Our Lady of Guadalupe

Date: April, 5

Easter is the celebration of Christ’s Resurrection from the dead, culminating in his Ascension to the Father and sending of the Holy Spirit upon the Church.  

It is celebrated on Sunday, and marks the end of Holy Week and the end of the Sacred Paschal Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Vigil), and is the beginning of the Easter Season of the liturgical year.

• “But at daybreak on the first day of the week they took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb; but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were puzzling over this, behold, two men in dazzling garments appeared to them. They were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground.  They said to them, “Why do you seek the living one among the dead?  He is not here, but he has been raised.  Remember what he said to you while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners and be crucified, and rise on the third day.” (Luke 24:1-7)
• “If Christ has not been raised, then empty is our preaching; empty, too, is your faith.” (1 Corinthians 15:14)

Today’s glorious solemnity is the ultimate cause of all joy, fulfillment, happiness, and glory. If Jesus only died on the Cross, destroying death, something would be missing—the restoration of life into a transformed and glorified living. Easter is not only about the forgiveness of sins, it’s about the temporal and eternal glorification of every human soul who dies and rises with Christ. When we focus upon the Gospel and consider the many lessons Jesus taught and the example He set, the Cross is often considered the difficult message and Easter the easy message. But is it?

The message of the Cross, as presented to us through both Jesus’ teachings and His lived example, is certainly challenging. Each one of us is called to the same depth of selfless surrender of our lives to the Father’s will. We must each die completely to ourselves, be purified from every sin and every attachment to sin, from every bad habit and every worldly thought, and from everything that is not God and God alone. When our calling to die with Christ and to embrace His Cross is clearly understood, as it has been by the saints, it is likely that Christians become overwhelmed at the seemingly daunting and impossible task of dying in and with Christ.

When it comes to the Resurrection, one might be tempted to say that it is easy to accept the message it presents. New life in Christ, the fullness of joy, complete transformation, and eternal beatitude in Heaven—these initially appear easy to embrace. However, the challenge that the profound reality of Easter presents to us is that we can be certain that our current understanding of what it means to share in the Resurrection of Christ is but the faintest shadow of the reality. In truth, very few people in this life have come close to understanding the glory to which we are called on account of the Resurrection. Saints Francis of Assisi, Catherine of Sienna, John of the Cross, Thérèse of Lisieux, to name a few, are among those who penetrated the mystery of Easter while still here on earth. They achieved this spiritual knowledge only by fully dying with Christ through a life of profound prayer, penance, and charity that completely united their souls to the Most Holy Trinity.

As we celebrate Easter, it is important to know that we do not yet know all that is promised to us by the Resurrection of Christ. If we can at least know that, then our spiritual appetites will make us hungry to know. Too often, Christians go through life satisfied with the most basic understanding of the Gospel. We know that God became man, lived His life, gathered followers, taught and performed miracles, died on the Cross, rose again, ascended into Heaven, and sent the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, we have hope in His promise that if we remain in His grace, then we will share in Heaven after we die. But this is an exceptionally incomplete view of the full reality that has been comprehended in this life by the saints. It is their understanding we must seek with every power of our souls.

PRAYER: 

My Resurrected Lord, the glory to which You have called me is beyond my natural capacity to comprehend. I could never imagine what awaits those who fully, and without reserve, surrender their lives to You and obey every aspect of the Father’s will. Please fill me with a realization that there is so much more that I do not know. Inflame my soul with a desire to quench that longing to know You more so as to share more fully in the glories of the Resurrection while here on earth and forever in Heaven. Jesus, I trust in You.