The Challenge to Live as Resurrected: Reflections on Romans Six and Eight

Julia Esquivel, a Guatemalan poet, wrote during the time of military repression in Central America a poem entitled "They Have Threatened Us with Resurrection." In this poem she describes the strength of a renewed people who no longer wanted to be objects of the sin of oppression. To be "threatened with resurrection" can mean two things. First, that the ones threatened are those persons who live as resurrected, those who struggle for the full resurrection of all men and women. Second, the others who are threatened by resurrection are those who do not want resurrection—that is, the transformation from death to life—to happen.

"To live as resurrected" and "to be threatened with resurrection" are theological metaphors that describe dimensions of human life that are difficult to understand. They contain eschatological and utopian dimensions as well as present historical dimensions. The phrase "to live as resurrected" implies concrete life here on earth, but it also points to an experience of full transformation: crossing from a state of death and all that that implies to a state of fullness of life. In other words "to live" points to the present historic times and "resurrected" to what is called "the last times," that is, the eschatological, the a-historical. If it were not for the word "as," the phrase, strictly speaking, would not make sense, because it is not possible to live within history and at the same live outside of history. The word "as" makes it possible to live within the contingency of the fullness of the promise of a resurrected life; that is, one lives here in history as if one has been resurrected. In theology it is said that we live in the "now and not yet."

But is it possible to live as resurrected in the "now and not yet"? For Christians it is possible through the Holy Spirit, which is the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ. "To live as resurrected" means to live according to the Spirit, and to live or walk according to the Spirit refers to the spirituality of the believers. To live as resurrected in Latin America, then, expresses a liberating and liberated spirituality. Today to live as resurrected is a difficult challenge to take on. Nevertheless, there is no other way to show our identity as Christians than by our attitudes and actions oriented by the Spirit, that is to say, though our spirituality.

The challenge of the Spirit is difficult to assume because the globalized society shows itself to be confusing and uncertain. On the one hand there is poverty, unemployment, violence and delinquency in all of Latin America. On the other hand society, especially through the market and the mass media, shows itself to be attractive and promising; although demanding in its requirement of efficiency, its offers to satisfy all desires are innumerable. What is even worse is the disillusion and disenchantment that undermines the will for organizing. Solidarity and the struggle against poverty and exploitation have to a great extent been diminished.

The call by analysts for a "change of paradigm" has worsened the economic, political and social situation, because it has generated a paralysis in many sectors instead of a new dynamism to search for better ways pointing towards a better quality of life for all men and women. I suspect Julia Esquivel could not today write a poem with the title "They Have Threatened Us With Resurrection." There are few dangerous proposals of resurrection to merit threats. It seems as if many Christians are comfortable with accepting life as it is, rather than striving to live as resurrected. For others, the dreams of ideal earthly life as portrayed in media images of large houses, fancy cars, and expensive clothes have replaced the ideal of living the life of Christ.

Because today's society, with its demands...