MONDAY, APRIL 05, 2010
The world is silent.
Jesus rose from the dead.
And Spring seems to have risen to new life around us this
weekend as well -flowering trees and singing birds. Heaven seems close at hand.
And yet -as we look at the world around us -is it living as if
Heaven is as close as it is? We love the peace of Easter -and yet the Cross
that had to be endured completely in order to open the gates of Heaven to us
has quickly been forgotten.
Even if the Resurrection is present in our hearts -the world is
still crucified in a long Good Friday. For the true, everlasting Easter that
our hearts long for will only be lived fully in Heaven. The Easter we celebrate
this week should not turn our heads away from all the real suffering of people
around us -nor should it lead us to put our arms down against the devil who is
still roaming the earth looking for weakened prey. Instead, this great Feast of
Resurrected Love should be kept in our hearts as a Lantern of Hope in
the midst of the reality of this dark world's sin and pain that pushes in
around us. I wiped many tears on Easter -for so many people are struggling without seeing Him. And I wept more on Easter than on Good Friday over my brothers and sisters in the world who were in such pain or sin that they could not feel the light of the Resurrection kiss their hearts yesterday morning. The gift of Easter rejected is worse than the Great Calvary Pain that won the grace for us to believe. The Church is being Crucified -even in the midst of the Resurrection. Some even question, 'What is the point?'
But the Point is that we have a Redeemer -a Strong, Powerful,
All-Loving, All-Just, All-Merciful God as a Savior -and Easter gives us this
hope. Easter does not take away our pain -but makes it new even as we
are in the midst of it by giving us the Hope of His Love conquering
all in the end. The battle is still raging... and mothers cry for their
children, sisters cry for their brothers, the Church cries for the littlest ones,
as well as for the servant priests who undergo mockery, betrayal, scourging,
exhaustion every day of their priesthoods. But Easter gives us a smile
on the Cross, a twinkle behind the tears of our eyes, even a shout for joy -of
'Alleluia' in the midst of the confusion, pain and attack so
many endure in this world, on this Easter Monday.
Please remember the suffering ones today in your prayers of
Easter Joy. They need your hope in their struggle.
They need His Light coming from His wounds. For Jesus was
not woundless when He appeared in the Resurrection to His Disciples -He instead
had wounds transformed by Love. And that is what He wants to do for all of us
in this time of waiting. He does not take our wounds on Easter morning, but
instead enters them to transform them with His Hope, Light and Love.
We waited for Easter during 40 difficult days of Lent. And in
Easter we continue to wait with an increased longing for Heaven, which we only
had a tiny taste of on earth in the Easter Liturgy and celebration yesterday
(and all this week). And we continue to wait, in hope, for the great Pentecost
-the coming of the Holy Spirit -who will anoint our hearts -washed by tears in
Lent, transformed by Jesus' Light, Love and Life in Easter -with the FIRE of
His Truth, the Courage of His Conviction, the Power of His Tornado of Faithful
Love when He comes in 50 Days. And then, with the Holy Spirit, we will
begin to burn as a fire of longing as we wait with Jesus for Heaven -for He
is waiting for us to join Him there soon. Yes... soon.
Life ends in the blink of an eye -and then true LIFE begins for eternity -in
our only true Home of Heaven. Do we live this hope, this truth of Easter daily?
Do we long in love to dwell with Him -our Creator -forever? Do we live as if we
are the 'pilgrims' that we are in this world? Do we remember that He is
watching us, waiting!?
And that -the heavenly Easter -that final union with our God
waiting for us -is the point of our lives now.
How has Easter changed us? Just as we are called to lose
ourselves, our own sufferings by burying them in the wounds of Christ on the
Cross -we are also called to lose ourselves by incarnating the
Joy, Hope, Peace and forgiving Love that these wounds experience in the
transformation of the Resurrection. Are we living as
an 'Easter people of Hope' to those still crucified in the world?
So, as the Church's Heart carries the tears of Her children in
its bosom today, our joy is to look at the Cross and see Hope through the great
light of Faith -and to desire the Perfect Love that comes with the Holy
Spirit's presence, which we will taste as our 'food for the journey' on earth
and will consume totally in our banquet of Love finally in Heaven, our Rest.
"Behold, He is
coming amid the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced
Him... Yes. Amen.
'I am the Alpha and the
Omega,' says the Lord God, 'the one Who is and Who was and Who is to come, the
Almighty.'" (Revelation 1:7,8)
Alleluia!
Come, Lord Jesus!
We love
You,
and we
want to know and love You more.
Are we ready and waiting
for His coming?!
He is knocking... and He
will continue to knock louder on the doors of our hearts.
May we answer Him, always -the Voice He speaks to our hearts,
and the Voice He speaks to our lives through the voices of those in our family
and world who need our love most.
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