Time Split in Two

The death and resurrection of Jesus split time in two and began a religion many powerful people tried to stop. The first attempts to stop Christianity began with physical torture and death. Early Christians bought the “field” that contained the pearl of great price with the most precious currency they had, their own blood.

The faith of Christians is based on the supernatural, or above natural reasoning. God is a mystery. But what we have been shown by Jesus is a revelation of the inner life of God, Three in One, although we cannot fully understand all God is. This is why the world radically changed after Jesus came to it. We have a gift of divine life inside of us. Just as carrying our family name means we carry our family with us forever, carrying the name of Christian, we carry God within us.

We put on the armor of self-discipline, of moral living, not because we don’t see the beauty of life and the goodness of the created universe, but rather because that which is spirit is different than the physical body we know so well. The spirit exists in a different way than the body. This is why the closer we get to God, the less we cling to the body. To be a Catholic is to be a radical in the best sense of the word. We live differently than those who see only the physical.

The spiritual way of life cannot be undertaken alone. We are too weak to live according to the spiritual life unless we unite our will, mind, body, soul--our very self!--to God. In true trust, we unite our will to that of God’s, transforming us into children of God. We are called to be a part of the life of God which often is hidden from us by our sins. It is never enough to merely avoid sin.

A soul in love with God becomes dissatisfied with only that form of obedience. A person who draws close to Jesus spends more and more time in pursuit of Him. God is like us human beings. He wants us to chase Him, and when we do, He lets us catch Him. We are infused with His Holy Spirit, ready to become the followers who risk everything we have to buy the pearl at great cost; thus, we are truly satisfied with our purchase that repays us a thousand times more than we imagined it could. The supernatural then becomes comfortable. The otherworldly becomes familiar.

Our life is split into two--hours spent before we fell in love with God, and the hours after. Jesus came into the world and redeemed His prize, His children. The price was steep and only God could pay it.

Paying by blood, Jesus deemed our worth eternal. Then, as if love had said a prayer too great to fail, time bowed down and split in two. No sword shred it. Time only fell to bend its knee for so great a God. The yearning of the hidden spiritual world shone through and formed a Church, and the love of God sparked the love of saints to purchase the field called body working to purchase the pearl called spirit.

This is the Easter of our soul--the pearl of the resurrected God who is too powerful to let death claim us.