EASTER
Having completed our Lenten observance and after the liturgies of Holy Thursday and Good Friday we are now celebrating the Easter Vigil Easter Sunday and the Easter Season. Holy Saturday is the day when we experience watching and waiting at the tomb as we await the celebration of the Resurrection which we celebrate in the Easter Vigil and Easter Masses we remember that the season of Easter that lasts for 40 days until Pentecost. The Psalm for Easter Sunday says, “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Above all days, Easter Sunday is a day of joy . But what is joy? The answer St. Francis gave to this question is famous. St. Francis said to his Brother Leo, “When we come to St. Mary of the Angels [our house], soaked by the rain and frozen by the cold, all soiled with mud and suffering from hunger, and we ring at the gate of the place and the brother porter comes and says angrily: ‘Who are you?’ And we say: ‘We are two of your brothers.’ And … he does not open for us, but makes us stand outside in the snow and rain, cold and hungry, until night falls—then if we endure all those insults and cruel rebuffs patiently, … oh, Brother Leo, … perfect joy is there!”
Whatever we may think of St. Francis’s explanation of perfect joy, Easter reminds us that Francis’s kind of joy is not the end of the story. At Easter, we celebrate the other kind of joy, the kind each of us longs for, when every tear is wiped away, and there is no sorrow any more no more suffering from weather or hunger or hurtful human beings. As we sing in the much-loved hymn by Fr. John Foley, S. J., at Easter, “the cross and passion past, dark night is done, bright morning come at last!” When we ourselves rise to meet our risen Lord, in that bright morning we will hear him say, “Come away, beloved. The winter is past; the rain is gone, and the flowers return to the earth” (Song of Songs 2:10-12). In the loving union of that encounter, all the heart brokenness of our lives will be redeemed. That will be perfect joy. So in that same vein of perfect joy we say “this is the ‘day which the Lord has made.’ Alleluia! let us take fresh hope, with Christ our Passover everything is possible! Christ goes forward with us in our future!” Our celebration of Easter resonates throughout the rest of the year: full of gratitude for Christ’s passion, with joy in his resurrection and, strengthened by the Spirit, we continue our Christian journey. Let us go forward together as Easter people rejoicing in the Resurrection .
Fullerton T 