The Easter egg can symbolize the
struggle of the chick to free itself from its shell. The egg has to
break. We too struggle in a world that we may perceive is going to
pieces so that we can take flight into God's dwelling place. Eventually, we will at some point
break out of our own earthly “shell” into a new transfigured
life.
Easter is about the daybreak, starting
over. Jesus' resurrection is a new day. All is opportunity. We
begin again.
In the Word of God, Peter proclaims
the good news and speaks about all that God has done for us through
Jesus. He is indeed, Peter shouts, a God of mercy and forgiveness.
And that’s why Pope Francis emphasizes that the Church is a field
hospital, here to heal wounds.
Paul in his letter to the Christian
community in Colossae, Turkey challenges us to seek God in our
everyday lives so that we might appear with Him in glory at the end
time.
And in the Gospel according to John,
we hear the story of the resurrection of Jesus. He is Risen; He is
alive. He has passed from earthly life through the mystery of
death into a new, transfigured heavenly reality. And this future is
ours as well.
Jesus said to the disciples: I live and because I live, you live. That's the Easter message!
As we grow into adolescence, the
bishop anoints our forehead with oil in the sign of the cross—and
God pours out more fully the gifts of the Spirit so that we can reflect the fruits of the Spirit in our daily lives.
All of us were created to be in relationship with God and one another forever. Easter proclaims it’s a new day, a new season, a new life. It's a day to ask: how can we be more loving, more generous, more tenderhearted, more thoughtful, more helpful?It a day to seek a heart to heal, a relationship to mend, a lost soul to find..