Easter

Happy Easter! Felices Pascuas! Joyeuses Paques! Buona Pasqua! Frohe Ostern!

Easter is a day to be joyful. We have so much to celebrate, especially the gift of faith that enables us to relate to Jesus as our way, our truth and our life.

 The word “Easter” comes from the name of an ancient Saxon goddess of the dawn or spring.

This Easter Sunday is also the final day of Passover, observed each spring during the month of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar. The Hebrew name Nisan means "miracle." 

 For those with a Nissan car: the Japanese formed that word by combining "Ni" for "sun" and "ssan" for "produce" or "birth." Again, a creative name for new life.

Eggs and bunny rabbits symbolize life. Here's a riddle for the kids  :How do bunnies stay healthy? EGG-cercise!

Jesus’s resurrection is a new day. Easter is about starting over. It's a time to look for the good in ourselves, in other people, in every situation. It’s time to ask for the grace to become the best version of ourselves

Each morning, we wake up with new opportunities. Perhaps the night before, we carried burdens: bad things said, good things undone. But in the morning, all is possibility.

 

We begin again TODAY. Who among us does not want to be more loving, more generous, more caring, more thoughtful, more productive? Who doesn’t know a heart to heal, a relationship to mend, a lost soul to find?

In the Gospel according to John, we hear the story of the resurrection of Jesus. Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb, and she finds it empty; she summons Peter and John. Jesus is not among the dead.

           At that point in the Gospel, I often think of the beautiful scene in that biblical epic movie “King of Kings” where in the finale the shadow of Jesus extends over the shore of Galilee.

 Jesus is alive. He has passed through this earthly life, and then through the mystery of death, into a new, transfigured reality

This heavenly reality is ours as well. That is the Easter message!

 This Easter, God wakes us up again. Let this be the morning to start again, to re-emerge and rediscover God’s extraordinary grace transforming our ordinary human lives.

 During the past year, some of you may have known someone who caught the coronavirus. Despite heroic efforts, and the marvel of a vaccine in less than a year, more than a half million Americans died with that disease. Ten times the fatalities during the Vietnam War. I sometimes think, How many hopes lie buried with those who died in that war.

Then I contemplate the disciples of Jesus huddled in Jerusalem. They could have uttered those same words: how many hopes lie buried. And yet, hours later, the risen Christ appeared to Mary Magdalene outside the tomb, to the disciples in the upper room, and on the road to Emmaus. Jesus was not simply a spirit or ghost; nor was he simply resuscitated. Otherwise, they would have recognized him immediately.

 

          Yes, it was a bodily resurrection; the earthly and crucified Jesus was the same person as the resurrected Jesus. But he was transformed into a new reality. Jesus said to the disciples, I live. And because of that, we also live.

 

 How is that? We are born in the flesh, and reborn in the Spirit. In the waters of baptism, the Spirit of God is poured upon us, and a new life is ours. The triune God lives within us, and we live within the triune God.

 As we grow into adolescence, the bishop anoints our forehead with oil in the sign of the cross—and in that gesture, God confirms more fully the gifts of the Spirit so that we might practice more faithfully the fruits of the Spirit in our daily lives: love, generosity, patience, and faithfulness

And at this Eucharist, where the living Christ sacramentally presences himself to us in the signs of bread and wine, where he mystically reenacts his salvific activity on Calvary and becomes one with us ever so briefly in Communion, the living Christ feeds us with his life so we can continue our journey. Yes, we are a pilgrim people. And if we should stumble, the living Christ lifts us up in the rite of penance where we celebrate God’s mercy.

Yes, through the sacraments, privileged encounters with God, we experience the living Christ and we go forth to love and serve one another. In the exchange of wedding promises, God strengthens the love between husband and wife. In the anointing of the sick, God heals our wounds. All these blessings are indeed signs of God’s care for us as we journey to our heavenly dwelling place.

Eternal life in relationship with God and one another—that is our ultimate purpose. In the mystery of our own dying, we believe we will make an evolutionary leap into a new reality, as Jesus has.

 Easter is about getting our priorities straight, about asking, “How can we be more god-like, more loving, more generous, more helpful?” Easter is about finding a heart to heal, a relationship to mend, a lost soul to refresh.

Easter is indeed about a new day, a fresh start.  Why? Because Jesus Christ lives. And because He lives, we live.  Amen.