April 19, 1998Second Sunday of Easter |
Every Sunday -- through the gospel reading -- we encounter the risen Lord from the different perspective or activity; this interaction gives us new life (described in a distinct way in each of the second readings), which in turn demonstrates the growth of believers or the development of the Body of Christ, the Church (as we see in the first reading each week).
On this conclusion to the week-long solemnity of Easter, which we call the "Second Sunday of Easter or "Divine Mercy" Sunday, we meet the Lord of Healing and Mercy Who brings us Peace because of his gift of forgiveness and new life.
Encountering this mercy and healing of the Lord, in turn, assures us of being truly and completely alive: "I was dead but now I live!" (second reading).
When we live this new life boldly, publicly, authentically, something dramatic happens: Our togetherness in sharing the Lord's life brings growth to the community and gives witness to the reality of his love (first reading).
What's the implication here for St. Anthony's? First of all, we encounter the Lord of Mercy for ourselves not by being "doubting Thomases" (finding fault with everything new or different) but by believing (openness and acceptance in hope).
This receptivity to the Risen Lord leads us to a new experience of being alive by seeing things from a new perspective: new strategies for the parish, new agendas for our personal life.
This type of newness energizes us and enthuses us to embrace a renewed togetherness through liturgy and volunteerism and a revitalized approach to evangelization, especially in the neighborhood.
This what the implication of Easter is all about! If we are truly an Easter people, it must show in the way we worship and the way we witness. Does it?
--Father Benet OFM
The poet e. e. cummings once wrote:
"i thank God for most
this amazing day:
for the leaping, greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream sky."
For me, these marvelous little lines proclaim that nothing in this life of ours ought to be taken for granted, approached as though it were routine and fixed. The Easter Season is our Christian way of reverencing this truth. The truth of these fifty days of Easter celebration is that resurrections are always taking place, never ceasing to raise life to new levels and possibilities. Believing such is the challenge of our lives!
Perhaps the best way to celebrate this season is to acknowledge that there is something continuous about rising to new life every day. It deserves our best effort. The challenge: To start over again and again and again, and to rekindle our spirits with the meaning that new life really expresses.
If ever there was a witness to this great truth, it's the generous hearts of the twenty-four young people (CIC: Christian Initiation of Children) and forty-eight adults (RCIA: Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) who this year asked for membership in the Christian Church here at St. Francis. Last weekend, at the Easter Vigil and at our Easter Sunday Masses, they joined thousands of others around the globe who have come to believe that they can best follow Jesus and become his disciples more deeply through belonging to our Church. We welcome them and, more importantly, thank them. It is they who help us start over again. They bring us new life, inspire us to be who we profess to be, open our hearts to the joy that is ours as Catholic Christians. They help us believe that, yes, nothing around us is routine and fixed.
The fact that in the fullness of time the Eternal Word took on the condition of a creature gives a unique cosmic value to the event which took place in Bethlehem two thousand years ago. Thanks to the Word, the world of creatures appears as a "cosmos," an ordered universe. And it is the same Word who, by taking flesh, renews the cosmic order of creation. ----Pope John Paul II
