By David Cloutier
Commencing his first papal document, Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis warned, “There are Christians whose lives seem like Lent without Easter.” An occupational hazard for the moral theologian? Possibly. The Lenten psalm obviously relates to moral theology: “be merciful O Lord for we have sinned”! But what about “He is risen”? What do those words call us to reflect on in the moral life?
In my own work, I’m always trying to integrate the wisdom of the last three popes. And each has something specific to say about an Easter foundation for the Christian moral life. For Saint John Paul II, Christ’s resurrection signals our redemption. We have been redeemed, and the fullness of the human person can shine forth. In Veritatis Splendor, he chides those who would suggest that Christianity is just a high ideal: “Of which man are we speaking? Of man dominated by lust or of man redeemed by Christ? This is what is at stake: the reality of Christ’s redemption. Christ has redeemed us! This means that he has given us the possibility of realizing the entire truth of our being.”
But this task cannot make us arrogant and unmerciful. John Paul says that too, but Francis put it front and center. Francis always roots his emphasis on joy in the personal experience of the Risen Christ. This joy in Christ is the anchor that allows us to go out confidently into even very messy and broken situations in the world and encounter it with love. Francis worries that “sourpusses” make it seem that Christ came into the world to condemn it; no, Christ came to redeem it. In a different way, Francis says to us: Christ is really risen, sin and death really are conquered, so do not be afraid to enter into the messy world with that joy, one that generates love.
But where does this joy lead? Pope Benedict shows us the most important conclusion in his encyclical on hope, Spe Salvi. He reminds Catholics that their hope for resurrected life is not an individualistic hope, but a hope for the restoration of the unity of the human race. It is not individualistic, but communal. Christ’s resurrection is not about an individual afterlife for some, but about God’s hope to repair the divided human race and gather us together again in Christ.
These perspectives are all needed and valuable. Easter reminds us who we are, who we are called to be, and where the world is going. Moral theology in Lent rightly focuses us on the persistent reality of sin in our lives. But in Easter, we remember that the last word for Christians is not sin, but rather life in all its fullness, for now, for tomorrow, and forever.
Dr. David Cloutier is an Associate Professor of Moral Theology at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.
