EASTER SUNDAY April 9, 2023

The Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is the basis of our Christian faith. Easter Sunday highlights not only our faith in the Resurrection, but we are also called to joyfully proclaim and witness our faith in the Risen Lord among us. Proclamation and witness are the two central themes running through today's Scripture Readings. “You are witnesses to my resurrection,” we hear Jesus' challenge ring in our ears. For the true disciple of Jesus there is a close and indivisible relationship between experiencing and proclaiming which fills him/her with the joy of the Risen Master and Lord, and that he/she simply must share that joy with others. Not to share our Easter joy and what it means to us is to leave Easter only half celebrated. For the true Christian, in fact, every day is an Easter Day lived joyfully in the close company of the Risen Lord.

Today, we solemnly celebrate Easter and joyfully acclaim - “THE LORD IS RISEN INDEED – LET US REJOICE AND BE GLAD.” Jesus lives on! That is the message today. The empty tomb is the sign that points to the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus. The empty tomb that greets Mary Magdalene, and then the Apostles Peter and John, becomes the place where our faith in the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus is born, a faith that becomes the cornerstone and the object of the apostolic preaching. It is a faith that brings transformation and necessarily leads the Christian to realize that it is no longer possible to live as before: having risen with Christ, we must all live a qualitatively new life. And this is the Good News of today.

                                                  HAPPY EASTER!  Fr. Terry