Christ is Risen! He Has Delivered Us from the Dominion of Darkness

Fr. John Riccardo

April 14, 2021

Last week we suggested that the 50 days of Easter could perhaps be better appreciated and celebrated if we spent time in a more deliberate way lingering over and praying with various effects of the resurrection of Jesus. St. John Paul II wrote that the initial ardent proclamation of the gospel, (i.e., what we technically call the kerygma), should lead to our being overwhelmed and surrendering our lives to Jesus in faith (cf. Catechesi Tradendae, 25). To give people an opportunity to be overwhelmed and surrender, we recommend that each parish, and every diocese, set aside consecutive weeks each year to simply preach the basics of the gospel. In a similar way, we suggest that these Easter weeks could be set aside to reflect at length on the practical difference the resurrection of Jesus makes now in our lives. 

This week, let’s linger over this: “He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Col 1:13). For those who were baptized at the Easter Vigil only days ago, this just happened! How are we to understand this?

Scripture makes it abundantly clear that there are only two kingdoms—the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness—and we are all under the power of one or the other. No matter how sweet and innocent we appear at birth, the truth is that we enter this world as slaves to the powers of darkness, thanks to our first parents’ falling for the deception of the enemy in the garden. The word Paul uses in Colossians for “dominion” can also be understood as “authority”, or “absolute power,” or “government.” He is trying to help us understand that when we were born our spiritual passport, if you will, marked us as subject to the tyranny of Sin and Death. 

However, because of Jesus’ defeat of the powers of darkness, we have been given a new passport! God has delivered us, rescued us, freed us from those dark powers, and transferred us from the kingdom of a tyrant into the kingdom of our good Father. This happened to us when we were baptized. We are now, in fact, no longer under the authority, or absolute power, or government of Sin and Death. We are free from their rule! And this happened when we were plunged into the waters of baptism and shared sacramentally in the death and resurrection of Jesus.

I once heard a friend of mine explain this truth to his parish. Imagine, he said, growing up under the reign of a father who is emotionally, physically, and verbally abusive. Tragically, this isn’t hard for many of us to imagine. Life at home is beyond tense. Plates fly—literally. Because life is so horrific at home, you do everything you can to stay away. You get involved in every extra-curricular activity in school, play every sport, stay out as late as possible, and try to sneak in quietly, doing whatever you can to avoid the wrath of your father. This is your life, and your body, spirit and mind bear the scars. 

Across the street from you, lives a family that is unlike anything you can imagine. Every night, as you restlessly try to sleep, you hear and see the father on the front lawn playing with his children, tossing a football, laughing with them, and loving them. For years you hear them, watch them, and see the kids grow up and flourish, as your own home becomes ever-more dysfunctional and violent.

Then, one day, when you're home all alone, you hear a knock at the front door. You open it and there, in the doorway, stands the father from across the street. He’s smiling at you and conveys by his look that he knows all you’ve gone through. “Would you like to come and live with us?” he says. You don’t even pack, right?

This can help us understand one of the practical differences Jesus’ resurrection makes now in our lives. We have been given new passports. We now longer live in a tyrant’s house. We are no longer under the government and rule of darkness. We have been delivered into the home, the kingdom of God, our good, good Father!