Lent, Easter follow path from death to resurrection

  • Published
  • By Chaplain (Maj.) Nelson Toledo
  • 71st Flying Training Wing
Vance Air Force Base, Okla. --  Lent and Easter reveal what human life is all about -- struggles, hardships and difficulties, suffering and death but beyond all these is the resurrection of the body.
The resurrection is the summit or climax of all these events. Apostle Paul himself said that if Christ has not raised from the dead, our faith is in vain.
Human struggles, suffering and death are deeply reflected during the 40 days of Lent. We recognize the reality of evil and imperfections in our world. Our vulnerability to all of these and ultimately, our mortality is real and we experience it everyday.
I was reminded of it in 1995 when I attended clinical pastoral education, hospital ministry training, at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, D.C. When we talked about illness and death most of my classmates said, "I'll cross that bridge when the time comes. I don't want to think about it now."
It's true that most of the time we only think of the joys of life and are scared to confront the trials and tribulations. However, we should always have hope we can overcome all these. For as Christ has suffered, died and has risen, the same will happen to us. My favorite quotation in the scripture is the warning of Christ after his resurrection. "In this world you will have lots of troubles, hardships and difficulties, but don't be afraid, I have overcome the world."
Dr. Marcus Borg, professor of religion and culture at Oregon State University, in his reflection about Lent said that it is about being born again, about following the path of death and resurrection, about participating in Jesus' final journey. Some of us may need to put an end to specific things in our lives -- perhaps to a behavior that has become destructive or dysfunctional -- a relationship that has ended or gone bad, an unresolved grief or to a stage in our life, our self-preoccupation, or even the deadness in our lives. So the journey of Lent is about being born again -- about dying and rising, about mortality and transformation.
Easter is about the resurrection of Christ, the culmination of the Passover mystery, the passing over of suffering and death to life. Resurrection here is not just the spirit as most people think, but it is the body as well.
We just finished in our Catholic Adult Education the study of the Theology of the Body by Pope John Paul II. It was made clear to me what the resurrection of the body meant. It is the spirit who gives life to the body, and there's a process of spiritualization of the body. The end product of this process is the resurrection, the body spiritualized in its perfection. How amazed am I to think and reflect on this in terms of everyday life. To be inspired in the spirit in everything we do, to have hope and courage in all our trials and tribulations. It's easy to give up when we don't have the spirit.
I'm speaking in our Christian perspective, but I think all people can benefit in looking at life in the spirit, whatever faith denomination we belong to. I wrote an article a while ago that spirituality is innate to each and every one of us as human beings. We are beyond animals who act by instinct. The spirit gives us the freedom to choose what is true and good.
Pope John Paul II said, "Self-mastery not self assertion is the index of a truly human freedom. And I achieve self-mastery, not by repressing or suppressing what is natural to me, but by thoughtfully and freely channeling those natural instincts of mind and body into action that deepen my humanity, because they conform to things they are."