Embracing hope through the Paschal mystery
A view from the pew…
By Lori Lisi, March 2024
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
~John 12:24
These words from scripture illustrate for us that death does not imply a finality, but rather through this irreversible end death gives rise to an everlasting HOPE. Hope is ‘the anchor of our soul’; it keeps us steady and strong during the fiercest storms of our lives and pulls us out of despair, despondency and fear. It propels us to live as true disciples of Jesus and be of service to one another and, then, when our time on earth is done, return home to live in the Glory of God forever. Christians are a people of hope, and that hope lies in Jesus.
The Paschal Mystery — Jesus’ Passion, death, Resurrection and Ascension — fulfills God’s plan for the salvation of mankind. We refer to it as a mystery because it defies our human understanding, and, yet, it gives rise to an unabating hope that one day we will live eternally with our Lord. ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.’ (John 3:16), and to the realization that ‘death shall be no more’ (Rev. 21:4)
Notwithstanding our faith in God’s plan, we often find ourselves asking, ‘How can it be that death brings hope? How can an end bring a new beginning?’ It is unfathomable! Death connotes an ‘end’ and hope a ‘beginning’; death a ‘exit’ and hope a ‘entrance’; death a ‘stop’ and hope a ‘start.’ We are prompted to reflect on this mystifying connection between death and hope in John 12:24, wherein we are reminded that the only way for a seed to bear fruit is to fall into the earth and die.
The events in Jesus’ life fulfill God’s plan. Had Jesus not died, God’s salvation plan would not have been fulfilled. The Paschal Mystery, which is the main event in the liturgy of the Church, the celebration of the sacraments and the seasons of Lent and Easter, exists in every occasion of our life — in all that we do, in all that we say, and in all that we are. We live the Paschal Mystery, not just during the Triduum, but throughout our daily lives. The Paschal Mystery is unlike any other event in history, which although true and accurate, is ‘one and done,’ and resides only in the past. When we live a life centered on Jesus Christ, we partake in and experience the Paschal Mystery, not as a historical event, but as a recurring part of our day-to-day life.
This may seem less complicated and less difficult in good times, but how do we maintain our relationship with Jesus and live as His true disciples during the difficult times in our lives? How do we find hope in death? How do we start again, when everything in our life seems to have come to a halt? How do we find our ‘Easter’ after our ‘Good Friday?’ Reflecting on our lives, from as far back as we can remember, we will see that we have had many ‘Good Fridays’ followed by many ‘Easters.’
As a breast cancer survivor, one of my most prominent ‘Good Fridays’ was the diagnosis. Something in me died upon hearing the news. The entire ordeal was filled with sadness, anxiety, pain, uncertainty, and fear — the fear that there might not have been any hope. But through the intercession of the Holy Spirit, I found the strength and the courage to deal with all those feelings, and following my surgery, I found hope again — hope in my young children (then,10 and 6 years of age), hope in my husband, and hope for a future that included a new me.
For although something perished in me that day in July 1999, a new me was born to a world and a life that I had begun to take for granted. This conversion propelled in me a renewed faith in all that the Lord provides for me and I promised God, and myself, that I would live life to its fullest. My ‘Easter’ taught me much about myself that I had not previously known, and/or that I had forgotten about. Today, I continue to deal with ‘Good Fridays’ and I try to find my hope, my ‘Easter,’ for I realize that each ‘Good Friday’ (some harder than others) brings HOPE…a personal Easter…a personal HOPE.
The trials and tribulations of life, the events of ‘Good Friday,’ are not how we would choose to participate in the Paschal Mystery. We would all rather share in the events of ‘Easter.’ However, it is only in carrying our own personal crosses and becoming vulnerable to our brokenness that we become more receptive to God’s grace, able to fully take part in the Easter of Christian life and ready to live as true disciples of Jesus; children of God, commissioned to care for others with the love and compassion with which God cares for us. As Jesus says, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their crosses and follow me.” (Mark 16:24)
So, my personal ongoing challenge, and the one that I offer to everyone, is to acknowledge the mini crosses of our daily lives and commit to embracing them, as Jesus taught us, and then to believe in our hearts that each ‘Good Friday’ will be met with God’s grace and our own personal ‘Easter.’ It is because of the Paschal Mystery that we are certain that HOPE will always have a place in our lives.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
~1 Peter 1:3
