Dear Friends,
This message comes to all of you as we celebrate Easter. Easter of 2020 will be remembered by some perhaps as “the Easter that never was.” That, I would emphatically maintain, is false, This Easter unlike any other in our lives before or, I hope, hereafter, will closely resemble the first Easter almost twenty centuries ago. With that in mind, I share with you as my gift this Easter, the following reflection which I discovered on a Facebook page:
“The very first Easter was not in a crowded worship space with singing and praising. On the very first Easter, the disciples were locked in their house. It was dangerous for them to come out. They were afraid. They wanted to believe the good news they had heard from the women, that Jesus had risen. But it seemed too good to be true. They were living in a time of such despair and such fear. If they left their homes, their lives and the lives of their loved ones might be at risk. Could a miracle really have happened? Could life really have won out over death? Could this time of terror and fear be really coming to an end?
Alone in their homes, they dared to believe that hope was possible, that the long night was over and morning had broken, that God’s love was the most powerful of all, even though it didn’t seem quite real yet. Eventually, they were able to leave their homes, when the fear and danger had subsided. They went about celebrating and spreading the good news that Jesus was risen and love was the most powerful force on the earth.
This year, we might get to experience a taste of what that first Easter was like, still in our homes daring to believe that hope is on the horizon. Then, after a while, when it is safe for all people, when it is the most loving choice, we will come out, gathering together, singing and shouting the good news that God brings life even out of death, that love has the final say!T
his year we might get the closest taste we have had yet to what that first Easter was like!
THIS IS THE DAY THE LORD HAS MADE! LET US BE GLAD AND REJOICE!
From all of us here at Precious Blood Parish, a blessed, hopefilled Easter to you all!
Have a blessed week!