Used to the Magnificent?
February 5, 2025
Fr. John Riccardo
I am reminding you, brothers and sisters, of the gospel I preached to you, which you indeed received and in which you also stand. Through it you are also being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures; that he was buried; that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures; that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. After that, Christ appeared to more than five hundred brothers at once, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. After that he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one born abnormally, he appeared to me. For I am the least of the apostles, not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been ineffective. Indeed, I have toiled harder than all of them; not I, however, but the grace of God that is with me. Therefore, whether it be I or they, so we preach and so you believed
(1 Corinthians 15:1-11).
And so begins the earliest and longest treatment of Jesus’ bodily resurrection and our own in the New Testament. For the next four weeks we’re going to be lingering with this chapter from Paul. As such, it would be well worth making time this week to read it all in one sitting, so as to get the big picture the Apostle is presenting to us. To be clear, this matter is “of first importance,” the cornerstone of our faith, without which that same faith is “in vain” making us “the most pitiable people of all” (cf. 1 Cor 15:17, 19).
Since we are going to spend so much time with this topic, it allows us this week to perhaps focus on just one of Paul’s points: “Christ died for our sins.” In other words, in looking both at Jesus’ death and resurrection, Paul is reminding us of what the Lord Himself had told the disciples. Namely, His death wasn’t some sort of tragedy, the way we look at other people’s lives who were cut down in their prime. The initiative always belongs to God. “No one takes My life from Me,” Jesus told the disciples. “I lay it down of My own accord” (John 10:18). In the Upper Room, during the Last Supper, the Lord told the disciples that His blood is going to be poured out “for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:28).
All of this, I’m sure, we know. Perhaps too well. Or, better, perhaps we’re too familiar with the words. Pope Benedict XVI once commented that nothing is worse than getting used to the magnificent. Have you and I gotten used to all of this?
Paul reminds us in another letter that this laying down of Jesus’ life wasn’t some generic sacrifice offered up by the Creator of the universe but rather was a personal act of love for him, Paul, by name. “I have been crucified with Christ,” Paul writes to the Galatians. “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
“For me.” For us. For you.
This week, every time we make the sign of the cross or see a crucifix, let us ask the Holy Spirit to jar us out of our slumber and to be stunned as if for the first time that we could possibly matter so much to God that for us He chose to lay down His life in this way. Of first importance is the reality that God thinks we’re worth dying for – I don’t understand why. But He does. May this astounding truth flood our hearts and minds with peace in the midst of all that is going on around us.
ACTS XXIX Prayer Intentions
February 2025
For our two Leadership Immersives this month with clergy and lay leaders from multiple dioceses and apostolates, that our time together would breathe both refreshment and transformation to all those who join us.
For our mission with the Archdiocese of Baltimore. May our time with the pastoral leadership be anointed with the Holy Spirit and build upon the great ministry happening already there.
For our mission with the Catholic Women’s Conference in Columbus, OH. May every woman who attends experience the very personal love of the Father and a renewal of their identity as beloved daughters of the King.
For our annual ACTS XXIX retreat, that it would be a time to simply be with God, allowing Him to fill us up and to grow in every greater intimacy with Him.
For our Board of Directors, our Episcopal Advisory Council, and our faithful partners, may they know the Lord’s great delight in them.
For God’s protection upon Fr. John Riccardo, the ACTS XXIX family and all our families.
