Saturday 9 June 2012

15: The power of Christianity

Participating to His Resurrection


Saint Paul says that he would like us to experience the Power of the Resurrection of Jesus (Phil 3,10). One can expand a lot on the spirituality of the participation to Jesus’ death in order to participate to his Resurrection. We may call it rightly “Spirituality of Baptism” (see Rm 6,1-5). By contemplating Jesus Crucified, an exchange can happen: we give Him our burdens, our sins, our sufferings, our difficulties, and we take His Yoke: the Holy Spirit, that purifies and transforms our inner being. We, then, experience the Transformative Power of His Cross.



His Session at the Right Hand of the Father

Without questioning at all the validity, necessity, power and efficiency of this spiritual exchange, we may explore more of that “Power made available to us” by Christ and make one more step: delving in his “Ascension into heaven” and His “Session at the right hand of the father”.

In fact The Risen Son of Man, finishes His Journey not at the Resurrection, but at the Ascension and Session at the Right Hand of the Father. This is the final destination of His Humanity: the closest possible to the Father (in the Trinity).


The Unity between the Head and the Body in one Mystical Person

Let us consider our relationship with Jesus. In fact we have one Total Mystical Christ, composed by the Head, Jesus-Christ, and his Body, us. The Head is seated at the Right hand of the Father, and the Body is here on earth, but is deeply and mystically linked to the Head. The relationship between the Head and the Body is to be compared to a tie, a bond that is so powerful that it is unbreakable, indestructible. Divine Life, the Holy Spirit, is constantly flowing from the Head to the Body.
It is more than a union, it is a unity, a “mystical unity”, an identity. This is why Jesus identifies Himself with His Body, saying to Saul who is persecuting Christians: “why do you persecute Me?” (Acts 26,14).


How to receive the outpouring of the Holy Spirit

The Power to receive from Jesus is simply the Holy Spirit. All the Power of Christianity lays in the Communication of the Holy Spirit.

How can we receive the Holy Spirit in a more powerful way?
The more we Dwell in Jesus, the more we receive the Outpouring of His Holy Spirit. This is why Jesus said two things:
1- You should rejoice that I am going to (sit at the right hand of) the Father (see John 14-16), because I’ll be sending you the Holy Spirit.
2- (While I will be seated at the Right hand of the Father) Dwell in Me (John 15) because this is the way to receive directly from Me the Holy Spirit.

This is why the Priest, during the Mass, says: “lift up your hearts”; so Jesus, who is seated at the right hand of the Father, can take our hearts and put them in His Heart, so we are enabled to receive the Holy Spirit.


The Power of Christianity

Stephen says that he sees « the Son of man standing on the right hand of God » (Ac 7:56). Why this statement is perceived by the Jews who didn’t become Christians as blasphemous (see Acts 7:57-58)? While for us, Christians, being able to see the Son of Man at the Right Hand of the Father is the highest achievement, and the most powerful outpouring of God? Why Jesus’ victory (to sit at the Right Hand of the Father), reaching such closeness with His human nature to the very Nature of God, is blasphemous?
In may religions, including actual Judaism, it is not at all conceivable to be that close to God. It is blasphemous because God is considered as being only High, but never that Close to us His creatures. Or, said in a different way: our human created nature can never reach God, where He IS. Let us remember that the reason why Jesus is killed (I mean the decision made by the Jewish authorities at that time) is that He declared himself being God, equal to God (see the Passion according to S. John)!
What a privilege for us to know that this is not true!
What is Blasphemous to some is the highest Power to others. Let us at least use this Power given to us!

We are all invited to meditate and contemplate this great mystery: the fact that part of us, Jesus the Head, in His Human Nature, is already at the closest to the Father. So let us be actively "in Him", using our freedom to benefit from that incredible privilege.


Let us benefit from this Power

He (as a man) is already reigning in heaven, united with the Father. Contemplating Him (seated at the right hand of the Father), we contemplate our victory. We contemplate were our heart should be, all the time.
This is how we can be in the world but not from the world (John 15:18-20; 17:16), from Christ seated at the Right Hand of the Father. Contemplating, we are united with Him, and we receive the Holy Spirit… like Rivers of Water (John 7:38)... This is the Prayer of the Heart.
Let us practise the Prayer of the Heart... constantly...
Constantly, and actively, be "in Him"... to receive his Holy Spirit...

How are your taste buds?

2 comments:

Leonora said...

Thank you for this wonderful reflection! After reading this, I am reflecting more on the harmony and link between dwelling in Jesus who is the Head and receiving the outpouring of the Spirit.
Could you almost say that if we are "in Christ" then we are immersed in the Trinity? Participating in this endless love between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; that we would experience them in a new way being "in Christ"? I just think we are used to regarding our relationship to the Holy Spirit in an isolated way and not by "dwelling in Jesus" as you say.

Jean Khoury BSc MA said...

Thanks Leonora. I amended it a bit.
In His Divine Nature, the Jesus is never separated from the Father and the Holy Spirit.
In His Human Nature, per se, as well, He was never separated from His own Divine Nature, therefore not separated from His Father and from the Common Holy Spirit.
My explanation was the Redemptive action, carrying us into God, into the Trinity.
If we are in Him, automatically we are in the Trinity, we are in front of the Father, in the Circulation of the Holy Spirit.
For sure, being "in Christ" we do experience the Trinity from inside. And this is to be "actively" Christian. (Not just passively baptised.
Once we are in Jesus (Matthew 5), we are in Front of the Father (Matthew 6), in the Holy Spirit (Matthew 7).
Remember a very old expression used by Irenaeus: the Hands of the Father, being the Son and the Holy Spirit. By Baptism, the Father holds us in His Hands, and keeps us in His Hands, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This is why, we find in Matthew 5 through 7, the Sermon of the Mount, that the Father is in the middle... with Five Indications (Commandments) in Mt 5, and five recommendations about the Holy Spirit in Mt 7. Like the five fingers of the Hand of the Son and the five fingers of the Hand of the Holy Spirit. So as you see, we can't be in Communion with the Son without being in Communion but the Two Others, they are inseparable.
I hope this help. I might create just a post on the Blog if you want, about that.
Cheers...