This past Sunday, the Church celebrated Easter! The Church is now in the season of Easter, and we are allowed to say the "A" word again! For the past forty days, we entered into the desert with Jesus. We have died with him on Good Friday, and rose with him on Easter Sunday.
How was your Lent? Was it fruitful? Did you take any of the suggestions that we put out on Ash Wednesday? How did you grow with the Lord? What are some of the things that you did during Lent that you would like to carry over into regular life? Maybe you set up a new prayer routine, or started volunteering in a new way. Lent is supposed to help us to become better Christians so that we can rise with Christ.
Easter is the reason why we as Christians strive to live the way that we do. Check out the Resurrection accounts in each of the Gospels. Take some time and pray with these beautiful readings from scripture:
Personally, my favorite account is from Luke. It's commonly referred to as "The Road to Emmaus," where two Disciples encounter the Risen Christ along the way.
In this Gospel passage we hear about the two apostles who
are walking away from Jerusalem to a place called Emmaus, about seven miles
away. Mind you, this is right after the crucifixion. They don't know that Jesus has risen. The
disciples are distraught, full of doubt and anger, and still Jesus comes into
their midst. And the part of this Gospel that gets to me is that those two
disciples have no idea that Jesus is the one who is walking with them. There
have been so many times in my life where I have been distraught and did not
feel Jesus with me. The Disciples go on this whole journey with a stranger who
is bringing them comfort and friendship. It
is only when he breaks bread that their eyes are opened, and they realize that
it is Christ who has been with them all along.
And what do they do when they realize they have encountered the risen Christ? They run back to Jerusalem to tell the others.
"So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem where they found gathered together the eleven and those with them who were saying, “The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!” Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread."
The two Disciples were so filled with Joy when they returned to Jerusalem! That is how we as Christians today should be. We should be filled with Joy because we are the Easter people, as John Paul tells us. We have encountered the risen Christ and we are called to go back to Jerusalem, to spread this message of love with our lives.
with love and gratitude,
Mary
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