Fr. Adolph Guy sx
Happy Easter to all of us. This wish may sound awkward to some of us; especially those who associate Easter with the end of Lent and the celebration that takes place on the first Sunday of Easter. Thus, Easter is supposed to be an event that happened several weeks ago. To illustrate, a few days after the first Easter Sunday, I heard a wish or a greeting that sounded like ‘belated happy Easter’.
We are still celebrating Easter, or rather, we are within Easter season and today is the fifth Sunday. As a reminder, Easter points us to the break event: The Resurrection of the Lord Jesus. From Easter vigil up to now, the Church has offered us various readings for our prayer and meditation, to nurture and strengthen our faith in the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Some excerpts from the holy gospel describe to us the empty tomb and others give evidence of various apparitions of the risen Jesus Christ to his apostles, including to Mary Magdalene.
For the nascent Christian community, Easter was an everyday life experience insofar as each member of the community, on the one hand, and the community as whole, on the other hand, continue to live the life and to perform the work of the Lord Jesus even when he was not, shall we say, “physically” present among them. Put otherwise, they committed themselves to making the Lord Jesus Christ alive and present in this world through the testimony of their life. This enterprise ushered into the community a “type of relationship” in which love and reciprocity, forgiveness and compassion were all hallmark of human interaction.[1]
To begin with, it is in this context that the Lord Jesus in this Sunday’s gospel (John 14: 15-21) admonishes his disciples as on how they should live within the Christian community and in this world in order to carry out his work after his departure, if the disciples want to be with him in heaven. They have to follow the examples he has set to them (13:15) because he is the way, the truth and the life. Christians have to be in him as he is in the father. Remember John 1:1 says: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
In addition, for the community for which Easter remains the way of life, each of the members is valued, each person’s contribution to the community is highly welcomed and appreciated, and offices are granted to everybody qualified to it regardless of background. In this Sunday’s first reading (Acts 8:5-8, 14-17), the apostles wisely manage, under the impulse of the Holy Spirit, the friction between Aramaic-speaking Christians and those of Hellenist background. The solution to this problem brought out a new ministry in the Christian community, namely the diaconate or table service, which was entrusted to the seven brethren who were all Hellenists, as their name indicates.
As the early Christian community did in the past, the Church continues to do the same today, as the diocese of Makeni prepares for the episcopal ordination of its new shepherd. Offices and ministries are entrusted to anybody qualified to it. The same idea has to be kept in mind in this year of general election in our country. In the second reading (1 Peter 2: 4-9), saint Peter admonishes each of us, saying “… like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” In virtue of our baptism, we are all priests, prophets and kings. Thus, the Church does not divide her sons and daughters along political lines, ethnic group, and tribal affiliation. On the contrary, the Church unites people, and welcomes and values everyone.
Let us strive to follow the Lord Jesus every day of our life as our forefathers in faith did, so that Easter becomes our way of life. We can then sing all together with the psalmist (Psalm 33) in a single chorus: “May your merciful love be upon us, as we hope in you, O Lord.”
[1] This understanding of Easter comes from the The Future of Faith (2009) of Harvey Cox specifically in the third chapter titled: Ships Already Launched, The Voyage from Mystery to Faith.
Happy Easter to all of us. This wish may sound awkward to some of us; especially those who associate Easter with the end of Lent and the celebration that takes place on the first Sunday of Easter. Thus, Easter is supposed to be an event that happened several weeks ago. To illustrate, a few days after the first Easter Sunday, I heard a wish or a greeting that sounded like ‘belated happy Easter’.
We are still celebrating Easter, or rather, we are within Easter season and today is the fifth Sunday. As a reminder, Easter points us to the break event: The Resurrection of the Lord Jesus. From Easter vigil up to now, the Church has offered us various readings for our prayer and meditation, to nurture and strengthen our faith in the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Some excerpts from the holy gospel describe to us the empty tomb and others give evidence of various apparitions of the risen Jesus Christ to his apostles, including to Mary Magdalene.
For the nascent Christian community, Easter was an everyday life experience insofar as each member of the community, on the one hand, and the community as whole, on the other hand, continue to live the life and to perform the work of the Lord Jesus even when he was not, shall we say, “physically” present among them. Put otherwise, they committed themselves to making the Lord Jesus Christ alive and present in this world through the testimony of their life. This enterprise ushered into the community a “type of relationship” in which love and reciprocity, forgiveness and compassion were all hallmark of human interaction.[1]
To begin with, it is in this context that the Lord Jesus in this Sunday’s gospel (John 14: 15-21) admonishes his disciples as on how they should live within the Christian community and in this world in order to carry out his work after his departure, if the disciples want to be with him in heaven. They have to follow the examples he has set to them (13:15) because he is the way, the truth and the life. Christians have to be in him as he is in the father. Remember John 1:1 says: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
In addition, for the community for which Easter remains the way of life, each of the members is valued, each person’s contribution to the community is highly welcomed and appreciated, and offices are granted to everybody qualified to it regardless of background. In this Sunday’s first reading (Acts 8:5-8, 14-17), the apostles wisely manage, under the impulse of the Holy Spirit, the friction between Aramaic-speaking Christians and those of Hellenist background. The solution to this problem brought out a new ministry in the Christian community, namely the diaconate or table service, which was entrusted to the seven brethren who were all Hellenists, as their name indicates.
As the early Christian community did in the past, the Church continues to do the same today, as the diocese of Makeni prepares for the episcopal ordination of its new shepherd. Offices and ministries are entrusted to anybody qualified to it. The same idea has to be kept in mind in this year of general election in our country. In the second reading (1 Peter 2: 4-9), saint Peter admonishes each of us, saying “… like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” In virtue of our baptism, we are all priests, prophets and kings. Thus, the Church does not divide her sons and daughters along political lines, ethnic group, and tribal affiliation. On the contrary, the Church unites people, and welcomes and values everyone.
Let us strive to follow the Lord Jesus every day of our life as our forefathers in faith did, so that Easter becomes our way of life. We can then sing all together with the psalmist (Psalm 33) in a single chorus: “May your merciful love be upon us, as we hope in you, O Lord.”
[1] This understanding of Easter comes from the The Future of Faith (2009) of Harvey Cox specifically in the third chapter titled: Ships Already Launched, The Voyage from Mystery to Faith.