Optional Memorial of Saint John of Capistrano, Franciscan priest

 Lectionary: 478

But if Christ is in you,
although the body is dead because of sin,
the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you,
the one who raised Christ from the dead
will give life to your mortal bodies also,
through his Spirit that dwells in you.

Visiting my sister in Hawaii in 1980, en route to Australia, I snorkeled in a coral reef and was dazzled in the clear water, amid the colorful, oddly shaped fish. I'd never seen such colors in the muddy waters of Kentucky. 

Nor had I ever swam with a snorkel. I could swim well enough but, for good reason, had never attempted to breathe under water. Now here I was swimming, observing the coral bottom, and breathing easily. It was so much easier than the awkward movement of coming up for air with every other stroke. 

I wonder if Christian death is like that. We breathe the natural air of our blessed planet all our lives; and, as Christians, we also learn to breathe the breath of God. We are sustained by both. When the day comes that we can neither inhale the precious oxygen nor exhale carbon dioxide, we will continue to inhale the Holy Spirit and exhale all the obnoxious fumes of regret, resentment, suspicion, and fear. Enlivened and stimulated with the same Spirit that compelled the Risen Lord out of his tomb, we will sing God's praises and dance freely with all the saints and angels. 

We remember that the Lord breathed that Spirit upon the face of his disciples on the evening of his resurrection. A second story tells of the Holy Spirit coming upon the disciples at Pentecost. We receive the Spirit continually through the sacraments, especially of Baptism, Eucharist, and Confirmation, and we ask God to help us discern the blessed, guiding hand. We learn to recognize and avoid the less worthy impulses of our human nature amid the sometimes vicious prodding of the world. 

But, even as we suffer this confusion in a world so distant from God, we have Saint Paul's assurance:

Now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus

has freed you from the law of sin and death. 

"Though the just fall seven times, they rise again. (Proverbs 24:16)" for we do not stop breathing even when we fall face forward into the muck of our sins.