Alleluia! With joy and gratitude, we praise God who raised Jesus from the dead to new life in the eternal Kingdom. Truly, this is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad, for in his sacrifice on the cross He conquered sin and death and in his resurrection He has opened the door to our salvation. Gathered together today to celebrate the Eucharistic banquet, let us join with all the saints and angels and family and friends to praise and thank our God.
The two most important feasts of the church, Christmas and Easter, have very few or no eyewitnesses. As far as we know, only Mary and Joseph were present at Christ’s birth. But that’s two more than on Easter morning. No one saw Christ rise from the dead. No one could provide eyewitness testimony of what happened. Thus, different people drew different conclusions upon seeing the empty tomb. Mary Magdalene assumed someone had taken Jesus’ body. Simon Peter noticed that the headcloth was rolled up neatly and separately, implying that it wasn’t grave robbers, but just seemed confused. Only the beloved disciple saw and believed. Only John immediately saw with the eyes of faith. Now we are called to see with eyes of faith. We are challenged to understand the scripture, to receive the church’s teaching, and to hear the eyewitness testimony of Jesus’ appearances after His resurrection so that, like the beloved disciple, we too may make the leap of faith and see beyond the empty tomb.
On behalf of Fr. Gene, Patti, Carl, Mary Jo, Steve, Keith, Linda, Theresa, and myself, may you be blessed with the Risen Christ’s gifts of love, peace, and joy.
-Fr. Bob
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