Live Greater We Win

Apr 13, 2009

May the Lord give you His peace! 

Let us rejoice this day because Alleluia is our song. Happy Easter! I pray that your Holy Week was fruitful and indeed holy and that your celebration of Easter is one of great joy and excitement.  

After the vigil mass on Saturday, while I was greeting some parishioners, I was distracted by this little boy who was skipping around the vestibule shouting... “we win, we win!” I couldn’t help but laugh and join in the excitement of this little one who had captured the truth of Easter: Love is stronger then death, light is more powerful than the darkness, sin is conquered, Christ won the victory of our salvation for us as He died and rose again to fulfill the longing of every human heart. Every year the Church gives us the beautiful season of Easter to remind us of the victory that is ours. During this season a priest friend of mind exclaims at every Mass, “we are an Easter people!” How true it is, even though sometimes we think Lent and suffering make up our whole life, it is Easter that we were made for. To rise with Christ, rejoice in life with Him, and be reminded once again of the salvation that is ours waiting for us in Heaven.  How great it is to be an Easter people!  

“Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken my Lord and I don’t know where they have laid him.” When she had said this she turned around and saw Jesus there but did not know it was Jesus…Jesus said to her, “Mary! Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father. But go to my brothers and tell them that I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God” – John 20 15-17 

Every aspect of the Easter season points us to gladness and joy. In the story of Mary Magdalene she is so overwhelmed with grief she has a hard time encountering the risen Lord at the tomb. She does not recognize him until He calls her by name and then her eyes are truly opened to see her Lord. What a gift it is to be called personally by the Lord to be a witness to the resurrection. Mary is told to believe and go back and tell the others about Jesus rising from the dead. My friends, this season of Easter Jesus calls me and you be name to be witnesses to His resurrection. Like Mary, we are called to go back and tell the others what we have seen and heard. God to school, work, practice, and every street corner and witness with your joy the truth and reality of Jesus risen from the dead. It is perhaps a smile, a joyful attitude, or a renewed spirit of charity with those around you. We must be witnesses of Easter!  

When I talk to those who are not Christian or fallen away they say that Christianity is not attractive because those who believe in Jesus don’t live with a sense of joy or excitement about what they believe. It’s true. So often we don’t let the truth of our faith and gifts we have been given inspire us to live with joy. This is because we really and truly have not come to believe in the truth of the resurrection. If we truly believed in the gift of the resurrection, how could we not have a constant smile on our faces. How we need to believe!  

The gift of the Church is that we get another chance every year to experience Easter. And we get a renewed opportunity to believe in and embrace the gift of Jesus rising from the dead to save us from sin and prepare a place for us in Heaven. Let us believe this Easter and then let us witness to a life that has no end.  

We win… 

God Bless You, 

Rusty