Easter Tuesday

THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST

From a sermon by Blessed Guerric of Igny3

◊◊◊

Let us go to see Jesus journeying to the mountain of the heavenly Galilee,

where he awaits us. On the way our love will increase, and on our arrival at least,

it will be perfected. On the way, the road, at first hard and difficult, will grow

easier and the strength of the weak will increase. The flesh of Christ is our food

for the journey, his Spirit our means of conveyance. He Himself is the food; he

himself is the chariot and charioteer of Israel. When you arrive, all the goods,

not of Egypt but of heaven, will be yours. There, in the best place in the

kingdom, at the bidding of your Joseph you will take your rest. He who first sent

angels, women and apostles as witnesses and messengers of his resurrection,

now cries from heaven: “Behold, I whom you have mourned as dead these three

days did indeed die for you, but see, I live. And all power in heaven and earth

is given unto me.”

…

“I am the resurrection and the life”, Jesus said. He indeed is the first

resurrection; he is also the second resurrection. For rising from the dead as the

first fruits of those who sleep Christ both brings about for us the first

resurrection by the mystery of his own resurrection and by the example of that

same resurrection will bring about for us the second. The first is that of souls,

when he raises them together with himself to newness of life; the second will be

that of bodies, when he forms this humbled body of ours anew, molding it into

the image of his glorified body. Christ does well then to proclaim himself the

resurrection and the life since it is through him and into him that we rise in

order to live according to him and with him; now according to him in holiness

and justice, afterwards with him in happiness and glory.

Now the first resurrection of our Head, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the cause

and the proof of the second resurrection which will be that of his whole body.

So also for each of us the first resurrection of the soul, by which it comes to life

again from the death of sin, is the proof and the cause of its second resurrection,

by which the body will be freed not only from the corruption of death but also

from every tendency to corruption and death. That the one is proof of the other

St Paul shows clearly in the words: “If the Spirit of Christ who raised Jesus from

the dead dwells in you, he will also give life to your perishable bodies on

account of his Spirit who dwells in you”.

3 Guerric of Igny – Liturgical Sermons – vol. II – Cistercain Publications – CF32 – Cistercian Publications – Spencer,

MA – 1971.7