Alleluia! Alleluia! Christ is Risen!
Dear Brothers and Sisters, last night we celebrated the Resurrection of the Lord. Today and throughout this holy season of Easter we will be hearing, as today, many joyful scriptural texts and praying many beautiful prayers and hymns honoring that glorious event.
Easter! What is it all about? God’s love and a forgiven humanity! Ask any hardened sinner whose sins have been forgiven! As me! The words pronounced by the priest in the Sacrament of Reconciliation explain this simply and profoundly: :God, the Father of Mercies, through the death and resurrection of his Son, has reconciled the world to himself, and sent the Holy Spirit into our midst, for the forgiveness of sins.” — THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS!
The glorious Resurrection of Jesus, the affirmation, the confirmation of Jesus by the Father is not only because Jesus was God, but that as God-and-man he became the SAVIOR and REDEEMER of the world! By being slain he ransomed us for the Father. Through his suffering and death as man, as divine scapegoat, his obedience to the Father reconciled the fallen human race to the Father and opened its sons and daughters to the Spirit, to a new life. Now, through baptism, the “door to eternal life,” as sons and daughters of God, we begin to share in the relationship between the Father and the Son, and a real participation in the Holy Spirit. The Body and Precious Blood of our Savior we can now offer and receive every day in the Eucharist.
Easter Joy and the Forgiveness of Sin is the fruit of the very painful death, at his Father’s bidding, of the Son of God. The Lamb of God and the Divine Scapegoat are one and the same: Savior and Redeemer!
Let us be ever grateful to the Risen Lord and faithful to our Baptismal promises – that on the Last Day we may be united with all the redeemed sons and daughters of God, destined from the foundation of the world for eternal happiness with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Alleluia! Alleluia!!
Fr Alan
(Acts 10:3-34a, 37-43, Col 3_1-4, John 20:1-9 )