Oblates of St. Francis de Sales

New DeSales World Newsletter - Summer Edition

Easter Vigil (April 15, 2006)

Suggested Emphasis

"If we have been united with him through likeness to his death, so shall we be through a like resurrection..."

Salesian Perspective

The death to which Paul refers is not limited to the death that Jesus experienced on the last day of his earthly life. So, too, the likeness to Jesus' death is not limited to the day that we draw our last breath. Truth is, we are called to share in the death of Jesus every day of our lives. Truth is, death - letting go, giving in, and letting in - is deeply imbedded in every dimension of our lives.

Listen to Francis de Sales' observations on this relationship between our lives - our loves - and the death of Jesus. "The death and passion of our Lord is the sweetest and the most compelling motive that can animate our hearts in this mortal life. It is the very truth that mystical bees make their most excellent honey in the wounds of this 'lion of the tribe of Judah,' slain, pierced and rent upon the Mount of Calvary. The children of the cross glory in this, their wondrous paradox which the world does not understand: out of death, which devours all things, has come the food of our consolation, and out of death, strong above all things, has issued the all-sweet honey of our love." (Treatise, Book 12, Chapter 13)

This is the greatest mystery of our faith: where there is decay, there is the promise of rejuvenation; where there is pain, there is the promise of healing; where there is imprisonment, there is the promise of freedom; where there is addiction, there is the promise of sobriety; where there is emptiness, there is the promise of abundance; where there is ignorance, there is the promise of understanding; where there is failure, there is the promise of success; where there is disaster, there is the promise of redemption; where there is loss, there is the promise of being found.

Where there is death, there is the promise of life.

Losing, finding; falling behind, moving forward; feeling alone, being together…these and so many experiences in the rhythm of life, the dance of fasting and feasting, the dance of dying and rising.

"All love that does not take its origin from the Savior's passion is foolish and perilous. Unhappy is death without the Savior's love; unhappy is love without the Savior's death. Love and death are so mingled in the Savior's passion that we cannot have the one in our hearts without the other. Upon Calvary we cannot have life without love, or love without the Redeemer's death. Except there, all is either eternal death or eternal love. All Christian wisdom consists in choosing rightly." (Ibid)

As we struggle to embrace the falling and rising tides of daily living, may God give us the grace and the courage to choose rightly and so to know

Rev. Michael S. Murray, OSFS, is the Executive Director of the De Sales Spirituality Center.