The Easter season is the longest of all the seasons of the Church, fifty days dedicated to the contemplation and meditation of the experience lived by the disciples of Jesus, men and women who followed him and who believed in his preaching, discovering the Jesus himself resurrected after his death on the cross. During this time, they got to know him and recognized him in different ways, always with the initial doubt about his identity, since it was the same Jesus with whom they had walked and eaten―and at the same time it was a new and different Jesus.
We Christians profess that Jesus defeated death and reached the definitive life of God in which he remains eternally. Alive, it manifested itself to his disciples, and alive they experienced it in the different encounters that the Gospels describe. Alive, but different… because life changes, always, and it changes even more in those who have experienced death. Nature clearly shows us that all living beings are subject to permanent change throughout their life cycle, and that we can observe and recognize the transformation that occurs in the natural world around us, which was mentioned so many times by the Jesus himself in his parables, such as those of the sower, of the vineyard, or of the fig tree and its fruits.
Saint Paul also speaks of the transformation that entails the transition between life and death, using an image of nature: “The seed you sow does not germinate unless it dies. When you sow, you do not sow the full-blown plant, but a kernel of wheat or some other grain” (1 Corinthians, 15:36-37). Life, therefore, is characterized by change; it is what does not change and remains the same that is dead. In daily, everyday life, the changes are perhaps less striking, but they are always present, because in human relationships, for example, such as friendships, we learn that everything changes over time: relationships are strengthened and developed, while others decrease or disappear.
Love, which is life at its best, confirms this dynamic of transformation: love that is alive is constantly changing. Pope Francis says it very well in his letter on the joy of loving: “A love that fails to grow is at risk.” (Amoris Laetitia, 134). Love grows or decreases, but like all living reality, it is subject to constant change, it does not remain the same by itself, and it needs to be nurtured in order to evolve.
The resurrection, therefore, is the manifestation of a life that will continue to grow without limits, and that will take on multiple forms, because in its development it will never stop changing. The encounter with the risen Jesus takes as many forms as there are people who have experienced it, and it will always be new and different, because He is alive. For the followers of Jesus, assuming his resurrection is to live embracing the permanent change in our own lives, discarding the old, open to the permanent novelty of God. “Clothe yourselves, therefore, with the new man” (Ephesians 4:24), exhorts Saint Paul several times to his followers.
A resurrected Christian community, and a resurrected believer, must distinguish themselves by being alive, that is, constantly renewing and changing, thus responding to the needs of their own life and that of the world around them. Saint John Henry Newman said with great precision: “In a superior world it can be otherwise; but here below, to live is to change, and to be perfect is to changed many times.” To live is to change—and by changing, we manifest the life that beats within each one of us. The fear and resistance to change that people, institutions and societies express so vehemently is, ultimately, a fear of life itself, of being alive. Jesus overcame that fear forever, and with his resurrection he taught his disciples, and he teaches us, to live changing, many times.
