The Risen Jesus and the World’s Problems

The turbulence in world events this Easter Week is not without historical precedent. The violence and covetousness of persons, communities, and nations usually seem unaffected by the liturgical year. Moreover, most of us Christians have probably noticed that our own flaws, problems, difficulties, and fears have not miraculously disappeared. The Resurrection of Jesus inaugurates the beginning of God’s Kingdom, which includes the mysterious presence of His Lordship over the history of this world. Still, the human journey through this world continues for us who live in it: we are still called follow the Lord, to do His will, and to “carry our crosses” by persevering in our vocations. Indeed, the Kingdom of God has begun within us and among us when we adhere to Jesus in faith, hope, and charity. Our liturgical and sacramental participation in the Paschal Mystery during Holy Week and Easter enriches our lives with superabundant graces (more profoundly than we know). Nevertheless, we usually don’t feel like we have changed very much: we still often forget God, commit sins, and struggle with sorrows and sufferings that can seem very distant from the redemption we celebrate in these days. 

We must not lose heart. The Paschal event of Christ’s definitive victory over death does not “undo” His crucifixion; He rises with His wounds (hands, feet, side) in His glorified body, wounds transfigured by Divine Mercy, to be forever signs of His forgiveness. 

His glorified wounds are a constant and particular invitation to us. We all have wounds and we all hurt one another. The consequences of the violence we carry out against one another are real, and the disfigurement, the pain, the bitterness, and the anger may last long after the wounds become scars. But we who have been wounded must not allow ourselves to be reduced and defined by these afflictions so that they diminish our trust in the Risen Jesus and our willingness to turn to Him every day for mercy, forgiveness, and renewed hope. The ultimate truth about our lives consists in our relationship to our destiny: eternal communion with the Triune God and with one another in the Love that never ends. The resurrection of Jesus and His presence among us in the Spirit and through the Church means that the fulfillment of our true selves has already begun and is already shaping us in this present moment.

The Risen Jesus shows us His wounds, and reveals to us that our own wounds have meaning. The Kingdom of God manifests itself, and the world begins to be transformed into the New Creation, when — in letting ourselves be forgiven, healed, loved, and changed by Jesus crucified and risen — we forgive those who have injured us, we love our enemies, we pray for our persecutors. When we love our enemies, we bear witness to our encounter with the Risen Lord and our belonging to Him in a gratuitous and wondrous embrace that He extends to everyone. The good news of the Gospel is the victory of God’s love and mercy over sin and all its pains, divisiveness, and corruption — the victory over sin and death. 

Mercy doesn’t ignore justice, trying to pretend the wounds of sin and violence (our own and others) are not there. But when we come to know Christ’s saving love for us, we are freed from the illusions of our own inclination to seek revenge. Instead, the Holy Spirit stirs up in our hearts a desire to be instruments of mercy to everyone. As we grow in this renewal of our lives — listening to and following the grace of His Spirit — Jesus transforms our own awareness and compassion so that we ourselves become merciful. We begin to seek the conversion of our enemies — not only that in their sorrow they might try to repair what they can of the damage they have done to us — but fundamentally that our enemies might become our friends, together with us in the Body of the Risen Lord, united in His forgiveness that brings new life — eternal life.

It is important to ask the Lord continually for the grace to be merciful as He is merciful. Only in this way can we truly become “peacemakers” in our troubled world.