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VATICAN - AVE MARIA : Mgr Luciano Alimandi -
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - The Easter Season leads us to contemplate the boundless loving mercy of God opened to us with the Resurrection of Jesus. Gone are the shadows of sin and death, put to flight by the glorious light of the Risen Lord who comes to renew and illuminate, and encourage us on our path of conversion. The Lord Jesus is the "The Risen Lord", "the Living one", "the Paschal Lamb"! With his Resurrection he pulls us from our existential void of selfishness and sin. With his death he defeated death he has brought us back to life!
The Holy Father Benedict XVI teaches, with the whole Church, that the fundamental nucleus of our profession of faith is the Resurrection of Christ. If we believe in Him, in his glorious power, our life becomes a song of triumph.
" Dear brothers and sisters, let us accept the Apostle's invitation; let us open our spirit to Christ, who has died and is risen in order to renew us, in order to remove from our hearts the poison of sin and death, and to pour in the life-blood of the Holy Spirit: divine and eternal life. In the Easter Sequence, in what seems almost like a response to the Apostle's words, we sang: "Scimus Christum surrexisse a mortuis vere" – we know that Christ has truly risen from the dead. Yes, indeed! This is the fundamental core of our profession of faith; this is the cry of victory that unites us all today. And if Jesus is risen, and is therefore alive, who will ever be able to separate us from him? Who will ever be able to deprive us of the love of him who has conquered hatred and overcome death?" (Benedict XVI, homily Easter Sunday, 12 April 2009).
The forgiveness, the peace and unconditioned love which Christ gives, belongs, not to the kingdom of fairy tales, but to the Kingdom of Heaven which is already here on earth, living in the Church. Now the kingdom of Christ lives in every Baptized soul, and grows as the soul responds to God's grace and grows in virtue, first of all faith, hope and charity.
Christians are pilgrims. We do not accept the Gospel once and for all, but gradually day by day in the dynamics of conversion with highs and lows, but always moving forwards. At times on our journey, we tire and fall, but we soon stand up again and proceed towards our life's goal: holiness which God will give us when we reach the next World ! Holiness, complete transformation in Jesus, is the only authentic realization of human existence which God has given to make us blessed, one day in heaven with Him!
Unless we long for a progressive change in our way of life, which is the essence of Christian conversion, we cannot share in the Easter gifts, the fruit of the Holy Spirit, which are signs of a path towards holiness: " love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control" (Gal 5, 22). These gifts are closely connected with the working of the Holy Spirit in us.
Saint Peter, following the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, said clearly that the fundamental call of the Gospel is this: " repent and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, " (Acts 3, 19).
How could the Holy Spirit work in anyone who has no desire for conversion? This is against the Gospel of Jesus.
This why the Liturgy leads us to ask the Father for the gift of genuine renewal of life: "Father, you open the kingdom of heaven to those born again by water and the Spirit. Increase your gift of love in us. May all who have been freed from sins by baptism receive all that you have promised " (Collect Tuesday 3rd Week of Easter). "No one can enter the kingdom of God - Jesus says to Nicodemus -, without being born through water and the Spirit " (Jn 3, 5). Conversion is spiritual rebirth centered on faith in the Risen Christ and on charity.
"Convert your hearts and believe in the Gospel": conversion means believing in the power of the Gospel, in all that Jesus said and taught. But we can only believe in his word if we live it: " Whoever says, 'I know him' without keeping his commandments, is a liar, and truth has no place in him. But anyone who does keep his word, in such a one God's love truly reaches its perfection. " (1 Jn 2, 3-5).
May this Easter Season help us realize that without love " we are no more than a gong booming or a cymbal clashing " (cfr. 1 Corinzi 13, 1-3). We have immense need to let the Holy Spirit open our hearts and guide our decisions, inspire us and defend us from Satan: "if thou take thy grace away, nothing pure in man will stay: all his goodness is turned to ill". How true are these words from the Sequence of Pentecost!
With Our Lady, the saints and with the help of the angels, let us find time to pray every day to the Holy Spirit to help us and the whole Church. The Holy Spirit never disappoints anyone. "Holy Spirit, come into my heart. Draw me towards you with your power, o Spirit, true God. Grant me charity and holy fear. Protect me from all evil thoughts. Warm and enflame me with your sweet
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(Agenzia Fides 29/4/2009; righe 60, parole 936)
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