"The life of believers contains in itself the mystery of Easter." So said Saint Leo the Great, Pope of Rome. in the first half of the fifth century, in his Paschal homily at the Vigil of Holy Saturday. I find his words captivating and inspiring, yet simultaneously mysterious, intimating a reality that we do not fully comprehend.

Resurrection exists in us, is realized in our very lives as Christians. Here is what has been termed "the mystery behind the Mystery." Somewhere, entwined with our everyday existence, is the wonder of the Resurrection. The Paschal reality, said Pope Leo, subsists in our own humble beings.

What is the impact of the Resurrection on our personal lives? The essential meaning of the Resurrection of Jesus for the human being is one of a radically new existence. "The old has passed away, behold, the new has come!" (2 Cor 5: 17). "He died for all, that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised" (2 Cor 5: 15).

We can find other such references in the Epistles, in particular this decisive statement from Romans (7: 4): "You have died to the law through the Body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God."

We no longer belong to ourselves but we belong to Christ. This is not a matter of some legal contract or moral ideal; it is a mysterious and spiritual reality that encompasses our whole being: body, mind, soul and spirit. On the level of our personal and responsible participation, this mystery becomes "ours" by faith and by the primary operative sign of that faith, our baptism. We are thus given a new being, a new ontological existence which comes from God.

It is precisely our "flesh" that the Word of God assumed so as to liberate it from sin and death. His Resurrection is our victory and our liberation: our whole being can thus begin to live according to the Spirit, even in our present bodily condition. Our entire life thus becomes a great Resurrection, begun in the heart of our being by the pouring forth of the Holy Spirit and completed by the transfiguration of our bodies (Romans 8.11 and Philippians 3.21).

Obviously, this involves certain immediate consequences on the level of moral conduct. Saint Paul's Epistles are eloquent on this subject. Let us be careful, however, not to reduce the Christian mystery to a new moral code: our conduct "according to the Spirit" is the fruit of our essential rebirth. The root itself has changed. We have been grafted onto the living Christ (Romans 6.5); a new sap is running through our branches, and for this reason, we can bear the fruits of light. Henceforth we live "for God" because in truth we have been "deified."

This is the sum of Christian kerygma: Life has been manifested in Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word of God, and this life is communicated to us through his Death and Resurrection.

The icon of the Descent into Hades, perhaps more than Western paintings depicting Christ rising out of the tomb, communicates this mystery most effectively. It draws us towards the inner meaning of the event and enables us to enter into a personal relationship with it.

In the icon, the Risen Christ, radiant with light, is the image of the invisible God in his transfigured humanity. He penetrates into the depths of our darkness to snatch men and women from the tomb where death has them as prisoners. The full dynamism of our new life is expressed here. "To know him and the power of his Resurrection" (Phil 3: 10) consists in this movement by which Christ descends into our very depths to raise us up into the light of Life.

This is the movement of baptism, descent and rising up, with all the spiritual realism that the power of the Spirit will realize within us day after day in our personal lives. Our participation in the Resurrection of Christ consists of his descent into our personal lives.

Through the dark reality of our sinfulness and our brokenness, through all these things, God works in us a union with himself that brings the spiritually ill to health and the spiritually dead to life. For this reason, the reality of the Resurrection must be alive in our hearts and minds each day, not simply at Easter but always. The life of the Christian must be a life of daily resurrection, a life of daily mystery. Though this mystery is celebrated most wondrously at this time of year, it is a mystery that is to be lived at every hour, at every moment, in every circumstance.

Saint Leo reminds us of this powerfully:

"These thoughts, dearly beloved, must be kept in mind not only for the Easter festival, but also for the sanctification of the whole life, and to this our present exercise ought to be directed, that what has delighted the souls of the faithful by the experience of a short observance may pass into a habit and remain unalterably, and if any fault creep in, it may be destroyed by speedy repentance.

"And because the cure of old-standing diseases is slow and difficult, remedies should be applied early, when the wounds are fresh, so that rising ever anew from all downfalls, we may deserve to attain to the incorruptible Resurrection of glorified flesh in Christ Jesus our Lord, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen."

Father Alexei R. Smith is director of the Office of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, and pastor of St. Andrew Russian-Greek Church, El Segundo. This is the sixth in an eight-part series, "Keys to the Spiritual Life in Times of Transition," prepared by the Archdiocesan Spirituality Commission.