Easter Sunday
April 5, 2015 Column Father De Celles
Christus resurrexit! Resurrexit vere! Christos Anesti! Alithos Anesti! He is risen! He is risen indeed! Praised be Jesus Christ for this wondrous day. The Lord has risen from the dead, conquering sin and death, opening the gates of heaven and vanquishing the ancient enemy of man, the devil. Mankind is free from the chains of evil and given the promise of eternal life—if we will only use our freedom to choose to accept the grace of Christ and live according to the Truth He proclaims through His Holy Catholic Church.
Thanks to all who worked so hard to help make this an especially Blessed Lent, Holy Week, Triduum and Easter Sunday (I will return to this theme in more detail next week). On behalf of myself, Fr. Kenna, and Fr. Daly (and all the other priests who have helped us out during the Lenten season) may I wish you all a Blessed, Holy and Happy Easter and Easter Season! May the Risen Lord Jesus, Redeemer and Savior of the world, shower you with His grace and keep you close to Him in this Glorious Season!
[Note: Many people have asked me about the parishioner who collapsed at last week’s 7 am Mass. He was taken to the hospital by EMTs and was later released. He’s doing fine and thanks all who provided first aid and prayers.]
Oremus pro invicem. Fr. De Celles
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Pope Francis, Homily from the Easter Vigil, 2014
The Gospel of the resurrection of Jesus Christ begins with the journey of the women to the tomb at dawn on the day after the Sabbath. They go to the tomb to honor the body of the Lord, but they find it open and empty. A mighty angel says to them: Do not be afraid! (Mt 28:5) and orders them to go and tell the disciples: He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee (v. 7). The women quickly depart and on the way Jesus himself meets them and says: Do not fear; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me (v. 10).
After the death of the Master, the disciples had scattered; their faith had been utterly shaken, everything seemed over, all their certainties had crumbled and their hopes had died. But now that message of the women, incredible as it was, came to them like a ray of light in the darkness. The news spread: Jesus is risen as he said. And then there was his command to go to Galilee; the women had heard it twice, first from the angel and then from Jesus himself: Let them go to Galilee; there they will see me.
Galilee is the place where they were first called, where everything began! To return there, to return to the place where they were originally called. Jesus had walked along the shores of the lake as the fishermen were casting their nets. He had called them, and they left everything and followed him (cf. Mt 4:18-22).
To return to Galilee means to re-read everything on the basis of the cross and its victory. To re-read everything Jesus preaching, his miracles, the new community, the excitement and the defections, even the betrayal to re-read everything starting from the end, which is a new beginning, from this supreme act of love.
For each of us, too, there is a Galilee at the origin of our journey with Jesus. To go to Galilee means something beautiful, it means rediscovering our baptism as a living fountainhead, drawing new energy from the sources of our faith and our Christian experience. To return to Galilee means above all to return to that blazing light with which God’s grace touched me at the start of the journey. From that flame I can light a fire for today and every day, and bring heat and light to my brothers and sisters. That flame ignites a humble joy, a joy which sorrow and distress cannot dismay, a good, gentle joy.
In the life of every Christian, after baptism there is also a more existential Galilee: the experience of a personal encounter with Jesus Christ who called me to follow him and to share in his mission. In this sense, returning to Galilee means treasuring in my heart the living memory of that call, when Jesus passed my way, gazed at me with mercy and asked me to follow him. It means reviving the memory of that moment when his eyes met mine, the moment when he made me realize that he loved me.
Today, tonight, each of us can ask: What is my Galilee? Where is my Galilee? Do I remember it? Have I forgotten it? Have I gone off on roads and paths which made me forget it? Lord, help me: tell me what my Galilee is; for you know that I want to return there to encounter you and to let myself be embraced by your mercy.
The Gospel of Easter is very clear: we need to go back there, to see Jesus risen, and to become witnesses of his resurrection. This is not to go back in time; it is not a kind of nostalgia. It is returning to our first love, in order to receive the fire which Jesus has kindled in the world and to bring that fire to all people, to the very ends of the earth.
Galilee of the Gentiles (Mt 4:15; Is 8:23)! Horizon of the Risen Lord, horizon of the Church; intense desire of encounter Let us be on our way!