JESUS CHRIST AS THE JOY OF THE REDEEMED


BLESSED CYPRIAN MICHAEL IMENE TANSI, PRIEST

Phil 2:1-11; Isa 12; Mt 13:44-46

The Joy of the Redeemed

The passage of Isaiah we read yesterday says that Yahweh will delight in the new Jerusalem he will construct from among the peoples and nations and rejoice over her as the bridegroom rejoices in his bride. The joy of the Lord over his new people would induce exceeding gladness and joy in the citizens of the new Jerusalem. When Yahweh rejoices over them as a bridegroom over his bride, the joy of his people would equal that of a newly wedded bride. Saint Paul evokes this joy of the redeemed people of God for the Christian community at Philippi in these words. “If our life in Christ means anything to you, if love can persuade at all, or the Spirit that we have in common, or any tenderness and sympathy, then be united in your convictions and united in your love, with a common purpose and a common mind.” These are the elements constituting the Christian source of joy. First is the life of Jesus Christ that all of us share in common; since the Christian life springs from the love of Jesus Christ for us, we share this love by our profession of faith in his life, death, and resurrection for us. Second is that the love he showed us in his sacrificial death must be able to persuade us; it is the force that impels Christian life and mission. Third is that the Holy Spirit, who pours this love of Jesus Christ into our hearts, is himself the indwelling love of God in our hearts.

The constant and frequent meditation on the love of Jesus Christ demonstrated through his passion and death produces a great tenderness and sympathy in our hearts for Jesus Christ and all that belongs to him. As Paul rightly urged, the considerations forge a spiritual unity and build the believers into a community with common convictions and purpose. These describe the bride of Jesus Christ, the new Jerusalem he constructed from among the people and nations. The focus of every member of the Christian community on Jesus Christ relegates self and its conceit to the background and helps each to see Jesus Christ in every member of the community. The redeemed community, therefore, educates and transforms each person into Jesus Christ by a spiritual transformation of each mind into that of Jesus Christ, whose humility the early Christian hymn presented by Paul praises: “His state was divine, yet he did not cling  to his equality with God but emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave, and became as men are; and being as all men are, he was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross.” The early Christian hymn points to the role the meditation on the life of Jesus Christ plays in the building of a genuine Christian community. By constantly putting the life of Jesus Christ before the members, the Christian community gradually transforms them into Jesus Christ. The Church bears Christian children this way.

The heavenly treasure, to which the Church invites all men, is hidden in this early Christian hymn, which praises Christ's Incarnation and glorification. The life of Jesus Christ is the kingdom of heaven on earth, for which we must sell everything we own to purchase. Jesus taught this truth in the Gospel: “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field which someone has found; he hides it again, goes off happy, sells everything he owns, and buys the field.” To purchase this inestimable treasure, Cyprian Iwene Tansi, born in 1903 in Aguleri, Anambra State, Nigeria, left everything and entered the Cistercian monastery to give himself to prayer and contemplation of the life of Jesus Christ. The Holy Ghost Fathers raised and trained him as a teacher and catechist. He joined the seminary and was ordained a priest in 1937. He left his Diocese and travelled to England to join the Cistercian Abbey of Mount St Bernard. He lived in the monastery with great faith and humility learned in his deep prayer absorptions; he was a living example of patience and charity. He died on 20 January 1964 in the monastery. As the responsorial from Isaiah 12 echoes, whoever meditates on the life of Jesus Christ would draw water from the wells of salvation with joy and gladness.     

Let us pray: O God, in the priest Blessed Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi you joined the apostolic zeal of a pastor to the way of life of a monk.  Grant us by his intercession that persevering in prayer, we seek untiringly the coming of your kingdom. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son and our elder brother, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.

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