{"id":182,"date":"2011-04-26T10:57:42","date_gmt":"2011-04-26T14:57:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/catholicbychoice\/?p=182"},"modified":"2011-04-26T10:57:42","modified_gmt":"2011-04-26T14:57:42","slug":"walking-the-easter-way-by-living-our-lives-in-the-risen-lord-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicbychoice\/2011\/04\/walking-the-easter-way-by-living-our-lives-in-the-risen-lord-now.html","title":{"rendered":"Walking the Easter Way by Living Our Lives in the Risen Lord Now"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In the Liturgical Year of the Catholic Church we are in the \u201cOctave\u201d of Easter. The word means eight. This \u201cFeasts of Feasts\u201d as the early Christians called the Resurrection, stretches out for eight days. It was on the first day of the week that Jesus was raised from the dead and began the new creation. The early Christians called it the \u201cEighth Day\u201d, because it was the day outside of time.<\/p>\n

Not only do we celebrate Easter for eight days with special liturgies which set forth the wonderful post resurrection appearances of Jesus, but we continue this celebration for fifty days until Pentecost! That is because Easter is more than a day, it is a WAY of living our lives now in the Risen Savior by living in His Body, the Church, through which he continues His redemptive mission until His glorious return.<\/p>\n

Life is different now because He has been raised! That tomb was \u2026 and is empty. Death could not contain Crucified, poured out Love. The debt has been paid, the last enemy death has been defeated and heavens gates have been opened wide. Because He lives we shall live forever in Him. There is a glorified Resurrected Savior seated at the \u201cright hand\u201d of the Father and He holds a place for you and for me!<\/p>\n

Through taking on our human nature He did what we could not do for ourselves. He suffered the penalty for all the wrong choices, the sins, the misused and abused exercises of our human freedom. He bridged the gap that had opened wide between the Father, who had created us for eternal communion, and the sons and daughters who had rejected His invitation. He restored us to a higher place now, through His obedience unto death, even death on a Cross. Now, the stone is rolled away and we live in Him.<\/p>\n

In His sacred humanity, He transformed the entirety of the human experience and invites us all into a new way of life, beginning right here, right now. This Easter way leads us to fullness of life now and eternal life and love in the world to come. He has torn the veil that existed between heaven and earth and opened up the beauty and hope of eternity for all who were once bound by the chains of time. He has given purpose, meaning and destination to the lost sheep wandering aimlessly in empty self pursuits.<\/p>\n

He carries forward the redemptive promise through time in and through His Body on earth, His church, into which we have been baptized and of which we are now members. All of our tomorrows, however many (or few) there may be in this life, can now be filled with redemptive purpose\u2026 if we choose to live them \u201cin Him.\u201d We can find the meaning and purpose of eternity revealed in the temporal realities of every today and tomorrow.<\/p>\n

The real \u201cstuff\u201d of our mundane daily lives can become the ingredients of our own sanctification and the materials out of which the new creation is fashioned around us. The materials have not changed; we have, because He lives now in us. There is nothing we face alone now, no tomorrow that is not now redeemed and made new in the One who is timeless but who, out of love, came into time to redeem and transform it!<\/p>\n

Life for a Christian is not circular but linear. It is always moving forward to fulfillment in Him, both personally and universally. There is a beginning – and an end – which is but a new beginning in the One who is Himself both the Beginning and the End. Time is now purposeful and unfolds into eternity, in Him who has entered time and transformed it by His life, death and Resurrection.<\/p>\n

The dirt, the ground, which was fashioned through Him, and upon which He breathed and came forth the first man, that ground upon which He walked in His earthly mission and into which they placed His sacred, lifeless Body, that ground could not contain Him; when the time had fully come it opened and He Rose victorious from the dead!<\/p>\n

That Glorious Day, the \u201cfirst day\u201d of the week, the first day of the new creation, the Day that the early Christians called the \u201cEighth Day\u201d; is outside of time. It is the portal to eternity. He was the firstborn and we follow now in His trail. He began the new creation and is making all things new now, within us and around us.\u00a0 \u201cBe not afraid\u201d He cries out as the stone bursts forth. \u201cBe gone fear\u201d He manifests the light that dispels all the darkness! \u201cFear is useless, what is needed is trust.\u201d<\/p>\n

The author of that ancient letter to the Hebrews, uncovered the root of all fear, the fear of death: \u201cNow since the children share in blood and flesh, he likewise shared in them, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who through fear of death had been subject to slavery all their life. (Hebrews 2:14-15)\u201d.<\/p>\n

All fear is gone now. Death has been dealt a fatal blow because He lives. Through sin, death came into the world, and now through the Sinless One it has been vanquished. No longer an enemy it becomes a friend, an ally, to those who choose to live in the One who lives! No longer need it be an end. Rather, it becomes a new beginning for those who choose to hide their lives in His wounded side and live their lives joined to Him.<\/p>\n

Nothing, nothing can separate us from that Love incarnated in the Crucified, Risen Son of the True and Living God, nothing. There is nothing to fear! I am free from fear because He lives!
\nThe empty angst so evident in much of the contemporary human experience reveals the presence of a gaping hole in the human soul. It has been there since the first wrong choice in Eden. Though some of the bad fruit may be contemporary in its expression, this emptiness is no different than the hole in the soul experienced by the ancients.<\/p>\n

Nothing but God can satisfy that hunger in the human heart, that aching for meaning and purpose. No- thing can fill that hole \u2013 but only Someone.\u00a0 Pascal wrote of this hole in the soul as a \u201cGod shaped vacuum\u201d. St. Augustine of Hippo expressed this universally experienced sentiment, \u201cOur hearts are restless God until they rest in Thee.\u201d We were created for purpose. We were created for meaning. We were created for Love. We were created for relationship. We were created for God.<\/p>\n

He alone makes life worth living. When we strive to embrace the implications of that empty tomb, then and only then, will we be ready for eternity. The events that we remembered and celebrate during these Holy Days provide a framework, a \u201chermeneutic\u201d of meaning for everything that happens now in the stuff of our daily life, if we let them! Even suffering, especially in the lives of those who follow this One who has been raised, now takes on value – redemptive, life transforming value, because He has been raised.<\/p>\n

In the Catholic Church we speak of the \u201cPaschal mystery\u201d when referring to the Saving Incarnation, Life, Death, Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ. To the ancients, the word \u201cmystery\u201d referred to that which is beyond our frail capacity to be fully grasped- because of our finite limitations and the limitations of language. It spoke to eternity. So does the Resurrection. The mystery of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ grasps us and changes us through its very dynamic unfolding in our own daily lives -if we embrace it in faith and live it in fact every day. The empty tomb makes us new. The empty tomb makes the whole world new!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the Liturgical Year of the Catholic Church we are in the \u201cOctave\u201d of Easter. The word means eight. This \u201cFeasts of Feasts\u201d as the early Christians called the Resurrection, stretches out for eight days. 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He is a widely recognized voice in the Catholic and broader Christian community. He is a member of the Clergy of the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia. In his fifteenth year of service as an ordained Catholic Deacon, he is currently assigned to St Stephen Martyr Parish in Chesapeake, Virginia. He is also authorized to serve the Liturgy of the Greek Byzantine Melkite Catholic Church. Deacon Fournier and his wife Laurine have been married for 34 years and have five grown children and six grandchildren. Deacon Fournier holds his Bachelors degree in theology and philosophy from the Franciscan University of Steubenville (BA), his Masters Degree in Marriage and Family Theology from the John Paul II Institute of the Lateran University (MTS), his Juris Doctor Law Degree Law (JD) from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and is a PhD candidate in Moral Theology at the Catholic University of America where he is currently writing his Doctoral Dissertation. Deacon Fournier also holds two honorary Doctorates, a Doctor of Laws (L.L.D. 1994,Honoris Causa) from St. Thomas University - Given for pro-life legal contributions, and a Doctor of Divinity Degree (D.D. 2005, Honoris Causa ) from the National Clergy Council and the Methodist Episcopal Church for his contributions to authentic ecumenical efforts toward Christian unity. Attorney Fournier is a constitutional lawyer who appeared as co-counsel in cases before the United States Supreme Court on Pro-Life, Religious Freedom and Pro-family issues. He served as the first Executive Director of the American Center for Law and Justice for seven years. He then served as a public policy activist for the causes of life, marriage and family issues for a number of years. He has extensive experience in nonprofit and for profit leadership. He has taught at the College level and served in Academic administration. He was a Dean of Students and the Dean of Evangelization at the Franciscan University of Steubenville in Steubenville, Ohio. Deacon Fournier is, above all, a communicator. His faith informs his passion to share the fullness of life which he has found in the heart of the Catholic Church. He has written eight books on matters of faith, family and the Christian life and is widely published in the broader Christian community on matters of life, faith, family, and cultural and social issues. He hosted two daily national radio programs, Purpose for Living, and Millennial Moment. He hosted several television series on Christian family and contemporary faith issues on EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network). He is actively involved in preaching and teaching in the Catholic Church and the broader Christian community. In addition to serving as the Editor in Chief of Catholic Online, Deacon Fournier is the John Paul II Fellow and special counsel for the National Pro-Life Center in Washington, D.C. and is the president of Third Millennium, LLC, a communications and consulting company. He views his role on Beliefnet as an opportunity to share his Catholic Christian faith in what he calls a new areopagus. The areopagus is referred to in the 17th Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles in the Christian New Testament. Also called Mars Hill it was there where the Apostle Paul shared the Christian faith with the early Greeks in their temple.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicbychoice\/author\/deaconfournier"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicbychoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicbychoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicbychoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicbychoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicbychoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicbychoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":185,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicbychoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182\/revisions\/185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicbychoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicbychoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicbychoice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}