This Week
Easter Sunday
Christ is Risen
Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ (John 11:25-26)
I wanted to quote this verse from the Gospel of John, because the Triduum we celebrate this week does not end on Good Friday, but leads to the resurrection and victory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus has this dialogue with Martha and Mary, when their brother is dead, Jesus says to them that if they believe they will never die and those who have died will live.
This is a promise that one day we will rise again. Our hope is not just a spiritual one but it involves matter as well. That is why this Triduum is full of signs. Full of things we can see, touch, and smell. Things we can experience, that can provoke in us a sense of hope that Jesus has come to have victory over death.
Not only physical death, but also our own every day deaths. What can those be, perhaps the sufferings and the crosses we cannot comprehend, perhaps the suffering of a love one, or a bereavement of some kind. Christ wants to go to these places in our life like the tomb of Lazarus and say to us, ‘Come out.’
Finally, when I was in Jerusalem I had the honour to do an all-night prayer vigil in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Jesus died, was buried and rose again. That experience of touch smell, and sight helped me because I left that place knowing the tomb was empty. I spent 23 hours in the Holy Sepulchre with two others just seeing the place the Lord lay and rose to life.
That filled me with Hope that Christ has come to transform our lowly bodies into a new creation, and our lives into a life giving spirit, that can allow us to love and serve others around us.
Have a Happy Easter
Fr Axcel
Readings at Mass Today
First Reading
Psalm
Second Reading
Gospel
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