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James Martin, S.J.May 12, 2019
Detail of "The Resurrection" by Francesco Buoneri c. 1619 (Art Institute of Chicago). 

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How can we live out the Resurrection? That’s an important question to ask during this Easter season. Well, maybe the first answer to that question is that to live out the Resurrection we have to first truly believe in Jesus’s resurrection. Through his resurrection on that first Easter Sunday, Jesus shows us the way. The Risen One shows us that life is stronger than death, that hope is stronger than despair, that love is stronger than hate and that nothing is impossible with God. That should give us all hope in our lives. Not only because Jesus conquers death, but because he is showing us, revealing to us, a pattern for our own lives. He’s showing us that we can always hope that suffering is not the last word, and that God always can bring new life out of what seems to be a dead situation. Oftentimes we may feel a sense of despair, that nothing can ever change in our lives. Thomas Merton once said that sometimes that kind of despair can be a manifestation of pride. Because we sometimes think that God can’t change anything and that we know better. But that’s not what Easter tells us! So one way to live out the Resurrection in your life is, first, to believe in Jesus’s resurrection. Which means that new life is possible for you too!

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Nancy Burke
6 years 1 month ago

My realization of how there must first be a death before there can be a resurrection came to me in church at Mass. I didnt fully understand because it meant divorce for me. Not what Jesus teaches us in the faith. But I trusted in the message. As life evolved thru this death, we suffered, but ex is in a new life and good. I found my fulfillment in faith, my church and now a love that is an unexpected pathway to a new and better earthly existence. Watching all this has left me in greater awe of God who has shown my his forgiveness for breaking a rule i thought i never would.

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