“Why do you seek the living one among the dead?” (Lk. 24:5). That is the question the angel asks the women at the tomb on Easter morning. St. Bernard of Clairvaux (12th C.) paraphrased it this way: “Why do you seek the living WORD among dead words . . . ?” The Living One or the dead? The Living WORD or dead words, dead images, dead thoughts and feelings? Today we proclaim the perfect love of the Son of God emptying Himself for us and taking on all the weight of human sin and death so as to destroy it. Many will accompany their families and friends to Easter morning Masses and only smile nostalgically, recalling all the appealing sensations of Catholicism, or they might get lost in the bunnies and baskets. So much so, they can miss the radical, renewing power of the Easter proclamation itself “Christus resurrexit! Christus vincit! Christ has risen! Christ has conquered!” Where the first Adam and Eve brought us only ruin and corruption, Jesus Christ, the new Adam (from the new Eve), has restored us to life! All is new! All are given reason to rejoice! Brothers and sisters, Easter Sunday gives us a new chance, a new Hope, the WORD of God risen in the Flesh and offering us true and lasting Life. Aren’t we ready to quit all the old, dying words, the dying places and deeds in our lives? “He is not here but, He has been raised...” What was promised to us in our Baptism can finally be realized more profoundly this year. Death has absolutely no power over any of us because Jesus Christ has conquered the power of the evil one and gives us salvation through the Blood of the Cross! There is no fear or diagnosis or suffering or loss that can take us away from the promise Jesus Christ gives us today. The stone has been rolled away for you and for me and for all those who have gone before us! Don't let anything stop you from believing, knowing, embracing the reason why Jesus Christ has Risen and has Conquered...simply and profoundly because He loves YOU and wants you to share in His glory!
Alleluia! Fr. Bline
