Jesus Christ Lives and We Live

Rubens' Resurrection of Jesus

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

We call Easter the Paschal mystery: paschal relates to the “paschal lamb” of Passover, which Jewish communities celebrate during our Easter celebration this year.

Easter is about the daybreak, starting over. Jesus’s resurrection is a new day. This is a time to be joyful, happy, enthusiastic about life. We have so much to be grateful for, especially the gift of faith in Jesus Christ who is our way, our truth and our life.

Every morning, we awaken to begin again. Perhaps the night before, we carried burdens: things undone, bad things said, good things unsaid. In the morning all is possibility, opportunity. Who among us is content with things as they are? Who does not want to be more loving, more generous, more tenderhearted, more thoughtful, more helpful? This Easter, God wakes us up again, to rediscover the extraordinary graces transforming our lives TODAY.

In the Gospel according to John, chapter 20, we hear the story of the resurrection of Jesus. Mary Magdalene finds the tomb empty. Shortly thereafter, Christ appeared to Mary Magdalene outside the tomb, to the disciples in the upper room, and on the road to Emmaus. Jesus is not among the dead. Jesus is risen. He is alive. He has passed through this earthly life – as we do --- and then through the mystery of death into a new, transfigured reality. This heavenly reality is ours as well. That is the Easter message!

Jesus said, I live, and because I live, we also live.

How? We are born in the flesh and reborn in the Spirit. Water is poured upon us in the rite of baptism, and in these waters the Spirit of God is poured upon us, and 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 God pours out more fully the gifts of the Spirit so that we might practice more faithfully all of the fruits of the Spirit: patience, generosity, faithfulness and love.

And at the Eucharist, where the living Christ sacramentally presences himself to us in the signs of bread and wine, and becomes one with us in Communion,; the living Christ feeds us with his life so we can continue our journey. If we should stumble on our journey, the living Christ lifts us up in the rite of penance where we celebrate God’s mercy.

Yes, through the sacraments, we experience the living Christ and we go forth to love and serve one another. The exchange of wedding promises, the anointing of the sick, all the sacraments are indeed signs of God’s care.

Eternal life in relationship with God and one another—that is our ultimate purpose. Easter is about getting our priorities straight, about asking, “How can we become more godlike, more loving, more generous, more thoughtful, more helpful?”

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

God's Mercy Outweighs Our Sins

Rio's Christ the Redeemer

According to a Grand Jury Report in Pennsylvania, over a 70-year period, about 2% of clergy committed despicable crimes of abuse, and bishops covered them up.  Two-thirds of those accused are dead; but allegations against them were deemed credible.

For the past sixteen years, policies and protocols are in place to safeguard children and vulnerable adults, and these protocols require regular review and improvement.

These incidents are but one reminder that the community of disciples is also made up of sinners. We must continually – each and every one of us -- ask for God's grace and forgiveness, be “doers of the word,” and rebuild community.

In the Gospel according to John, Jesus challenges the disciples to make a choice: believe in him as God’s holy One. What do the disciples do? Some walked away. Others stayed, acknowledging, “…to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68)

Eternal life is ultimately a gift from God. But Jesus says that we have to struggle to enter through the narrow gate into the kingdom of God.

Many people struggle during the cycle of human development. God is with us through the narrow gates of life. Our faith can sustain us.

Our faith fosters a healthy self-image. We are made in the image and likeness of God, and through baptism, God lives within us, and we live within God.

Our faith satisfies our longing for happiness. Within every human being there is a subconscious quest for the ultimate, the all-good. St. Augustine wrote, “O God, you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” Our primary purpose is to be in relationship with God and one another forever, and in that relationship our yearnings for happiness are completely satisfied.

Our faith gives us a sense of belonging, linked together by a common bond of faith in Jesus Christ, with heroes and heroines who inspire us, saints who encourage us in our pursuit of God and God’s pursuit of us. God gives us each other to support and protect each other.

We gather to thank God, to acknowledge our absolute dependency upon God as our Creator, and to ask God in the Our Father prayer to satisfy our basic needs. These encounters with the triune God are wrapped up in the mystery of the sacraments. God in particular gives us sacraments of healing, service, and grace. Jesus assures us that God’s mercy outweighs our sins.

Finally, God provides us with a guide with the best news ever: how God offers each one of us salvation through Jesus. The Bible demonstrates God’s unconditional love. As we go through narrow gates of life, with fears and weakness at times, embracing our faith in Jesus Christ will sustain us so that we can eventually enter safely through that final gate into the kingdom of God.