Preparing for Pentecost: Easter Tuesday

Because of us he was deprived of his glory for a little while, the glory that was his as the Father's only-begotten Son, but through the cross this glory is seen to have been restored to him in a certain way in the body that he had assumed.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Catholic Online) - Easter is more than a day. It is a season of Resurrection as the Church prepares for the Feast of Pentecost, celebrating the coming of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the Christian Church.

This is a wonderful time to read the Fathers of the Faith as they encourage, challenge, and call us to a deeper life in Christ. Listen to them as they speak to the Church from across the continuum of history.

During the Season of Easter, Catholic Online will be publishing a daily excerpt of the Fathers taken from the Office of Readings along with questions for reflection. We want to help our online community enter fully into the life and faith that is ours in the Church.

Easter Tuesday

Scripture: I Peter 1:22 - 2:10

Reading: From a discourse by Saint Anastasius of Antioch
St. Anastasius was bishop of Antioch during the middle of the sixth century. A learned man in theology, he lived a life of spiritual discipline with a passion for purity of doctrine. He opposed Emporer Justinian's heresies about the Body of Christ. For this he was deposed and placed in exile. He was returned to the See of Antioch through the efforts of Pope Gregory the Great after A.D. 590. He died in 598.

"It was necessary that Christ should suffer and so enter into his glory Christ, who has shown by his words and actions that he was truly God and Lord of the universe, said to his disciples as he was about to go up to Jerusalem: We are going up to Jerusalem now, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the Gentiles and the chief priests and scribes to be scourged and mocked and crucified.

These words bore out the predictions of the prophets, who had foretold the death he was to die in Jerusalem. From the beginning holy Scripture had foretold Christ's death, the sufferings that would precede it, and what would happen to his body afterward. Scripture also affirmed that these things were going to happen to one who was immortal and incapable of suffering because he was God.

Only by reflecting upon the meaning of the incarnation can we see how it is possible to say with perfect truth both that Christ suffered and that he who was incapable of suffering, came to suffer. In fact, man could have been saved in no other way, as Christ alone knew and those to whom he revealed it. For he knows all the secrets of the Father, even as the Spirit penetrates the depths of all mysteries.

It was necessary for Christ to suffer: his passion was absolutely unavoidable. He said so himself when he called his companions dull and slow to believe because they failed to recognize that he had to suffer and so enter into his glory. Leaving behind him the glory that had been his with the Father before the world was made, he had gone forth to save his people.

This salvation, however, could be achieved only by the suffering of the author of our life, as Paul taught when he said that the author of life himself was made perfect through suffering.

Because of us he was deprived of his glory for a little while, the glory that was his as the Father's only-begotten Son, but through the cross this glory is seen to have been restored to him in a certain way in the body that he had assumed.

Explaining what water the Savior referred to when he said: He that has faith in me shall have rivers of living water flowing from within him, John says in his gospel that he was speaking of the Holy Spirit which those who believed in him were to receive, for the Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified. The glorification he meant was his death upon the cross for which the Lord prayed to the Father before undergoing his passion, asking his Father to give him the glory that he had in his presence before the world began.

Reflection:

1) St. Anastasius strongly emphasizes the fact that Christ, who was incapable of suffering, came to suffer.

Meditate for a moment on the meaning of the incarnation that one who was God put on flesh and mortality. He purposed this not just to know what it is to be man, but to suffer the pain and agony of His Passion and Death for us.

As Christians, what are ways we can regularly and faithfully express our thanksgiving for his sacrifice?

2) We are told that the living water of which our Lord was referring is the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.

Are you normally aware that God the Holy Spirit dwells within you? He is there to empower and strengthen you for daily living.

Do you take time to ask for His strength to be yours each day?

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, You sent the Holy Spirit, who is a river of living water, to live within in me at my baptism. Make me ever aware of the grace and strength that is mine through His Life dwelling within. I ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with You and the Holy Sprit, One God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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