Easter Sunday, 4/4
Dear Friends,
Happy Easter to all! Today we proclaim that “this is the day that the Lord has made!” And because of this, “we should rejoice and be glad!” With us, the nature sings: flowers blooming; birds chirping; bitter cold wind disappearing; darkness vanishing before the light. The forty days of fasting and penance is replaced by the fifty days of great celebration; lamentations is replaced by jubilation – Glory to God in the highest! Alleluia! Alleluia! – How can we not miss singing these joyful hymns! The purple of Lent now turns into white and gold of Easter. From death now comes life! Easter is a transformation into a new creation!
“Exsultet! Rejoice, let Mother Church also rejoice / arrayed with the lightning of his glory, / let this holy building shake with joy, / filled with the mighty voices of the peoples.”
If our Mother Church is rejoicing because her Lord is not dead but is alive, we, her children – immersed in Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection because of our baptism – ought to rejoice with her! The Lord has truly risen, and it is so that we might regain the life we’ve lost because of sin. This new life is life of a child of God, a life in Christ: “It is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me.” The power of Easter is a sanctifying power that dispels wickedness, washes faults away, restores innocence to the fallen, and joy to mourners. It drives out hatred, fosters concord, and brings down the proud.
Friends, if this is true, if we believe what our faith teaches us, how can we not hope? How can we not love? Having heard that the Lord’s body was not found in the tomb, the beloved disciple of Jesus ran (faster than Peter) in order to arrive there first and when he saw it empty, he believed. The Church tells us that Jesus is risen and she is inviting us to run and encounter the risen Lord. In mass, we do not come in order to find a dead Lord but a risen Christ. We celebrate and witness the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. And in communion, we receive him in order to be united with him and him with us. This is the great joy that marks our identity as Christians, for “we are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song.”
From all staff of Saints AJ and the Newman Center, we wish you all a blessed and joyfulEaster!
God bless you