New release just in time for Easter:
The transcript of the fourth episode of The Spiritual Life "The Resurrection of Our Lord and Sanctifying Grace" is now available for download.
This episode of The Spiritual Life begins with a discussion about the great mystery of the Resurrection of Our Lord, Jesus Christ. This is the central doctrine of Catholicism and is a compendium of the Faith – embracing within the whole plan of Redemption. Given our Blessed Saviour, after His glorious triumph over death, continued to dwell on earth, it is without doubt that His Risen Life is meant to have its own purpose and meaning for our spiritual life. Our Lord did not ascend from the Cross straight to Heaven, nor should we.
Our Lord said that “I am come that they may have life and may have it more abundantly.” [St. John, 10:10] He was not talking of merely physical, natural life but a supernatural, Divine life, which is none other than the life of Sanctifying Grace. Our Lord became Man for the express purpose of raising us to Divine life. “God,” says St. Peter, “has given us most great and precious promises that by these you may be made partakers of the Divine Nature.”
The awesomeness of this truth is so often misunderstood, forgotten, or rarely discussed and appreciated, and yet it is so firmly a part of Catholic Tradition. As Father Leen says, “Without an adequate notion of grace there cannot be an adequate notion of Catholicity. For the Catholic system is not merely a means to right living, much less an ingenious contrivance to help us to evade the unpleasant consequences of wrong living. The Church with its system exists primarily for the communication of grace to the souls of men.”
Here are a few quotes from this episode; and hence, its transcript:
1) “I remember when I first read Fr. Edward Leen’s book In the Likeness of Christ, I was a novice in the monastery. I was particularly impressed with his chapter on the Resurrection of Our Lord; although the whole book is simply excellent. Fr. Leen had the gift of psychologically analysing the typical soul’s common response to a mystery of the Faith or an aspect of life in general. Human nature does not change and nothing is new under the sun, and it was very easy to say, 'You know, I felt the exact same way,' or 'That's what I go through.' Reading what he wrote is almost like he was describing your own experience. In fact, the way the Apostles reacted to the Resurrection of Our Lord is somewhat similar to how most of us react to Easter, or rather, the mystery of the Resurrection.
Let us be honest, for most of us most of the time, I think, Easter is felt to be anticlimactic. For most of us, the highlight of our year (liturgically) is either Christmas or Good Friday. You know, let's just stick to Lent and Holy Week; for most of us Good Friday is the height of our devotion. Then when Easter comes around, we slacken our devotion and we go on like usual; business as usual. Easter did not seem to be quite that important. It did not feel to be quite important to us.”
2) “That for Our Lord the Cross preceded, prepared, and prefaced His glorious Risen Life on earth. Yet, He did not go straight from the Cross to heaven. He had a risen life for 40 days on this earth. Therefore, in our own case, the cross is meant to play a similar role; a prelude to a risen life on earth, that is, a spiritual life lived all for God in peace, joy, and unbounded trust in Him. This is the meaning of the Resurrection! It is our Christ life! It is like the risen life of Christ within us! We are risen from the tomb of sin and the old man, and we have risen to a new life of Divine grace. This is really what the Resurrection symbolises for us. It not only symbolises it, but has a power to give us that life.”
3) “Great as the Passion of Christ was, and His Cross in our own life is, it is not meant to be the end. The Crucifixion is not the height, it is the Resurrection that is the height.”
To ensure that your Easter season isn’t felt to be an anticlimax after the liturgically-intense Holy Week, please capitalise on the inspiring insights in this transcript of the discussion about the mysteries of the Resurrection and Sanctifying Grace - and their relation to the spiritual life of the soul.
