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”.