Sunday, April 8th
Daily Resurrections
By Ron Rolheiser, OMI
What the Resurrection of Jesus promises is that things can always be new again. It’s never too late to start over. Nothing is irrevocable. No betrayal is final. No sin is unforgivable. Every form of death can be overcome. There isn’t any loss that can’t be redeemed. Every day is a virgin.
The Resurrection assures us that God never gives up on us, even if we give up on ourselves, that we can regain lost innocence and move beyond bitterness. In a scheme of things where Jesus breathes out forgiveness on those who betray him and God raises bodies from the dead, we can begin to believe that in the end all will be well, including our own lives.
However, the challenge of living this out is not just that of believing that Jesus rose physically from the grave, but also, and perhaps even more importantly, to believe that no matter our age, mistakes, betrayals, wounds, and deaths, we can begin each day afresh. No matter what we’ve done, our future is forever pregnant with wonderful new possibility. Resurrection is not just a question of one day, after death, rising from the dead, but it is also about daily rising from the many mini-graves within which we so often find ourselves.
We are human and we cannot avoid falling — into depression, bitterness, sin, betrayal, cynicism, and the tiredness that comes with age. Like Jesus, we too will have our crucifixions. More than one grave awaits us. Yet our faith in the Resurrection invites us precisely to live beyond these.
As John Shea once so aptly put it: What the Resurrection teaches us is not how to live — but how to live again, and again, and again!
This piece was taken from “Daybreaks: Daily Reflections for Lent and Easter Week.”