Resurrection: Our Identity

 Reflection on Today's Readings, Friday of 3rd Week of Easter, Year B, April 23rd, 2021
Texts: 9:1-20; Ps. 117:1-2; John 6:52-59

In today's gospel reading, Jesus says, "As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me." These words of Jesus emphasize the importance of His resurrection. We live because He lives. He lives because He has risen from the dead. Hence, if He has not risen, we are dead. This confirms the words of St. Paul:  "If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. ... If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished" (1Cor. 15:14,17-18). It is resurrection that gives meaning to our faith and our life as Christians. We are the children of resurrection; it is our identity.

Resurrection means a lot to us as Christians: it means that Jesus is the Son of God; it means that He lives for ever; it means that He has power over life and death; it means that He can give life and death; it means that He is faithful, for He has risen as He said; it means we shall live forever with Him; it means our labour on this earth will not be in vain; it means with Him salvation is certain; it means His intercession has no end; it means His love for us is beyond space and time. We have a lot to thank God for because of resurrection. Resurrection offers us a new experience of life and widen our horizon of existence; it offers us new life and hope. Resurrection reminds us to be dead to sin and be alive in the spirit. It also reminds us that there is life after death.
Jesus reminds us in the gospel reading that He has left us His body and blood as nourishment for life of resurrection. He says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." The Eucharist becomes a guarantee for resurrection. Our participation in the Eucharist is a participation in the banquet of love. This means we are called to love. As we eat His flesh and drink His blood, we are to become what we eat and drink, the risen Christ who is dead to sin and alive in the spirit.
Today's first reading shows that Saul's experience resolved his doubts and denial of resurrection to Jesus Christ. This is clear in his first proclamation about Jesus: "He is the Son of God." It is the resurrection that finally revealed Jesus as the Son of God (Rom.1:3-4). For anyone to proclaim Jesus as the Son of God is to believe His resurrection. He says, in his letter to the Romans, "if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved (10:9). We are not to just believe the resurrection but live the life of resurrection, a kind of life that looks towards God.

God our Father, we thank you for the gift of Holy Eucharist, grant that we may become what we receive. Amen.

Fr. Andrew Olowomuke