We Die in Christ Because He First Died in Us

The Triduum reminds us not to run from Christ out of shame for our sins. In love and mercy, Jesus, our Lord and our God, has already died and entered into death for our sins. This doesn’t just mean that he steps in for us while we stand on the sidelines watching. He steps in for us by stepping in with us. He gets right in to the deepest and worst parts of the mire and filth of our sins, and He meets us there – He Who is the Light which the darkness has not overcome. It’s not just that we participate in Christ’s death, but that He also participates in our’s. Here’s the thing: He can only participate in our death if we allow ourselves to die. In other words, we exclude Christ, our Hope and Salvation, when we rage against the machine and do not go quietly into the night of our sins. In Him we are dead to sin. Being dead to sin can be understood in two ways. The first is that we recognize sin as dead and, therefore, pay no attention to the temptations of the Evil One. This is the life of perfect interior freedom, a life in which the soul is most intimately bound with her Lover. This, however, is dependent on the second way in which “dead to sin” can be understood: we have let sin take its course and willingly let it kill us. This is our death into which Jesus enters and the death by which we participate in His and through which we are raised with Him. Do not be ashamed. Run to Him and accept the death of self with humility, and so be raised with Him Who is our Pasch.