Document:  pub/resources/text/taize/johannine: johannine.94.04.TXT
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April 1994  - Johannine Hour - 1 Peter 1,3-9  -  Taize-Community.

For believers rooted in the hope of the Bible, the resurrection cannot
be an individualistic matter; it is a collective event that marks the
beginning of a new age (cf. Dan 12,2-3). What meaning can there be,
then, in proclaiming that "Christ is risen" in a world that seems to go
its own way with no apparent change?

At the beginning of his first letter, Saint Peter helps believers to see
their way clear in this matter. By the resurrection of Christ, he tells
them, God has brought you to birth anew; the object of your hope, what
God has promised from the beginning, is now a reality (vv.3-4). True,
you are still undergoing all kinds of hardships: evil and suffering have
not disappeared by magic. And yet something has indeed changed; the very
fact that you can believe in and love Christ "without seeing him" is
already the proof that the life of resurrection is at work transforming
the world.

In other words, the existence in the present time of women and men who
support the difficulties of daily life with the cheerfulness and the
constancy of faith prepares the universe to welcome and to recognize the
Risen Lord when he is revealed in fullness (vv.6-7). The meaning of the
Christian life can be summed up in joy, a joy beyond all attempts at
explanation because it is rooted in the life of God, a joy that is
already a real communion with the Christ who is not yet visible to the
eye (v.8).

Do I find in my faith in the Risen Christ a serene force that enables
me to cope with the difficulties of daily life?

Have I ever experienced, in the midst of the trials of life, a spark of
joy that came from elsewhere? When and how? What can such experiences
teach us about the mystery of the death and resurrection of Christ?


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