Christianity: our lives, testimonies and faith are marked by the power of Christ’s resurrection. The power of the resurrection above sins and its consequence: death. It is also the power over the forces of evil, spirits or demons, and the Devil.
Liturgically, Palm Sunday commemorates or re-enacts the courage of Christ’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem. A historical and bold entry that eventually leads to his passion, death and resurrection. It is not only a fulfilment of the plan or will of God the Father, as Jesus himself indicated to us. It is a demonstration of the love of God to save us at all costs from slavery to sin and Satan.
The Epiphany manifests Christ’s salvation for all and the universal. Fundamentally, the Feast of Epiphany demonstrates that God is an inclusive God. He does not exclude anyone or anything from his saving grace and mercy.
Suffering is the way of discipleship of Christ. Discipleship is the process of learning to love and follow Jesus and becoming more like him in our attitudes and actions. It is a commitment to the cross that implies pain, suffering and even death.
The broken God or the brokenness of God is the holistic redemption of man. Hence, the joy of suffering in the Christian living is total submission to God’s will. The suffering of a Christian is never a curse or punishment from God.
Christ Jesus is our satisfaction. He is the author and the finisher of our faith. He is the portion marked out by God for us. In life, there is no doubt that we have various pangs of hunger that need to be satisfied but, above them all is the spiritual hunger that only God in Christ Jesus can spiritually satisfy in us.
The Solemnity of Ascension of the Lord is the feast of the Risen Christ with a glorified body taken up to heaven and now sitting at the right hand of God forever. It is plain from Scripture that Jesus’ ascension was a literal, bodily return to heaven. He rose from the ground gradually and visibly, observed by many intent onlookers.
Christ is the visible face of the Divine Mercy of God. The most evidential proof is that God is not a moralist legalist or sadist bent on eternal punishment for sinners. It is the unfathomable mercy and grace at work in us even in our sinful state. “Where sin abounds, grace (or mercy) abounds much more.” Romans 5:20
The Feast of Epiphany means that in Christ Jesus, God is for all people and nations without exclusion. The Greek word Epiphany (επιφάνεια), means appearance or manifestation. In theological terms, Epiphany means the appearance or manifestation of Christ to the world after his birth.
Indeed, God is not just manifested to a small group of people called Israel. With the visit of the Magi, he is being revealed to all the people of earth and nations. This manifestation of God, Himself to us in so many ways. It is called a theophany. At the fullness of time, the revelation of his only Begotten Son: Jesus Christ was its climax.
There is nowhere Christ the King can reign more than in our hearts and over our lives. The truth is that Christ does not want to be a proclaimed King on the lips of men and women. He wants to be enthroned in our lives, marriages, families, churches, communities and everyday affairs but above all in our hearts.