This reflection is based on the Easter Vigil Homily of Pope Benedict
as well as the scriptures for the day.
"I will go away, and I will come to you."
Dying is "going away,"
Yet Jesus says,
"I go away, and I will come to you."
It is by going away that he comes.
His going ushers in a completely new and greater way of being present.
His dying is an act of love, infinite love.
His going away is transformed into a new coming,
Into a form of presence which reaches deeper and does not come to
an end.
During His earthly life Jesus, like all of us,
Was tied to a determined place and time.
Yet now, dying through love into LOVE,
He can somehow enter our personal existence.
He can come to us and at the same time take us to himself.
His going away is transformed into a coming.
In the Risen Lord's universal manner of presence
He embraces us in all times and places.
He can even surmount the otherness
That separates one from another (The "I" from the "you").
This happened with Paul who describes his conversion:
"It is no longer I who live; but Christ lives in me."
Through the coming of the Risen One, Paul obtained a new identity.
He now lives in communion with Jesus Christ,
With all believers who are now "one in Christ."
The Risen One comes to you and joins his life with yours
Drawing you into the open fire of his love.
You become one with Him, and thus one among yourselves.
In our inmost depths we are anchored in a new identity,
A new Way, a new Truth, a new Life.
The event of Paul resulting in
"I live, now, not I but Christ lives in me"
Becomes our event.
It is good and needful that the Church gives us 50 days to absorb
this stupendous mystery:
God dwelling in us, us dwelling in God. Fifty days is good. But
a lifetime is needed.
Even a death is needed to know the full abundance of the Truth and
Life that is promised. But for now it is one day at a time: "I
live, now, not I, but Christ lives in me." This is the Way
I choose, this is the Life I choose, the Truth I choose.
Some days it is a choice lived one day at a time, one minute at
a time, one second at a time.
I live now, not I but Christ lives in me. I am dwellilng in him,
he is dwelling in me.
This is the great good News that everyone has a right to hear.
This promise realized, fulfills all promises.