The New Testament beautifully depicts the essence of Jesus’ paschal mystery from his very words: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (Jn 12, 24). The hub of the paschal mystery is this: letting go of our present life so as to fully embrace the true life of the spirit. What does this really mean? We need to make some vital distinctions in order to grasp it well.

To begin with there are two kinds of death and life. By death we mean primarily two things: terminal and paschal. Terminal death is the ending of our worldly life. All our earthly opportunities will have their complete and definite closure. On the other hand paschal death is death with a far reaching effects. It opens the person who undergoes it to a liberation from a life dominated by sin to a life led by grace. Through this death the person’s life gets richer and richer. It brings to fruition from this earthly existence what Saint Paul writes in his second letter to the Corinthians. “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Cor 3, 18). Such a paschal death occurs within the image of the grain of wheat which dies so as to generate a new life.

Furthermore, there are two kinds of life: resuscitated life and resurrected life. A resuscitated life is one that is restored to its former state of life and health. A case in point would be a person who is clinically death and is brought back to life. A resurrected life is the reception of a fundamentally new life.

The Bible explicates the two kinds of lives extremely well. When Lazarus was raised by Jesus after some time he had to die again. His was a resuscitation. On the other hand, when Jesus resurrected from the dead he received a new and a far richer life thanks to which he would not die again.

Do we believe that in order to live we have to die? Which is the most important kind of death for us? Is it terminal or paschal? And if we love our life in what are we really invested in?

In a life that is so short sighted that it can just be resuscitated and destined from its very nature to die a terminal death? Or in a resurrected life that is radically transformed in order to live forever? Our priorities unveil not only the truth about ourselves, but more importantly, where do we stand in front of God.

Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap

San Gwann