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| Icon: Jesus's Descent into the Abode of the Dead |
Easter brings back childhood memories. The Easter egg can symbolize the struggle of the chick to transform its life-blood, to break through into a bigger world, to take flight to the heavens.
We too struggle in a world that we may perceive is going to pieces. We strive to exercise our will-to-live, and seek our God’s dwelling place.
Jesus’s resurrection is a new day. Easter is about the dawn, beginning again. Each morning we wake up with another chance to start over. Perhaps the night before, we carried burdens of the day just ending: things undone, bad things said, good things unsaid. In the morning all is opportunity.
Who among us is content? Who does not want to be more loving, more thoughtful, more helpful? Who wouldn’t want the courage to act upon our convictions? There’s a saying: courage is fear that has said its prayers. Pope Francis, in his Easter liturgy, emphasized both hope and courage.
More people have heard the Easter message than ever before. In person, our gatherings were smaller this year, resembling the early Christian community. But today’s social distance in a time of disease was mitigated by the marvel of telecommunication. For the first time, Queen Elizabeth II of England shared an Easter greeting.
Let this be the time to start again, to share in God’s extraordinary grace, transforming our lives.
In the word of God today, Peter proclaims the kerygma, the proclamation of the good news: about all that God has done for us through Jesus. Jesus was baptized, anointed with the Spirit, and went about working signs and wonders, proclaiming that the kingdom of God was at hand. Eventually Jesus was crucified but then burst forth from the tomb and was lifted up to his heavenly Father so that He could draw all of us to himself into a new life.
Peter shouts about 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.
And in the Gospel according to John, chapter 20, we hear the story of the resurrection of Jesus. Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb, finds it empty; she summons Peter and John.
Jesus is not among the dead. He is risen. He is gloriously alive. And this heavenly reality is ours as well. That is the Easter message!
Think of the disciples. Forty-some hours after their hopes were buried, the risen Christ appeared to Mary Magdalene, to the disciples in the upper room, and to the disciples on the road to Emmaus. Jesus was not simply a spirit or ghost; nor was he simply resuscitated, or they would have recognized him immediately. 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 I live, we also live.” How? Born in the flesh, we are reborn in the Spirit. Water is poured upon us in the rite of baptism, and in these waters the Spirit of God is poured out 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 in the sign of the cross—and God confirms and pours out more fully the gifts of the Spirit so that we might practice more faithfully the fruits of the Spirit.
At Eucharist, the living Christ sacramentally presences himself to us, feeds us with his life to continue our journey. And if we should stumble, the living Christ lifts us up in the rite of penance where we celebrate God’s mercy. The exchange of wedding promises, anointing of the sick, all the sacraments 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. Easter is about getting our priorities straight: a new dawn, a fresh start, a new beginning.
