Easter Sunday

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Christ has risen! Alleluia!

When Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome discovered the rolled back stone from the entrance of Jesus’ tomb and they encountered a young man dressed in white sitting where Jesus’ body was supposed to be, they were “utterly amazed.” When Simon Peter and the other disciple arrived at the empty tomb, they both saw the rolled up burial cloths without Jesus in them. St. John tells us that the other disciple saw and believed. However, neither Simon Peter nor the unnamed disciple grasped the magnitude of what really happened. Even though Jesus told the disciples many times that he would die and rise from the dead, they did not comprehend what he was saying. How could they?

Can any of us really imagine Resurrection? Nowhere in scripture do we have a description of how the resurrection occurred. No one saw it happen. It was then and it is today a great mystery. Our only physical evidence is a rolled back stone, an empty tomb and some accounts of Jesus appearing to a very select group of people. The Resurrection of Jesus was nothing like the very public raising of Lazarus from the dead. While Lazarus was restored to life, he was still very human and he would eventually die again.

After his Resurrection Jesus was different, he entered into a new and glorious life with God the Father. St. Paul tells us in his Letter to the Romans 6: 9 - 10, “We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has power over him. As to his death, he died to sin once and for all; as to his life, he lives for God.”

It was only after they actually saw and spoke to Jesus several times that the disciples came to believe in his resurrection. We accept and believe in the Resurrection based on faith. And, by that faith, we are blessed. When Jesus showed himself to Thomas, he told him, all the disciples and he tells us, “"Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed." Our belief in the Resurrection is the core of our Christian faith. It is the foundation of our lives as Christians. God the Father, speaking through the Prophet Isaiah tells us, “See, I am laying a stone in Zion, a stone that has been tested, A precious cornerstone as a sure foundation; he who puts his faith in it shall not be shaken.(Isaiah 28: 16). And the Resurrection is the ultimate sign of God’s love for us. God sent Jesus to us to free us “from the law of sin and death” so that we can enter into eternal life with Him.

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Christ has risen! Alleluia!

Lord God, this is the day that you have made!

Raising Jesus from the dead,

and raising us with him,

you have fashioned for yourself a new people,

washed in the waters of baptism,

sealed with the gift of the Spirit,

and invited to the banquet of the Lamb!

Prepare our hearts, Lord,

to celebrate this Easter festival with great joy.

We ask this through your Son,

our Passover and our Peace,

who lives and reigns with you

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

God for ever and ever.

AMEN.

Legend of the Dogwood Tree

When Christ was on earth,

the dogwood grew to a

towering size with lovely hue.

Its branches were strong and interwoven.

And for Christ's cross

its timbers were chosen.

Being distressed at the use of this wood,

Christ made a promise

which still holds good:

"Not ever again shall the dogwood grow

to be large enough for such a tree,

And so slender and twisted

it shall always be

with cross-shaped Blossoms for all to see.

The petals shall have bloodstains

marked in brown and in the

blossom's center a thorny crown.

All who see it will think of Me,

nailed to a cross from the dogwood tree.

Protected and cherished this tree shall be

A reflection to all of my agony."

It is Finished

So they took Jesus, and carrying the cross himself he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull, in Hebrew, Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus in the middle.

Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, "Jesus the Nazorean, the King of the Jews." Now many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, "Do not write 'The King of the Jews,' but that he said, 'I am the King of the Jews.'" Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written."

When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four shares, a share for each soldier. They also took his tunic, but the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top down. So they said to one another, "Let's not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it will be," in order that the passage of scripture might be fulfilled (that says): "They divided my garments among them, and for my vesture they cast lots." This is what the soldiers did.

Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son." Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother." And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.

After this, aware that everything was now finished, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I thirst." There was a vessel filled with common wine. So they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop and put it up to his mouth. When Jesus had taken the wine, he said, "It is finished."

And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit.

From The Gospel of John

Honor Thy Beginning

Beginnings can be delicate or explosive. They can start almost invisibly or arrive with a big bang. Beginnings hold the promise of new lessons to be learned, new territory to be explored, and old lessons to be recalled, practiced, and appreciated. Beginnings hold ambiguity, promise, fear, and hope.

Don’t let the lessons, the experiences of the past, dampen your enthusiasm for beginnings. Just because it’s been hard doesn’t mean it will always be that difficult. Don’t let the heartbreaks of the past cause you to become cynical, close you off to life’s magic and promise. Open yourself wide to all that the universe has to say.

Let yourself begin anew. Pack your bags. Choose carefully what you bring, because packing is an important ritual. Take along some humility and the lessons of the past. Toss in some curiosity and excitement about what you haven’t yet learned. Say your good-byes to those you’re leaving behind. Don’t worry who you will meet or where you will go. The way has been prepared. The people you are to meet will be expecting you. A new journey has begun. Let it be magical. Let it unfold. Let it be a new beginning as you prepare to meet the Christ child anew.

Thinking Clearly

Sometimes it's just a matter of thinking clearly. Like the small businessman whose clothing store was threatened with extinction when a national chain store moved in and acquired all the properties on his block. This one particular businessman refused to sell. “All right then, we'll build all around you and put you out of business,” the new competitors said.

Surely -- you might think -- here is a case for warranted anger. If a hothead ever had an excuse, this was it.

The day came when the small merchant found himself hemmed in with a new department store stretching out on both sides of and above his little retail shop. The competitors now opened shop. Their banners unfurled, “Grand Opening!”

The merchant in the old store, the little store surrounded by the big bully, had a banner of his own. His banner reached across the entire width of his little store. It read, “Main Entrance.”

And just when others thought he wouldn’t survive … he thrived.

Pray

God has created us to love and to be loved,

and this is the beginning of prayer –
to know that God loves me,
that I have been created for greater things.

We must become holy, not because we want to feel holy,
but because Christ must be able to live his life fully in us.”

You can pray while you work.
Work doesn’t stop prayer and prayer doesn’t stop work.
It requires only that small raising of the mind to Him.

If we really want to pray, we must first learn to listen:
for in the silence of the heart God speaks.

~ Saint Teresa of Calcutta

His Blood Upon the Rose

I see His blood upon the rose

And in the stars the glory of his eyes,

His body gleams amid eternal snows,

His tears fall from the skies.

I see his face in every flower;

The thunder and the singing of the birds

Are but his voice—and carven by his power

Rocks are his written words.

All pathways by his feet are worn,

His strong heart stirs the ever-beating sea,

His crown of thorns is twined with every thorn,

His cross is every tree.

Joseph Mary Plunkett (1887–1916)