Baptism, why? (VI) The paschal mystery...
----continuing
How wonderful it is to be in union with God. It's about loving and being loved by Love itself. Isn't Love that man are looking for in their life? And Now Love is inviting us to come. Love has told us that it is our destiny to Love and to be Loved.
How to be in this union? how to unite ourselves with this Divine? How to enter into this communion of Love? ......This is what father Errasto Fernandes called the Paschal Mystery...
If you recall the first time I mentioned about the purpose of our lives, I quoted from a book. And the chapter title where it says about this wonderful purpose of our lives is "The Paschal Mystery".
The writer of the book told us that Paschal mystery is about enter the union of God. It's about dying and rising. It's dying to ourselves and rising into new life with God. There is no other way to enter into this communion of Love other than dying to ourselves and rising into new life with God.
Why is it so? why is it so difficult? why can't we just enter into union with God? Why do we have to die to ourselves? What does it mean to die to ourselves?
The writer also said that we, human, are not able to accept God's Life unless we first leave or surrender our own distinctive (yet selfish)human life.
We, human, can not be in union with God's unconditional and unselfish love unless we leave our self centred Life. I was surprised by this statement because I realized that I sometimes, or more exactly often, lives only for ME.
Who is the centre of my life but not Me?
And this is the very reason that we cannot enter into God's own Life. God's union is self-giving, God's love is unconditional, His Love is faithful and sacrificial. This is impossible for us if we put ourselves in the centre of our lives.
But then how to enter into this union if this is impossible? It is impossible for man, but nothing is impossible for God. God came down and became flesh, he died and rose again. Jesus in his humanity brings all human race in His dying and His rising.
From CCC
654 The Paschal mystery has two aspects: by his death, Christ liberates us from sin; by his Resurrection, he opens for us the way to a new life. This new life is above all justification that reinstates us in God's grace, "so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life."526 Justification consists in both victory over the death caused by sin and a new participation in grace.527 It brings about filial adoption so that men become Christ's brethren, as Jesus himself called his disciples after his Resurrection: "Go and tell my brethren."528 We are brethren not by nature, but by the gift of grace, because that adoptive filiation gains us a real share in the life of the only Son, which was fully revealed in his Resurrection.
Wait, wait. This passage is too long, I get lost when I read it. What does it tells us, Jesus by His dying and His rising has open for us the way to New Life. And what is this new Life? This is a new Life as God's children. Take a look again at the last sentence, it says this adoption (to be God's children) makes us to have "a real share in the Life of the only Son". a real share in the Life of Jesus, the Life of God.
Isn't it what we are meant to be, to share in God's own Life, and What is the Life of God ? isn't it simply Love. And What is a communion of Love if not a Family? And here we are now, God's own family.
Here we are. We are called to die to ourselves and rise again into new Life. How is it possible for us except by uniting ourselves to Jesus who has died and rose again for us? This is what is written in CCC
793 Christ unites us with his Passover: all his members must strive to resemble him, "until Christ be formed" in them.227 "For this reason we . . . are taken up into the mysteries of his life, . . . associated with his sufferings as the body with its head, suffering with him, that with him we may be glorified."228
This is how we are taken up into the mysteries of Jesus's Life, the Mystery of God's Life, by uniting ourselves with His suffering and at the end we may be in union in His Glory. This is the way to enter into God's Life, by dying and rising together with jesus.
This might sound too difficult. But this is what God is telling us. What does it mean when Jesus said, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. " Mat 16:24, What does it mean by "deny himself"? What does it mean by taking our cross? It is to die to our old self and be born again into New Life.
Let's listen to Jesus as He speaks to Nicodemus.
3 Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
4 Nicode'mus said to him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?"
5 Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Do not marvel that I said to you, `You must be born anew.'
And after Jesus speak to Nicodemus, Let us see what Jesus did.
22 After this Jesus and his disciples went into the land of Judea; there he remained with them and baptized.
Next: Now Baptism
------to be continued
How wonderful it is to be in union with God. It's about loving and being loved by Love itself. Isn't Love that man are looking for in their life? And Now Love is inviting us to come. Love has told us that it is our destiny to Love and to be Loved.
How to be in this union? how to unite ourselves with this Divine? How to enter into this communion of Love? ......This is what father Errasto Fernandes called the Paschal Mystery...
If you recall the first time I mentioned about the purpose of our lives, I quoted from a book. And the chapter title where it says about this wonderful purpose of our lives is "The Paschal Mystery".
The writer of the book told us that Paschal mystery is about enter the union of God. It's about dying and rising. It's dying to ourselves and rising into new life with God. There is no other way to enter into this communion of Love other than dying to ourselves and rising into new life with God.
Why is it so? why is it so difficult? why can't we just enter into union with God? Why do we have to die to ourselves? What does it mean to die to ourselves?
The writer also said that we, human, are not able to accept God's Life unless we first leave or surrender our own distinctive (yet selfish)human life.
We, human, can not be in union with God's unconditional and unselfish love unless we leave our self centred Life. I was surprised by this statement because I realized that I sometimes, or more exactly often, lives only for ME.
Who is the centre of my life but not Me?
And this is the very reason that we cannot enter into God's own Life. God's union is self-giving, God's love is unconditional, His Love is faithful and sacrificial. This is impossible for us if we put ourselves in the centre of our lives.
But then how to enter into this union if this is impossible? It is impossible for man, but nothing is impossible for God. God came down and became flesh, he died and rose again. Jesus in his humanity brings all human race in His dying and His rising.
From CCC
654 The Paschal mystery has two aspects: by his death, Christ liberates us from sin; by his Resurrection, he opens for us the way to a new life. This new life is above all justification that reinstates us in God's grace, "so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life."526 Justification consists in both victory over the death caused by sin and a new participation in grace.527 It brings about filial adoption so that men become Christ's brethren, as Jesus himself called his disciples after his Resurrection: "Go and tell my brethren."528 We are brethren not by nature, but by the gift of grace, because that adoptive filiation gains us a real share in the life of the only Son, which was fully revealed in his Resurrection.
Wait, wait. This passage is too long, I get lost when I read it. What does it tells us, Jesus by His dying and His rising has open for us the way to New Life. And what is this new Life? This is a new Life as God's children. Take a look again at the last sentence, it says this adoption (to be God's children) makes us to have "a real share in the Life of the only Son". a real share in the Life of Jesus, the Life of God.
Isn't it what we are meant to be, to share in God's own Life, and What is the Life of God ? isn't it simply Love. And What is a communion of Love if not a Family? And here we are now, God's own family.
Here we are. We are called to die to ourselves and rise again into new Life. How is it possible for us except by uniting ourselves to Jesus who has died and rose again for us? This is what is written in CCC
793 Christ unites us with his Passover: all his members must strive to resemble him, "until Christ be formed" in them.227 "For this reason we . . . are taken up into the mysteries of his life, . . . associated with his sufferings as the body with its head, suffering with him, that with him we may be glorified."228
This is how we are taken up into the mysteries of Jesus's Life, the Mystery of God's Life, by uniting ourselves with His suffering and at the end we may be in union in His Glory. This is the way to enter into God's Life, by dying and rising together with jesus.
This might sound too difficult. But this is what God is telling us. What does it mean when Jesus said, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. " Mat 16:24, What does it mean by "deny himself"? What does it mean by taking our cross? It is to die to our old self and be born again into New Life.
Let's listen to Jesus as He speaks to Nicodemus.
3 Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
4 Nicode'mus said to him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?"
5 Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Do not marvel that I said to you, `You must be born anew.'
And after Jesus speak to Nicodemus, Let us see what Jesus did.
22 After this Jesus and his disciples went into the land of Judea; there he remained with them and baptized.
Next: Now Baptism
------to be continued
posted by Oka | 10:46 pm
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