Happy Easter to all as we gather to once again celebrate the great mystery of the Resurrection. For the past six weeks of Lent we have been preparing to open our hearts and minds to the wonder of this sacred event which is central to our salvation.
This past week, during the Holy Triduum of Thursday, Friday and Saturday, we have journeyed with Jesus through those final days of His life among us. We recalled his Last Supper with his apostles as He prepare to leave them, saying goodbye and asking that they remember Him whenever they broke bread together. Like us all, Jesus does not want to be forgotten but be held tenderly in memory.
On Good Friday, we witnessed the betrayal, the beatings, and the ultimate degradation of His crucifixion. Jesus gave His all for us, ultimately His life when there was nothing else to give.
We left Jesus then in the cold, dark, dank of the tomb of the dead. But as we know that was not the end of the story!
Today the women of His company arrive at the tomb to anoint His body with the ritual spices. They find instead an empty tomb and two angels asking the rhetorical question: Why do you seek the living among the dead?
Unbelievably Jesus is alive, Risen as He said! The gift of salvation has been won!
Like the women at the tomb, even these many years later, we continue to try to comprehend the magnitude and the meaning of it all.
We utilize spring flowers, flickering candlelight, and flowing water to help us understand. We sing Alleluia’s to express our joy and gladness.
So each year we spend the fifty days of the Easter Season allowing this tremendous mystery to penetrate our beings.
As the earth comes back to life in this springtime, may that new life of the Resurrection bring us to life as well, touching us and enlivening our hearts.
“Jesus Christ is risen today and death has no more power over us”!