April 11, 2015 by Carmelite Sisters
Editor’s Note: In Part III, we reflected on seeing and living life with resurrected eyes, the reality of Jesus for all humanity, and what makes us Christian. In today’s final installment, we will examine who some of the witnesses of the Resurrection are today, how it is essential to come to terms with the Resurrection, and why Jesus rose from the dead.
Witnesses of the Resurrection
In my priesthood, my life as a man has all of its meaning rooted in His Resurrection. As a priest, what good do I serve humanity if He didn’t come back from the dead? People see me as a counselor, a social worker. I am a parish priest for a parish in downtown Columbus, we have the state of Ohio’s largest soup kitchen. We serve anywhere from 570 to 870 meals a day. So sometimes people look at me as if I am a glorified, chaste social worker. I am going to tell you right now, the pay really stinks if all I am is a social worker. But, I am not to be viewed as a social worker or a teacher. I am to be viewed as a witness of the Resurrection.
Sometimes young women will tell me their parents say being a sister is a waste of a life. Well, if the life of a sister is a waste, then that means that Jesus did not come back from the dead. The truth is that the value of a consecrated religious is beyond description. They offer us in the here and now a witness to how we will all live in the world to come.
When humanity starts to turn inward and turn away from the Lord that is when He asks the question, “Who do you say that I am?” Before we can really dare to answer that question, we have to be honest with ourselves, we have to acknowledge that He came back from the dead. And many times that acknowledgment of His Resurrection takes place within the context of a struggle within the family, a breakdown in our prayer life, trying to figure out who we are and what we are supposed to do to be successful….all of the struggles which take place within the world.
Coming to Terms with the Resurrection
Coming to terms with the idea of the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead is something that must take place. If He really rose from the dead, we need to be on fire, we have to stop trying to fit into a world that doesn’t acknowledge Him. If I have two groups to try and please, the Trinity on one hand and everyone else on the other, guess who is going to lose. Everybody else. I will not let them keep me from heaven. The Lord is the one who has extended an invitation for everlasting and enduring life. No one else has. Whenever we encounter someone who poses a very strong challenge to our faith, especially if they are filled with angst, maybe even anger, or God forbid hate, we can diffuse it with a good dose of humor. Just say, “You know, I understand that you’ve got issues, you’re in turmoil, you disagree. It all comes back to this basic point…you die, wait three days and come back on your own and I will hear you out. Until then, I am following the One who did.”
Why Jesus Rose from the Dead
There were moments in time where He brought others back from the dead: the son of the widow, the daughter of Jairus, his cousin Lazarus. But notice that He brought them back from the dead. In His Resurrection, He came back on His own. There weren’t doctors and nurses there with paddles shocking Him. There wasn’t anyone there assisting Him up out of the tomb. He came back from the dead on His own to prove a point…that He loves.
All He asks in return is that we love Him. And in the exchange of that love we start to realize that that which is normal is determined not by we, who are mortal, but rather by the Lord who is infinite. Whenever we struggle with the discipline of His love, whenever we struggle with the discipline of the Church that He created, let’s always come back to the Resurrection. And seek to ask of the Lord in His mercy and in His goodness, “How does all of this tie into Your Resurrection? How am I called to sing the glory of Your Resurrection?”
As we carry on that conversation with the Lord Jesus Christ, we will start to acknowledge that He is more real than even we are. His love is far greater than our love is. To be in His presence, even if just for one moment, is better than to be anywhere else for thousands of years. He is not talking to someone else, He is not hunting down someone else, He is with me. And just as much as He wants me, I know He wants my loved ones. And so we share His Resurrection with those we love. We offer as a witness to them, all that we have, all that we are, and finally the ability to say who He is in response to the question, “Who do you say that I am?”
Daily Readings for:April 11, 2015
(Readings on USCCB website)
Collect: O God, who by the abundance of your grace give increase to the peoples who believe in you, look with favor on those you have chosen and clothe with blessed immortality those reborn through the Sacrament of Baptism. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
RECIPES
ACTIVITIES
o Liturgy of Easter Sunday and the Octave of Easter
PRAYERS
o Book of Blessings: Blessing Before and After Meals: Easter Season (2nd Plan)
o Prayers for the Easter Season
o Easter Prayers (for the Octave of Easter)
o The Chaplet of the Divine Mercy
o Book of Blessings: Blessing Before and After Meals: Easter Week (1st Plan)
o Book of Blessings: Blessing Before and After Meals: Easter (1st Plan)
o Victimae Paschali: The Easter Sequence
· Easter: April 11th
· Easter Saturday
Old Calendar: Easter Saturday
"Lastly, He showed himself to the Eleven themselves while they were at table. He reproached them for their incredulity and obstinacy.... And He said to them, 'Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good News to all creation.'" (Mark 16: 14-15)
On coming out of the baptismal font on Easter Sunday, the neophytes (newly baptized) were given a white symbolic garment, which they wore throughout the Easter Octave. Easter Saturday was known as "the Saturday on which white vestments are laid aside," or Saturday "in albis (depositis)." It was also called "Low Saturday." The octave ends tomorrow, but the Easter Season continues for five more weeks.
Meditation: The Power that Regenerates the World
Earthly history and the workings of the cosmos undoubtedly continue their course and are not identified with the rate at which the Kingdom of Christ develops. In fact, pain, evil, sin, death, yet claim their victims, in spite of the resurrection of Christ.
The cycle of one thing succeeding another, the cycle of becoming, is not at a standstill. If it were, history would be at an end! And so facts and events are continually being repeated and give rise to thoughts of an irremediable conflict here on earth between the two kingdoms, or, as St. Augustine said, between the two cities. Think, for example, of the contrast which is to be found in this Holy Year between celebration of the Redemption on the one hand and on the other hand the offenses against God, the misdeeds committed against man and, at bottom, the challenges to Christ which are continually being launched.
This is the most impressive aspect, the most mysterious dimension of the historic dialectic between the forces of good and the forces of evil: the fact that obstacles are raised or indifference is shown to the forces of Redemption let into the world by Christ through his Resurrection as the principle which resolves the conflict between death and life.
The world is in need, today as yesterday, for the "new people" to remain in its midst, among the vicissitudes, the conflicts, the variations which not seldom lead to situations which are so difficult, sometimes even dramatic. The world has need of this people which will dedicate itself with humility, courage and perseverance to service of the Redemption and give concrete form, in good Christian conduct, to the regenerating power of Christ's resurrection.
This is the function which Christians have as evangelizers and witnesses to the Resurrection in history.
Excerpted from Prayers and Devotions from Pope John Paul II, edited by Bishop Peter Canisius, 1984.
In Rome, the Station is at the church of St. John Lateran, the mother church of Christendom. Eight days ago the Easter vigil liturgy took place in this basilica. Today the neophytes return a final time to the place of baptism.