The Risen Lord Present in the World Today

The Lord is Risen and raised up from our sight! He has triumphed over death — defeating death by His death, and now this current life cannot hold Him. The gates of the netherworld are broken and the gates of heaven thrown open wide. He enters before us to open the pathway. He emerges victorious from the battlefield with his holy humanity intact and now His humanity raises all humanity above itself, reconstituting it so that it might participate in Divine Life. Thus, His Risen Body appears among us even after He is taken from our sight.

He is taken from our sight and He is still present. He suffered death but now He lives, the Undying One. Raised to Heaven, He is still with us until the end of time. How is the Risen Lord present to us?

He is not simply present in the world – one presence among other presences. He is present to the world through His mystical body holding the whole world together. He conquered death so that death no longer separates us from Him and so He is re-establishing everything in Himself. No earthly or heavenly power stands in the way of His love. Nothing can resist it. Everything his presence touches is made new.

Consider how He is present in our relations with one another. He has so bound us together in His presence that we discover something greater than death is reconstituting our very relations with one another. Bound together by Christ’s love, a love stronger than death, we have been refashioned by faith and baptism into His Mystical Body. In this reconstituted life, His presence helps us see new possibilities that eyes still subject to death cannot see. Thus, we even find the courage to forgive and to seek forgiveness, to renounce petty grievances and to accept the graciousness of a stranger.

Consider how He is present in our suffering, even as we face death itself. Through being members of His Body, His risen life animates us even while our earthly bodies are subject to death. This means that He is so close to us that we can act with the power of His resurrection in the world – providing the world a new foundation, a new orientation point, a principle of organization that surpasses everything that passes away.

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Anthony Lilles

Anthony Lilles, STD, a graduate of Franciscan University of Steubenville, completed his graduate and post-graduate studies in Rome at the Angelicum. His expertise is in Saint Elisabeth of the Trinity and the Carmelite Doctors of the Church. He is currently a professor of spiritual theology at St Patrick’s Seminary and University in Menlo Park, CA. Previously he was a founding faculty member of St. John Vianney Theological Seminary, and afterwards an associate professor at St John’s Seminary for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. In 2012, Discerning Hearts published his book "Hidden Mountain, Secret Garden: A Theological Contemplation on Prayer,". Through Emmaus Press, he and Dan Burke wrote "30 Days with Teresa of Avila"and Living the Mystery of Merciful Love: 30 Days with Therese of Lisieux. . And, his book "Fire from Above" was published in 2016 by Sophia Institute Press. Prof. Lilles assisted Dan Burke in founding the Avila Institute and the High Calling Program for priestly vocations. He podcasts at www.discerninghearts.com, offers retreats to religious communities, gives spiritual conferences and lectures on the Catholic Spiritual Tradition.