Vigils Reading – Office for the Dead

THE NEWNESS OF LIFE

From “The Mystery of Time” by Fr Jean Mouroux

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Christ died to deliver us from the condemnation to eternal death and from

the fear which enslaves the sinner. He has conquered death, the child of sin,

because he has conquered sin itself. He has undergone death to destroy it. He

has overcome this radical contradiction by elevating us to a participation in his

risen life, in “life eternal.” Death has not yet been completely eradicated, but it

has been completely transformed. Christ has delivered us all to the Cross

because He, the Head of mankind, the Center of the redeemed universe, the

Savior, “bore us all in Himself” during his sacrifice. Thus “if one died for all, then

all were dead”, and all are saved from the satanical power of death. It is love, not

damnation, which envelops us and restores us to God. It envelops us as

individuals; as members of the human race; and as members of the Church…

It’s infinite blessing affects our personal life at baptism, where with Christ

we “are dead to sin, but alive to God”. The power of the Risen Christ dwells in us

that “we may walk in the newness of life,” that each day we may cast sin farther

away and crown our lives with the divine agape. The life of Christians in time is

a paradoxical one. They are dead to sin, yet must die to it each day; they live in

God, and must live for him each day; they are the battleground of an

eschatological struggle in which Christ the Conqueror faces the vanquished

devil, that he may triumph once again in the freedom of a regenerated heart. By

immersing himself ever more deeply into baptism and Christ, the Christian

grows with Christ and brings about his victory even in death.

Insofar as he lives in Christ, the Christian is totally enveloped by Christ

both before and after death. Before death, Christ is the life-giving, saving Lord.

After death, he calls, judges, purifies, and transfigures the life he has given. Here

below, he communicates the seed of immortality, especially in the Eucharist. Up

above, He will be the source of glory which will transform our soul and our body.

The Eternal One is present before and after death. So at our death Christ is

present as the Savior who protects Christians from the last assault of the evil

one, revives their flagging spirits, and leads them from the time of testing to

their eternal reward.

Christ is the Mediator through whom and in whom every Christian

experiences death. Externally, death still seems to be a terrible process of

annihilation. But internally it is the mysterious maturation of the new creature

in Jesus Christ. “This is the will of my Father who sent me: that every one who

sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise them on

the last day”. “I am the bread of life. This is the bread that came down from

heaven so that one may eat it and not die”.