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Easter: the
greatest feast of the year
PRAISED BE JESUS
CHRIST!
(Now and Forever)
If we as Catholics ever have a reason to rejoice and be glad, it is
Easter. So much so that the Easter season extends through 50 days to the
feast of Pentecost, which this year is May 11. The primary focus is to
thank God for our incorporation into the Church via baptism,
confirmation and the Holy Eucharist. Our Easter season assignment is to
open our hearts to the power of God who is eager to transform us.
Peter is an
illustration of how grace transforms us. In the first reading of the
Easter Mass, Peter is the official witness to the Easter message.
However, prior to the transformative power of Jesus’ resurrection in
Peter’s life, he is portrayed in the Gospel as one who truly struggled
with — and, in fact, often failed to — accept Jesus as the kind of
Messiah God wanted him to accept.
When Jesus spoke to his apostles about his forthcoming Passion and
death, Peter took him aside and began to try to dissuade him: “May you
be spared, Master! God forbid that such things ever happen to you!”
Jesus rebuked Peter: “Get out of my sight, you Satan! You are trying to
make me trip and fall. You are not judging by God’s standards, but by
man’s” (Mt. 16:22-23). At the Last Supper, when Jesus wanted to give the
apostles an example of service by washing their feet, Peter protested.
Again, Jesus had to exercise patience with Peter.
Three times Peter denied knowing Jesus, as the Lord was suffering the
humiliation of his scourging and crowning with thorns.
On Easter morning, Jesus appeared to Peter and the other apostles to
share with them his triumph over sin and death. He spoke no words of
reprimand or rebuke. Instead, he greeted them: “Peace be with you.”
The presence of Jesus, his gentleness and patient forgiveness put the
apostles at ease. He transformed their fear into courage;
disappointment, confusion and sadness into ecstatic joy. Jesus was not
dead. He was alive. There was reason to live and to hope. There are
times when you and I encounter unexpected sufferings and crosses: the
death of family members and loved ones, setbacks in health, physical or
psychological separations from those who are great supports for us,
misunderstandings, loss of jobs or other life transitions. Just as he
was there for the apostles, Jesus Christ offers us his presence,
gentleness and patient forgiveness. As he transformed the lives of the
apostles, he can transform our fears and our confusion. Jesus is not
dead. He is alive. There is reason to live and to hope.
Let us then thank God for his numerous blessings, particularly during
the Easter season. Let us also pray that the new Catholics among us will
find us “old-time Catholics” eager to affirm and support them as
together we pilgrimage forward to the great day of resurrection.
Over the next 50 days, many young people in our parishes will make their
first Communion. Holy Communion is considered one of the sacraments of
initiation into the life of the Church, along with baptism and the
sacrament of confirmation.
Meanwhile, I will be administering the sacrament of confirmation to more
than 1,000 young people.
Very much on my mind are those who during the Easter season have become
or will become members of the Catholic faith family through the Rite of
Christian Initiation for Adults. Three hundred sixty-three were
registered to do that through the Rite of Election and the Call to
Continuing Conversion celebrated in our cathedral church on the first
and second Sundays of Lent.
A point that all of us need to keep in mind is that our incorporation
into Christ and his Church may be said to be complete when we have
received the three sacraments of initiation, but the reception of those
three sacraments is not a kind of graduation.
We are ill-advised if we reach a point in life where we think we no
longer need to grow in our understanding of our religion. The goal of
every Catholic who has received the three sacraments of initiation
should be to constantly, week by week, month by month and year by year,
enrich our relationship with God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
To do that, we must strive for daily quality prayer. Fasting, which
receives so much emphasis during the Lenten season, should not be a
stranger to our lives the rest of the year. As Catholics, we are urged
to do penance every Friday in commemoration of Christ’s death. If
fasting and abstinence from meat on Fridays during the year is not
particularly meaningful to you, choose something else, perhaps attending
Mass on Friday, shutting down the television, turning off the computer
or visiting a nursing home.
The sacrament of reconciliation (confession) is a tool for spiritual
growth which we do well to utilize on a regular basis. It is the way
Jesus has chosen to extend his healing ministry to our time. The graces
received in the sacrament of reconciliation can make a tremendous
difference in our pilgrimage toward holiness, the person God has called
us to become.
Our shared baptismal assignment is to live our religion with enthusiasm;
to proactively reach out to others, inviting them to join us in
professing the Catholic faith; and to take the values of the Christ in
which we are formed by the Church into the world in which we live so
that through us and our fidelity to the values of Jesus Christ that
world can truly be transformed by the saving power of Jesus Christ.
As we celebrate the Easter season, may our prayer be: “Open my eyes to
your risen presence in my life, Lord, strengthen my faith, continue to
hold me in the palm of your hand.” |
