Easter Victory
It is very befitting to have a deeper reflection on one of the wonderful music or songs composed to celebrate the Easter Experience:
1 Low in the grave he lay, Jesus my Savior, waiting the coming day, Jesus my Lord!
Refrain: Up from the grave he arose; with a mighty triumph o'er his foes; he arose a victor from the dark domain, and he lives forever, with his saints to reign. He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!
2 Vainly they watch his bed, Jesus my Savior, vainly they seal the dead, Jesus my Lord! [Refrain]
3 Death cannot keep its prey, Jesus my Savior; he tore the bars away, Jesus my Lord! [Refrain]
The reality of the resurrection of Christ is the reality of our great victory over what we dread the most; death and with Christ’s resurrection, we are greatly given the grace of restoration to new life over what puts us in enslavement or gets us entrapped in any form especially, death. With this reality of Christ’s resurrection, we connect with the true victory that always keeps us alive, even when the natural process of human expiration from the material world dawns on us. With the life of Christ in us, we have the hope of rising from the grave and being very much alive in heavenly bliss. If we die in Christ, we shall also live with Him. Cf 2 Timothy 2:11.
We are the people of the resurrection, and we are the people very much alive in Christ. Death has no power over us, and we have been made true conquerors, thus, fear and hopelessness have no place in our lives and experiences, for we are very much connected and integrated into the victory of Christ over death and evil. In Christ, death no longer constitutes an evil barricade but becomes a bridge to an eternal bliss and heavenly glory. Let us be deeply grateful that we are not disconnected from the victorious happenings that God has wrought in our world. By the virtue of our faith reality, we become true participants and beneficiaries of this extraordinary working of God. What a blessed and privileged people we are by the virtue of our faith life.
Let us keep our faith life as our inestimable jewel and true treasure, that we cherish beyond all factors in life, because that is what puts us on a pedestal of victory and truly defines our reality of being ALIVE in true sense of it. Our faith is what keeps us alive and truly vibrant and victorious in this terrestrial domain and in the experience of after death. We must never undermine the reality that gives us hope, life and victory under the guise of pursuit of earthly glory. One’s consciousness can become so earthly-minded and materialistic that one becomes so engrossed in material pursuits at the expense of one’s faith life and commitments. Christ’s victory becomes our true glory and our connection with that through our faith life and commitments must be primary and given the priority it deserves through our life journey and desires. It is very vital for the sake of our true joy and fulfillment to give our faith life the primary place it should occupy in our consciousness and desires in life.
A lot of factors are playing in our world, making people systematically reduce their faith to a matter of irrelevance and undermine it as an unproductive and optional reality. What a wrong step to embrace hopelessness, instability, lack of vitality and eternal death! Whatever gives true hope and life should always be embraced with optimal love and commitment. Nothing gives us true hope and true life other than our faith-experience. Let us not get trapped by ideologies that want us to embrace nihilistic and destructive life under the guise that one is displaying true freedom when you systematically undermine and reject the faith experience. We must be able to say Yes to what gives true victory and life and turn our back to nihilistic and irreligious ideologies of our modern world and society.
The reality of celebration of Easter should help us to reintegrate our faith into every aspect of our lives for the sake of truly being alive and victorious. Easter should help us hold on to the banner of faith, everywhere and declaring one’s victory over all forms of enslavement and attitudes that will want to entrap us. We have really been set free by Christ, let us keep living out our freedom in true commitment to our faith life experience as we keep striving to gain eternal joy and bliss after the completion of our earthly journey. We have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back. No turning back.
Scriptural readings: Sunday: Matthew 28. Monday: Mark:16. Tuesday: Luke 24. Wednesday; John 20. Thursday: John 21. Friday: Romans 6. Saturday: Galatians 5. Happy Easter to us all.