Audio:
Good morning. Happy Easter!
My
wife Pam and I went out for a nice dinner and a pint of ale last evening with
our oldest daughter. It was a
celebratory dinner, as our daughter found out the day before that she had been
accepted into the grad school she most wanted to attend. It was also a celebration of resurrection of
sorts. For our family, more specifically
Pam, our daughter and I, have been through some pretty difficult times over the
past three years. Dark times. That seemed very bleak, and that we prayed
hard for God to bring us through. Good
Friday type times. Times when we could
do nothing else but to give it over to God and trust.
And
God listened, and in His own timing and His own way God has brought us through
those times and is bringing new life into a situation that had seemed very
bleak. This was, in a sense, an Easter
dinner celebration!
Now
I am going to guess that every one of us here has our own stories of suffering,
death and resurrection in our own lives, our own situations in which we have
been eyewitnesses, in a sense, of Christ’s resurrection. I’ll even go so far as to say that’s why
you’re here worshipping the Lord day in and day out – because you’ve had a
personal encounter with the Risen Lord, in your life. In a very real way, you and I are eyewitnesses
of the Resurrection, as were the Apostles to whom Jesus appeared and showed his
hands and feet, with whom He ate a piece of fish.
And
like Peter’s bold testimony in our reading from Acts, once we’ve had that
experience, we cannot help but proclaim it. Tell everyone we know about it. Tell the world what Our Lord has done for
us. Tell the world of Our Lord’s saving
power and great mercy. And that’s
especially true this week, as we bask in the joy of Easter for all eight days
of this Easter Octave.
In
just a few moments we will meet the Lord in the most wonderful way – in the
breaking of the bread. As we encounter
the Risen Lord as the two disciples did at dinner in Emmaus, may He open our
eyes that we may recognize Him, in His most Blessed Sacrament and in the world
around us, and may He give us the grace
and power and courage to go forth and proclaim, with our words, deeds, the joy
in our heart and the smiles on our face, that Christ has risen from the dead
and HE LIVES STILL! Alleluia! Alleluia!
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