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 Dear
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! I just wanted to start out
with that because now I can. I have missed the “Alleluia”. It’s
good to get it back today. Happy Easter to all of you! And thank
you for joining us for our celebration of this the greatest Feast of
the Christian year! Easter is very early this year. This is the
earliest Easter that any of us will ever see in our lifetime, and
only those over the age of 95 have ever seen one this early! Easter
can, in fact, actually fall one day earlier, March 22nd,
but that hasn’t happened since 1818 and won’t happen again until
2285. I guess none of us will have to worry about that one. The
latest that Easter can occur is April 25th,
which happened in 1943, and will happen again in 2038. Even early,
this is a day to celebrate and rejoice for all of us as Catholic
Christians. The tomb was empty. Despite a huge stone which lay in
front of the entrance, and armed Roman soldiers keeping guard, God
raised His Son from the dead! That’s good news for all of us, as we
place our hope in Jesus’ promises.
And yet, the new life that Jesus brings us and invites us to,
is NOT just for after we die our own deaths. The New Life in Christ
is the way that we are supposed to be living right now, right here.
And it is a way of life. It’s not just what we do on Sunday
mornings. It’s not just what we do when we’re feeling a little
‘holy”. And it is certainly not just something that we do on
Christmas and Easter. It’s supposed to be the way that we live
every day in every way. How’s your Christian life? Are you living
for Jesus? Or are you living for yourself?
You know today, we re-up our Baptismal promises. Catholic
Christians are doing it today all over the world. After the homily,
in place of the Creed, we re-commit our lives to Jesus and His
Church. As a Church, we’ve been preparing to renew our commitment
during all of Lent. And yet, are we really ready to live lives
differently from the rest of the world? Are we really willing to
live not according to the values of a dying world, but instead
according to the values of everlasting Kingdom? This Feast changes
us. We can’t be the same after Easter. We belong to Christ. We
don’t belong to ourselves. We don’t belong to our friends. We
don’t belong to the media. We belong to Christ. There are lots of
ramifications to that simple, little line. If we can’t accept those
ramifications, maybe we shouldn’t be here today. Certainly, we
shouldn’t just be “going through the motions” of renewing our
Baptismal promises, when we have no intention of keeping those
promises this year in our life.
My fear is that too many of us think of this as a game to
hedge our bets. Too often we’re not willing to change. We don’t
want to put Jesus first in our lives. We are unwilling to live
Catholic Christian lives. But just in case we die without going to
Confession, it’s good to show up for Mass a couple of times a year.
Guys, this is NOT a game. This is our relationship with God and
eternal life. Calling ourselves Catholic or Christian and going
through the motions of Faith once in awhile, is a sure fire way to
get yourself in big trouble with God, Who went through some pretty
radical moves of His own, to save YOU! Remember that Scripture
passage about being lukewarm? Revelations 3:15-16
“I know your works; I know that you are neither cold nor hot. I
wish you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm,
neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!”
I don’t want to be spit out of God’s mouth. You don’t want to be
spit out of God’s mouth either, do you?
Today, then, Jesus wins a new start for all of us, a new
life! We can accept this incredible gift that He offers us, or we
can ignore the offer. The choice is always ours. It’s just that
the day is coming for all of us, when we will have made our choices,
and we’ll want to say that we didn’t know, but we’re not going to
able to say that, because now you do know. This is not a game.
There is no re-start button. We get one life. Let’s live it for
Christ, Who gave His life for us, so that we can be with Him forever
in His Kingdom!
Today is not about eggs, chocolate bunnies, and marshmellow chicks.
It’s about the New Life they symbolize. Let’s remember that today
and every day!
We are celebrating Easter all week in the Octave of Easter and
then for the next seven weeks in the Season of Easter. Next weekend
is Divine Mercy Sunday. There will be Adoration in the main
sanctuary next Sunday afternoon with the Divine Mercy Chaplet being
prayed at 3:00 PM. Have a Blessed and Holy Easter!
In Christ,
Fr. Kevin
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