Through the grace of God and an open heart of faith, we receive the resurrection and become what we believe. We become the Risen Christ in this life.

The resurrection is a historical event of faith occurring over 2,000 years ago. It happened.

Resurrection is a future promise at our death. It will happen.

But more significantly, resurrection is a present event that happens now. Here and now, in this present moment. We are risen now.

Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), a Spanish nun, writer, and mystic, understood that we become what we believe through the powerful grace of resurrection. She said these words:

Christ has no body now on earth but yours,
no hands but yours,
no feet but yours,
Yours are the eyes through which to look out
Christ’s compassion to the world
Yours are the feet with which he is to go about
doing good;
Yours are the hands with which he blesses the world now.

When we become what we believe, when the resurrection of Christ becomes reality in our hearts through faith, we become the embodiment of the Risen one. Our hands, feet, and eyes are the instruments through which the Risen Christ is made manifest. God’s loving salvation in the resurrection realized in us makes us one with Christ, thus making us Christ’s living presence now. Your hands, your feet, your eyes, your heart.

The resurrection of Christ in the present reaffirms the incarnation, the Word made flesh. We now become the presence of the Divine Risen One in our body. “For if we have been united with Christ in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his” (Romans 6:5). In this unification with Christ through experiencing resurrection now, through becoming what we believe, God again makes this earthly life and our bodies holy. United to Christ in his resurrection, we become instruments of grace, love, healing, compassion, and blessing.

The resurrection of Christ is a past event and future hope. It is also a present gift. In God, all three are possible at the same time. Practicing resurrection now, in this lifetime, on this day is how to live the Risen life. Being the instrument through which God loves the world is to live the risen life. Believing becomes. Resurrection becomes incarnational. The salvific work of God through Christ finds form and home in us. Our hands, feet, eyes, and hearts become Christ’s living presence in the world. Alleluia indeed!

Today spend time with your hands. How do they hold and bless? Work and heal? What risen life do your hands embody that reveals Christ’s love and God’s hope for the world?

Prayer: Holy One, thank you for the gift of your life-saving resurrection. Help me receive it, live it and share it through your grace working through me. May I be one with Christ and be an instrument of healing, hope, and blessing. Take my hands and let them move at the impulse of your love. Amen. Alleluia.

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