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(excerpts from the preaching of Moses Easter Azevedo in 2007
– Tried to maintain the conversational tone)
Christ is risen, Hallelujah. He is truly risen! Hallelujah!
Saint Paul himself said: “If Christ has not been raised, then our faith is in vain”. But as Christ is risen from the dead, we are the happiest of all mankind. Because in the resurrection of Christ, we have the fullness of life, and that is why those who believe cannot stop announcing, proclaiming with their lungs and their lives, with their eyes and their word, with their smile and their joy, through history and time, the victory of Christ over death, and his full life. Death cannot stop him, his love was, is and will always be stronger than death, because Christ is risen, Hallelujah. Yes! He is truly risen! Hallelujah!
(…)
And now we will talk a little about this really important theme, which is by the way essential and fundamental for us, the victory of Christ over death, the resurrection of Christ. As I said in the beginning, the apostle Paul said: “If Christ has not been raised, then our faith is in vain”. But many times, the testimony of the apostles, the testimony of the gospels, our testimony, the testimony of our lives proclaims and announces that Christ is risen, that he is alive amongst us, that he lives and wins with us and in us, and through us in the world, that with him we overcome every shade of death. Death has no longer any power over us, because he won, he´s victorious, he´s forever victorious, and those who believe in him will not experience death, they will overcome death like he has, and they will have full life through the force of his resurrection.
But, my dear Brothers, this afternoon, talking about the resurrection of Christ, I did not want to speak words of my own simply. You know this year for the greater glory of God, our community, Shalom Catholic Community, has received its Pontifical Recognition, by the hands and mouth of Peter, our beloved Pope Benedict XVI, our community, our statutes have been accredited, which means this charisma belongs to God, it belongs to the Church, it is a safe way to holiness. And the Church itself consigns this charisma, to announce the Good News which many and many millions of people do not know, millions of people that are on our side do not know the victory of Christ over death.
If our community has always been united to the Church, if at the beginning we were born at the feet of John Paul II, if we have always had great love for the Church, if we have always had filial communion with our bishops, if always, through the force of Baptism, we have been deeply united to the Church, and even more through our Pontifical Recognition, we can say that, more than just lawfully, but carnally we are bride to the Church and because of that, in this day the Lord made us, because the day of the resurrection of Christ is the day of the recreation of the world, when God created all visible and invisible things.
What has wounded the world? Sin. But God loved the world so much and loved mankind so much, that he sent His own Son to fight sin and all its consequences in our flesh. God made himself flesh. There´s a beautiful story Pope Benedict XVI himself tells. He said there was a king that wanted to see God and his people looked for wise men, intellectual to answer that king. But no one could answer him, because he wanted to see God. So they called a monk, a poor monk who said: “with the eyes of your flesh you cannot see God, but with the eyes of faith you can see how he acts”. This monk wore the clothes of a beggar. So the curious king said: “show me how he acts so that I can contemplate him”. So the monk dressed as a beggar said: “undress your royal clothes and remove your crown. Give them to me and dress my beggar clothes.
The king hesitated. To give up his royal clothes, to give up his crown of glory and to dress those clothes all torn and smelly, the clothes of a beggar…But driven by his curiosity to see God in his action, the king accepted. He gave up his royal crown and his shiny clothes, with gold and diamonds, and switched clothes with the beggar monk, who told him: “God acts that way. God has given up His Greatness, by love he has given up His Royalty and dressed our poor, fragile, wounded and purulent humanity, but when he dressed our poor, fragile and purulent humanity, he dressed us with His crown of Glory, with his noble clothes, with His purest gold, with his divinity. That´s how God acts and that way we can experience the love of God.
God takes over the weight of our wounded humanity, through the incarnation, the Passion and the Resurrection of His Son. Our sick humanity, our purulent humanity, marked by sin. In Christ, God takes over the clothes of our humanity, in his Passion he takes it over. And when we contemplate the Passion of Christ and see as the lecture says: “he became a worm, bloody, destroyed, wounded, hurt, transfigured in its worst sense, he did not look human. God took over our clothes, but through Baptism, in the force of His Resurrection, this wounded humanity is transfigured and he dresses us, me and you, each one of us here, He dresses us with his mercy, which is stronger and brighter than any light in this world, brighter than the sun, the midday sun, brighter than any light we can ever imagine or understand.
When the disciples contemplate Jesys and say “his clothes were so bright, so white as no washerwoman could ever make”, his light was so strong that it dazzled the eyes of the apostles, for these bright close, theses glorious clothes, this crown of diamonds that is not from this world, of precious stones that are not from this world, you and me are lined in Christ and in the power of His Resurrection. That´s why every wound, every sin, every sickness, every death, every shade in our lives, in the light of Christ, by the power of the Resurrection of Christ and by the accession of the heart of the one who believes, dies with Christ and rises with Him, everything can be transformed.
Everything can be transfigured, everything can be glorified, because Christ is risen, Hallelujah. Yes! He is truly risen! Hallelujah!
My brothers and sisters, today is the day when we make the experience of the Glory of God, the Glory of God that did not cling to the outward manifestation of that equality, but who made himself flesh, and not only made himself flesh, but he became a man just like any man, in everything, except sin, he took over everything but sin, but he took over our sin, he became sin, he became curse, to overcome sin, to overcome curse, to overcome death and to glorify us in Him. Today is the day when the Lord made us, to experience the Glory of the Resurrection, and this Glory is accessible to all those who believe…
Because Christ is risen, Hallelujah. Yes! He is truly risen! Hallelujah!
That´s why I do not want my voice to be my voice today, I want my voice to be the voice of Peter and I wanted to bring you some of his phrases and comment them. Phrases that Pope Benedict XVI has presented us this Resurrection Sunday. The Divine Providence wanted the year of our Pontifical Recognition as Shalom Catholic Community. The Holy Father wanted to recognize one image for his Easter message, for the message of the Resurrection of Christ, so that this year the Resurrection of Christ in his Easter message could be marked by this image. It´s in the Vatican´s website and, if you want, you can access it, in the words written by the Holy Father, the Pope, the message he chose for us:
The image of Jesus Christ crucified, putting his hand over his heart and Thomas touching his risen heart. And the Divine Providence wanted this image to be the image of our Charisma, of our Vocation. The image of the experience of man who touches the risen body of Christ, who touches the risen heart, the man that´s far from God and the Church and, with the announcement by the people that have made an experience with the Resurrection of Christ, are attracted by this same Christ. This unbelieving and distant man touches the heart of Christ and makes a beautiful faith profession. Receiving the shock of the Resurrection, he becomes a man of perfect faith. “My Lord and my God!”.
Now let´s hear some parts of the Holy Father´s message and comment them a little. I would like to start with a piece of the Pope´s homily, in yesterday´s Easter vigil. He said: “Christ enters the world of the dead”…Because God is light and the night becomes bright as the day and the shades become light. Jesus enters the world of the dead, he carries the stigmas, his wounds, his malady, they are power, they are the love that overcomes death. Yesterday we meditated about the descent of Christ to the mansion of the dead. From this part, the Holy Father starts to talk about the Resurrection of Christ. Translating a little what the Pope said: Christ enters, Christ visits and the proper word he used is: Christ enters the world of the dead. My dear brother, my dear sister, the world of the dead theologically was the hades, that is where people that were separated from God were, but allegorically we can imagine the world of the dead amongst us.
First looking inside of us. There are many regions in us that are dead, many regions and areas of our lives rotting, stinking, there are many regions and areas of our lives that are purulent. Areas we do not know what to do with, areas we do not know how to handle, areas we do not know how to fix. We have fought, we have tried, problems we have gotten used to, we have become their friends and accomplices, but today Christ enters the world of the dead, your world, my world, in this area of my life that death still wants, without any right, because it has been defeated. It wants to rule without any right.
And how does Christ enter the world of the dead? The Holy Father says: presenting his stigmas, his wounds, the world of the dead, the shades, the sin that is in us and in the world cannot resist the wounds of Christ. The pierced side of Christ, the wounds of Christ, you know why? Because they bring proof, they are a concrete sign of His love. He loved us so much, God loved us so much that he wore our clothes, he gave up his Crown of Glory and took over our sorrows and sicknesses. He was voluntarily pierced in the heart, that is the sign of the endless divine love, the endless divine love no death, no wound, no weakness can overcome, nothing is bigger than this love and that is why Jesus show, in the regions of death, his pierced heart. He shows his glorious wounds and says: Who are you, death? Who are you, death? My love, my endless love, the power of my Resurrection which is the endless love of God for mankind, for the world, for me, for you is stronger that everything. Die, o death, because today life wins, here are the evidence of the victory of life: my open heart, my pierced side, my pierced hand and my pierced feet. My dear brother, this is the day for us to make this experience the Holy Father is talking about: his wounds, his malady have become the power, they are the love that overcomes death, the love of Christ overcomes death.
Despair never comes from God, it will never come from God, because our God is the God of hope. Getting used to death living in us will never come from God, because our God is the God of life. Getting used to our weaknesses, our pains and saying it´s OK, it´s over, I have to carry them…Yes, you have to carry them united to Christ, because from Christ comes the victory of love and the victory of love will create a life that´s always new in you, you can be a new creature. You can give sense to everything to every pain and death and wound in you. You will be a new creature, because pain and suffering that you carry will be united with the love and the suffering of Christ and, united with the pain and the suffering of Christ, it will create life and resurrection. You will be created in Christ, it is a matter of faith, you will be created in Christ to be a new creature.
And the Holy Father continues: “We life attached to his body, who´s body? The body of Christ. We live attached to his body, the body of Christ. We live in communion with his body, we obtain the heart of God and only that way death is defeated. We are free and our life is hope. Love has revealed itself stronger than death”. Words of the Pope. We are free and our life is hope. Love has revealed itself stronger than death, stronger than evil. And how do we attach to the Body of Christ? Because the Pope says when we attach to the Body of Christ we reach the heart of God. We attach to the Body of Christ in the Baptism we have received, that´s why you should believe in your Baptism, there is a source of endless life sprouting from you. We live attached to the Body of Christ in every Eucharist we celebrate, because we are part of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ. We eat the Body of Christ, the flesh of Christ, we drink His Blood and our body is transformed in His Body and that way we enter in intimate and living communion, attached to the Body of Christ.
My brothers and sisters, I think we do not have a notion of the greatness of this Divine Mystery that involves us. We do not have a notion that when someone says: “The Body of Christ” and you say: “Amen” and your lips open up and you chew, if you do not chew, you eat, you swallow…You swallow the Body that was torn, you swallow this Body that took over wounds, pains, you swallow the Body that overcame death, that overcame all evil and is risen and is glorious. And you eat this Body so that this Body transforms everything that is perishable in you, everything that is fragile in you, everything that is weakness in you and the Divine Strength this Body brings to you, and by hope day by day you are transformed. Day by day, not suddenly, but day by day and we have to believe in this and that is our hope. That is our hope and that is why Resurrection brings us hope. We attach to the Body of Christ every day when we receive the communion, day by day, so that, day by day, His light shines over our shades, so that, day by day, he can be balsam, remedy and transformation in our lives, in our flesh, so that, day by day, a new man and a new woman can overcome all challenges of life by love and for love and so that, moved by love, we are able to embrace the cross ourselves.
And so the Holy Father says: “And only that way death can be defeated. We are free and our life is hope. Through the Resurrection of Jesus, love revealed itself stronger than death, stronger than evil. Love is stronger than evil”. Repeat this with me: Love is stronger than evil. You know, our souls and our hearts have not heard yet: Love is stronger than evil.
May the Lord give us His Grace so that everything we talked about, united to the words of the Vicar of Christ and the truth of the Risen Christ engraves in us the strength of the Resurrection of Christ, engraves in our souls and our hearts that love is stronger than evil. That evil does not have the last word. Not in your life, not in your family, not in this town, not in this country, not in the world.
The love is stronger than evel. Therefore in Christ we are capable, and we are called to answer the evel with love, with mercy, and with good that borns not of ourselves, because we are not capable, but born of Christ’s resurrection, and borning of Christ’s resurrection is capable to destroy the evel in his root, inside of us and outside of us.
And the Holy Father still says: The Resurrected came to meet them that unbelievers had need for truth, it was not a dream that apostles have, was not an illusion or subjective imagination, that meeting was a real experience. (…)
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(excerpts from the preaching of Moses Easter Azevedo in 2007
– Tried to maintain the conversational tone)