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Archive for the tag “hope”

19 Apr 2025

HOLY SATURDAY AND EASTER SUNDAY

Having  completed our Lenten observance and after the liturgies of Holy Thursday and Good Friday we  are now getting ready to celebrate the Easter Vigil on the day of resurrection that is Easter Sunday. The Church and its people have  only one thing to do today: to pray through the emptiness of Holy Saturday. 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, easter Sunday and the season of Easter.Holy Saturday is about emptiness, the cross is empty and Jesus lies in the tomb everything around us is still.  It’s not hard for us to share Mary’s sense of emptiness and bewilderment when she arrives at the tomb.

If we were to read the next few verses from John’s Gospel, we would read a story of overwhelming joy as Mary Magdalen meets the risen Jesus. When Jesus speaks her name, Mary recognises him and sadness and emptiness give way to joyful reunion. It’s a story of transformation   how things can change when we meet the risen Jesus. 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 hope filled joy. At Easter and throughout the Easter season we celebrate the kind of hopeful joy each of us longs for, when every tear is wiped away, and there is no sorrow and no more suffering. 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  brokenness  of our lives will be redeemed. That will be the perfect  joy we hope for.  Let us take fresh hope,  with Christ our Passover everything is possible!  Jesus Christ lives! He has Risen as he said he would and his light lights up our world.  During the Easter Vigil we light the Easter fire and from that fire we have light the Paschal Candle.  Our Gospel story for the vigil tells us that we should not look for Jesus among the dead for he has risen and the light of Christ lights up the darkness of our lives and our world.  The resurrection of Jesus is a proclamation that this outcast from Galilee is the beloved Son of God who cannot be held in the darkness of death because he was raised by God his father.

All of us believe that God’s work continues not least because we believe Jesus’ words: “I am the resurrection and the life.” Our celebration of the Easter Season begins with our celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday with the Vigil on Holy Saturday evening during which we welcome and baptize Adult converts to the faith   Then  on Easter morning  we celebrate our Easter masses as we renew our baptismal promises and don’t forget that the feast of Easter continues until Pentecost.  So full of gratitude for Christ’s passion, with joy in his resurrection and, strengthened by the Spirit, we continue our Christian journey of joyful hope this Easter time.

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29 Nov 2024

1St Sunday of Advent

This weekend we begin our advent journey for 2024, everything goes from hopeful green of ordinary time to the penitential purple of Advent. Last Sunday we celebrated the end of the Church’s year with the Feast of Christ the King. Now one week later we start all over again as we bless the advent wreath and light the first purple candle. Advent is the season that brings us back to the ancient longing of the human race for the coming of one who would bring to this world liberation from sadness and the fulfillment of perfect peace. As we know in our world there is so much sadness and very little peace as a result of this we continue our prayers for peace in the world.

In the first reading this Sunday Jeremiah looks forward to the coming of one who will save God’s people, one who acts with honesty and integrity Jesus was the one he was talking about . In the second reading St Paul encourages the people of Thessalonica in their following of Christ. He prays that their love will grow and that their hearts will be ‘confirmed in holiness’  so that they would be blameless in the sight of God. In the gospel reading   Jesus is clearly fretful about the future as he paints a bleak picture of the end of the world. There is talk of nations in agony, of bewilderment, of people dying of fear, of the power which menaces the world.   It is a nightmare view of total disaster that “will come down on every living man on the face of the earth”.  Given that vision of ultimate collapse, it is hardly surprising that it might drive people to drink! Being sober and awake might not seem very attractive in the face of such catastrophe.  Yet that is Jesus advice to us: “Stay awake, and be ready praying at all times for the strength to survive all that is going to happen” so that we will have  confidence before the Son of Man.   

This Gospel is for our time as much as any other when we have so many countries at war as well as all the crazy things that are going on in world politics. The Gospel also encourages us to do two things which are difficult to hold together: to be honest with ourselves about the way things are going, and at the same time not to lose hope in the future. The danger is that we see the terror clearly, and don’t see the reason for the hope that is within us at all. Given the muddle we’re often in, Jesus has to convince us as he tells us about the future that is really liberating. The way he does that best is through the example of his own life. Advent reminds us that we don’t walk alone into the future whatever it holds for us. We look to the past to reassure ourselves here and now as we go forward. When we look we see how far-reaching God’s love is for all of us no matter who we are.  The Advent readings are a rich tapestry of images cantered on the truth that God has come among us and will come again. Our Advent invitation is to prepare the way for  the lord so we can welcome him as Emmanuel – God with us at Christmas.

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