CAPG's Blog 

Sandro Botticelli: The Resurrected Christ

"The Resurrection of Christ is the accomplishment of Man's redemption. He died for our sins; He rose again, that we might be clothed with new justice, such as might establish us in a life of virtue, and preserve us from the danger of our own corruption. This mystery is the confirmation of our faith; that we shall one day rise from the dead to a life immortal; a life to which sin and death can have no access. The yearly celebration of it is to revive this faith in us, and to put us in mind of obtaining such an establishment in virtue against all sinful relapses, as may be a preparation for that unchangeable state hereafter. For this end the Church calls upon us to arise with Christ; and that as Christ, dying once, died no more, for that death had now no power over Him, so we ought to rise from sin, and sin no more. We are taught moreover, that we ought to renounce all ungodliness and worldly desires, and live soberly, justly, and piously, in expectation of the coming of our Lord; that we ought to seek the things that are above, and not the things on earth; and that thus only can we duly celebrate this festival, and hope to rise with Christ in the resurrection of the just.

The solemnity is great, and our obligation also is great not to be satisfied by dissolute joy or plentiful tables, for thus the heathens honoured their gods; but by putting on the new man, and living as the children of light, sanctified by the Blood of Christ. Christ was crucified that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be the servants of sin. This was the end of Christ's sufferings, and it ought to be our great concern that this effect be found in us. For to go on now in sin, if it be not a reproach to Christ's Passion, is an argument at least of our having no part in it. And what state can there be more miserable, than for a Christian to be found still a captive to sin, after Christ has given His Blood to redeem him from it, and establish him in the liberty of the sons of God?" The Catholic Year by Rev. Fr. John Gother