field, and yet do we rise to the greatness that should be ours? In some ways, no, for the lilies do not commit sin. Our Lord himself told us to consider the lilies of the field, “that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” Not even the great King Solomon reflected the glory of God more than these lilies. We lesser mortals have more reason to be even more ashamed of our own failures. Yes, we have been clothed with greater beauty than a mere flower, we have been clothed with a supernatural beauty that far surpasses that of the lily, the beauty of sanctifying grace, the beauty of being the object of Christ’s special love, as he suffered, died, and rose again, so that we might remain beautiful forevermore in heaven. But have we lived up to these great gifts God gave us?
If we are ashamed that we don’t do better, it is of no use to just wallow in self-pity. Yes, we have sinned, yes, we have lost sanctifying grace countless times during the course of our life, yes, we are unworthy of Christ’s love, unworthy to enter heaven. And yet, it is that very love that Christ has for us that opens up heaven to us again, gives us the opportunity to confess our sins, to amend our lives, to resist the temptation to sin again. It is up to each of us as individuals with our own free will, to outshine the lilies of the field. It is up to each of us to rise again.
This is the great message of Easter. It is the culmination of our forty days and forty nights of penance, of our self-examination of our past sins. It is the message that despite those sins, despite having been spiritually dead in the eyes of God, we can still break the kingdom of death. Like our risen Lord, we too can rise again supernaturally from death to life, we can and must outshine the glory of the trees in blossom and the lilies of the field, which today are, but tomorrow are gathered up to be burned. Use this blessed season of Easter to rise up and seek anew the kingdom of God and, as our Lord told us, “Let your light so shine before men, that may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”