Easter Sunday always ushers in a season of great joy! Easter brings the beauty of springtime, the wonder of spending time with family and the joy of celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus. Our prayer, fasting and almsgiving, our fidelity to overcoming sin in our lives during the season of Lent now transform into Easter joy.
I am struck by the joy that comes after challenges and difficulty. We see this theme often in the Scriptures. Easter itself is a celebration of life after the trials and sufferings that came with Good Friday. Peter experienced great joy at his triple confession of love for Jesus that restored the pain of his triple denial. There is always a link between suffering and joy, between death and new life. It is by passing through the “valley of the shadow of death,” as Psalm 23 states, that we can experience the full joy of the glory of the risen Lord.
This reality of the joy that comes after challenges is not only attested to in Scripture but is true even in our own lives. For example, we all take up a particular penance for Lent to overcome our sins so that we can experience the great joy of Easter. It is important to note this connection between Lent and Easter.
I once heard it said that we should take the Easter season just as seriously as we took the Lenten season. If we enter into the trials of Lent with great fervor and persevere in our penances with zeal and courage, then it is only right that we enter into the joy of Easter with that same fervor. When we enter a season of suffering in life, it prepares us to better receive and experience the joy that in faith we know will follow.
Easter affords us the hope that joy always comes after suffering, that death never has the last word and that Jesus Christ is truly triumphant over every evil and every sin.
As we enter into and experience the Easter season, seek to experience that joy with fervor. God desires us not to be discouraged, sad or despondent, but to be radiant in the joy of the risen Lord, in the joy of the resurrected life to which we are all called. The simple joys of a beautiful day, a good conversation or a shared meal with loved ones bring a lightness to our hearts that helps us to experience God in the day-to-day.
However, our ultimate joy is found in the presence of the Lord with us. Easter reminds us that not even death can separate us from God’s presence with us. As St. Paul memorably writes in his letter to the Romans, “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).
No, these things do not separate us from the love of God, but they can reveal the love of God to us in a particular way. The experience of trials opens our hearts to experience the love of God more deeply because our hearts are more ready and desiring to receive Him.
Perhaps this past year has given us many trials. We may have much to grieve over in our lives, many things to acknowledge as hard. Nevertheless, as we celebrate Easter, we are reminded that we have much joy that awaits us. We have much that God desires to give to us, to speak to our hearts.
The joy of Easter is never overshadowed by suffering and sin. There is nothing that can overcome the light that is the risen Jesus Christ. Jesus is the true and lasting light that “shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5).
As we celebrate the joy of Easter as a parish family and as an archdiocese, may God shower his abundant blessings upon us all, so that amid the trials of life, the light of the risen Jesus Christ may always shine forth! Alleluia! Alleluia! The Lord is risen! Happy Easter!
Comfort My People — Easter joy
Easter Sunday always ushers in a season of great joy! Easter brings the beauty of springtime, the wonder of spending time with family and the joy of celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus. Our prayer, fasting and almsgiving, our fidelity to overcoming sin in our lives during the season of Lent now transform into Easter joy.
I am struck by the joy that comes after challenges and difficulty. We see this theme often in the Scriptures. Easter itself is a celebration of life after the trials and sufferings that came with Good Friday. Peter experienced great joy at his triple confession of love for Jesus that restored the pain of his triple denial. There is always a link between suffering and joy, between death and new life. It is by passing through the “valley of the shadow of death,” as Psalm 23 states, that we can experience the full joy of the glory of the risen Lord.
This reality of the joy that comes after challenges is not only attested to in Scripture but is true even in our own lives. For example, we all take up a particular penance for Lent to overcome our sins so that we can experience the great joy of Easter. It is important to note this connection between Lent and Easter.
I once heard it said that we should take the Easter season just as seriously as we took the Lenten season. If we enter into the trials of Lent with great fervor and persevere in our penances with zeal and courage, then it is only right that we enter into the joy of Easter with that same fervor. When we enter a season of suffering in life, it prepares us to better receive and experience the joy that in faith we know will follow.
Easter affords us the hope that joy always comes after suffering, that death never has the last word and that Jesus Christ is truly triumphant over every evil and every sin.
As we enter into and experience the Easter season, seek to experience that joy with fervor. God desires us not to be discouraged, sad or despondent, but to be radiant in the joy of the risen Lord, in the joy of the resurrected life to which we are all called. The simple joys of a beautiful day, a good conversation or a shared meal with loved ones bring a lightness to our hearts that helps us to experience God in the day-to-day.
However, our ultimate joy is found in the presence of the Lord with us. Easter reminds us that not even death can separate us from God’s presence with us. As St. Paul memorably writes in his letter to the Romans, “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).
No, these things do not separate us from the love of God, but they can reveal the love of God to us in a particular way. The experience of trials opens our hearts to experience the love of God more deeply because our hearts are more ready and desiring to receive Him.
Perhaps this past year has given us many trials. We may have much to grieve over in our lives, many things to acknowledge as hard. Nevertheless, as we celebrate Easter, we are reminded that we have much joy that awaits us. We have much that God desires to give to us, to speak to our hearts.
The joy of Easter is never overshadowed by suffering and sin. There is nothing that can overcome the light that is the risen Jesus Christ. Jesus is the true and lasting light that “shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5).
As we celebrate the joy of Easter as a parish family and as an archdiocese, may God shower his abundant blessings upon us all, so that amid the trials of life, the light of the risen Jesus Christ may always shine forth! Alleluia! Alleluia! The Lord is risen! Happy Easter!
Girls Scouts receive awards
during Cathedral ceremony