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An old Persian story tells of a man at the door of his beloved. She heard the knock and inquired, “Who is there?” He replied, “It is I.” She retorted, “Go away.” He later returned, knocked, and gave the same response, “It is I.” Once more she told him, “Go away.” He went off and spent weeks in the desert, fasting and praying. He came back and knocked again. When she asked, “Who’s there?” he told her, “It is yourself.” She said, “Come in.”
Easter: the day of Christ’s entering into glory. He had wanted glory, not just for Himself but for you and me—to the point of dying to bring it to us.
That’s what He wanted. What of ourselves? When the thought occurs to us, we want to dwell with God. But if we are to enter heaven, you and I have to face the truth, and make some changes. The woman said, “Go away,” every time the man said, “It is I.” He had to change his thoughts and his attitudes before he could hear, “Come in.”
The same is true of ourselves and dwelling with the Lord. We must look honestly at our thoughts and actions to see what needs changing if we hope to hear the Lord say, “Come in.” That’s what Paul means when he tells the recipients of his letters that they must die and rise with Christ. He means: We must die to self-centeredness, die to pursuit of unlawful pleasures, die to holding grudges, die to piling up possessions which distract from what really matters, die to spending days without thinking of God.
The death of all this makes possible a rising—a rising up to Christ’s way of life. But this rising is much more. Remember that answer: “It is I.”
The Persian man lived in the desert a long time to find the answer his beloved wished to hear. Jesus lived 40 days in a desert getting ready to carry out His work for God, battling temptation to rely on the world’s false values instead of His Father.
Where is our desert? Where do we get the knowledge and the desire and the power to change? We obtain them by friendship with a Person, the living Christ. And it goes farther. When Paul says the Church is the Body of Christ, he means the persons who belong to it. Yes, Christ is its head, but the persons who include you and me are all its parts. Which means that, yes, if we get to where Jesus wants us in the things we say and do, and that has to include what we think, then each of us must become a local showing of Jesus. Think of it: Me? Jesus? That is the idea. So how do we get closer to that impossible-sounding state?
With Christ risen, every Sunday and holy day at Mass, where we can hear the word that outlines His way of thinking and acting; at Mass where—if we are in His grace—we can receive strength from His glorious, risen Self in the Bread of Life.
With Christ in the Bible, where we can turn to let His thoughts flood our minds.
With Christ in keeping the commandments God gave His Chosen People after leading them through the Red Sea. They show how we can care for the others God has given us as our Christian family, and the wondrous creation of which we are part.
With Christ in knowing true Christians. Not just the famous like Mother Teresa but in the men, women and young people we know who are striving to be Christ-like. And never forget: Many good Christians were once not good. Peter denied his Lord. Jesus drove seven devils from Mary Magdalene. Both died to sin and rose to sainthood.
Because the risen Jesus lives and works in the Church, in the members who have risen to His way of thinking and acting, this death to sin and rising to Christ-life continues in 2015. People separated from God rise to Christ-life in baptism’s bath or come back in confession.
The Persian man returned. Once more his beloved said, “Who is it?” He replied, “It is yourself.” He heard: “Come in.” Nobody ever showed love for the Father or for human beings like Jesus, crucified. God saw boundless divine love perfectly mirrored in the Son. On Easter Sunday, the Father said, “Come in.” And we, too, are meant to mirror that love.
So it is clear what we can do every day to experience Easter: Stay with Christ. Learn his way. Pursue it.
At the Easter liturgy we renew the promises of our baptism. This is a fitting declaration for Easter, as long as we see that reciting these promises out of a book without living them is useless. Baptism is the moment when we each get the name Christian, other Christ. In a moment of prayer, reinforce this thought: If you decide to be faithful to that name, and stick with your decision in all you do and say, then someday you will hear your risen Lord call to you, “Share my joy. Come in.”
Father Lynch serves as senior administrator of Immaculate Conception parish in Woodbourne. He holds a doctorate in classics.
