Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
James Martin, S.J.May 20, 2019
Detail of "The Resurrection" by Master K.I.P. (French, active mid-16th century) from the Met Museum. 

Subscribe to “The Examen” for free on Apple Podcasts

Subscribe to “The Examen” for free on Google Play

Join our Patreon Community

Last week we talked about ways to live out the resurrection in your life. And in this Fifth Week of Easter, that’s still an important question. What are some ways to really put into effect your belief that Christ has risen from the dead? Well, one way is to look for signs of newness in your own life and in that of others. For example, you may have had the experience of feeling a change within yourself over time. You feel like you have finally put away some old habits, old patterns, old ways of thinking, that had kept you from living freely, living wholly. And yet you doubt. It’s natural. You say to yourself, “Well, can it be that I’ve really changed? Have I really moved on? Am I really able to let go of all of those things?”

The answer is: Yes! God is continually inviting us to growth and continually enabling us to let some things in our life die so that we can experience new life. This is the process of conversion, of what the Gospels call metanoia, that will go on throughout our whole life, if we are open to it. So the dying and rising that we read about, and believe, in the life of Jesus Christ, can be experienced in our own lives, if we are open to it. God can bring us many little resurrections, every day. Maybe even today or tomorrow.

More: Easter
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
FRAN ABBOTT
6 years 2 months ago

Amazing — just as I was thinking about making some changes, this article appeared in my inbox! Thank you, God! Thank you, Fr. Martin!

The latest from america

Frank Turnbull, S.J., a longtime editor at 'America' who died earlier this week, is remembered as a humble, quiet and yet forceful presence to those who knew him during his 85 years of life.
James T. KeaneJuly 18, 2025
A Reflection for Saturday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time, by Zac Davis
Zac DavisJuly 18, 2025
Trauma-informed spirituality knows better than to promise that prayer will take away all the pain. But it can offer the hope that, even in the midst of pain, there can be moments of feeling whole.
Nicole KirpalaniJuly 18, 2025
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu telephoned Pope Leo XIV, who urged Israel’s leader to revive negotiations and enact a ceasefire.