"God is a Lamb that avails you not, my Christian,
If you become not also a lamb of God.
The cross on Golgotha redeems not from evil,
If it is not also erected in thee;
The dear Christ's death aids you not, my Christian,
Until in Him and for Him you also have died."
While we have reason to celebrate Christ's resurrection, we must remind ourselves that we must now do our part. The word for Easter in Latin is "Pascha" and signifies the passing over. Its historical origin is from the Israelites being spared from the Angel of death as he came through all of Egypt. The Angel of death passed over and did not enter the houses of the Israelites that were marked with the blood of a lamb. God imposed several obligations upon the Israelites to prepare them for the Passover, and He has similarly imposed upon us the Lenten fasting and penance, before the merits of Christ are to be applied to our own souls.
We have been spared many times by the mercy of God. How many times could we have died in grievous sin, and yet God graciously gave us more time? We have been through many Easter Passovers, but are we any better for it?
We are still not home free. Our labours are not over yet. St. Paul tells us that we must throw out all the old leaven so that we can become new dough. We are not to live as we did before, but we are to change our very selves. It is certain that Christ, by His death on the cross, has rendered perfect satisfaction, and effected our redemption; (Heb. ix, 12.) but we must not imagine that there is no further need of doing penance, or of working out our salvation. As the children of Israel, though freed from Pharao's bondage, had to fight long and hard against many enemies in order to gain the Promised Land, so also must we, though freed by Christ from the servitude of the devil, battle against our enemies to the end of our lives to obtain the promised, heavenly land. We cannot be crowned unless we properly fight (2 Tim. 2, 5).
We have worked hard during Lent to turn away from evil, now we must begin to build up a new life of virtue. We are encouraged to rise spiritually with Christ and live henceforth a new life which we do if we not only renounce sin, but also flee from all its occasions, lay aside our bad habits, subdue our corrupt inclinations, and aim after virtue and heavenly things.
Before we can build up a house, we first tear down and dig into the earth to make a solid and firm foundation. In the same manner, before we can build up our spiritual lives we must tear down and dig down to a solid foundation. The Lenten fasting and penances have hopefully humbled us and torn down our pride and vanity at least to a small degree. We cannot safely begin to build until we remove all the soft, and loose soil and get down to solid and stable earth. The same is true in the spiritual life. We cannot safely build up our souls with grace and virtues, until we have removed, at least, the grievous sins and transgressions.
The Easter Season is now the time to begin building up our spiritual lives, but we must remember not to undermine the foundation that we have worked so hard to obtain by casting out our concupiscence and vices. We are to focus our attention upon the practice of virtue and the increasing of grace. The best means for this is in the frequent reception of the sacraments.
We have hopefully made a good confession and have worthily received Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist. We must continue in this same manner. Confession helps us to keep the foundation of our spiritual edifices clear of shifting sands that are always entering in to weaken our souls. The Holy Eucharist is the building up of grace in our souls. In building we place a foundation and then place one brick upon another gradually constructing the walls higher and higher. The same must be done in our souls. We must continue to build up grace and life through the reception of the Holy Eucharist. It is true that the Holy Eucharist is of infinite value, and we should be able to live forever after just receiving once, but our human weakness prevents this, so we must return frequently, even daily, to the source of all life to maintain the life of grace in our souls.
A sermon for Easter Sunday given in years gone by and for which I give due credit to the author, whoever they maybe.