Kathryn Lopez
He comes and he says to the women and to you and me: Chairete, that is, ‘Rejoice in my grace; be filled with God’s favour’. Hence, he comes and encounters them; the Risen Lord gives himself to them. For it is only through a real encounter with Christ that we can truly rejoice. Joy is a gift of the Holy Spirit, it comes from a grace-filled abiding in God that unites us to the Living One. All who are baptised and remain in a state of sanctifying grace have this intimate union with God which produces true joy, the joy that is expressed in the Risen Christ’s first word to us.
In the Mass, before we receive Holy Communion, we say: “Lord I am not worthy… but only say the word and my soul shall be healed”. And in this Eastertide, I suggest, that word is ‘chairete’. Thus the Risen Lord is present among us, and he gives himself to us in the Blessed Sacrament. Through a worthy and well-disposed reception of Holy Communion we encounter him, we are filled with grace that heals our fears, and so, we come to experience the profound joy of Easter.
However, this joy, this encounter, impels us out on a mission. For just as the Risen Christ tells the women to become evangelizers, that is, bearers of good news to the apostles, so we are told at the end of Mass to “go and announce the Gospel of the Lord”, to witness to the abiding joy that only comes from a graced union with Jesus Christ. So, chairete! – our world, often left with hollow happiness or manifold fears, is in much need of Easter joy!
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"He is not here for He has Risen": 6th-cent. mosaic from Ravenna of women at the Empty Tomb https://t.co/hk4CVQE4Fs
— Fr Lawrence Lew OP (@LawrenceOP) April 6, 2015
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Let us ask Our Lady's help to renew our joy and peace in the Risen Christ. Because it is true: #JesusChrist has risen, #Alleluia!
— Archbishop Gomez (@ArchbishopGomez) April 6, 2015
4. From St. Charles de Foucauld (On the Feasts of the Year, via Divine Intimacy):
Where are you going, O Mary Magdalen, in company with the holy women? Where are you headed in such a hurry? You are going to the tomb. You arrive there, and then: the earth trembles, the tomb is opened, an angel appears … Jesus is no longer there: he has risen as he had said … You are seeking as dead, One who is alive …
Here I am at your feet, O my Jesus…. I also see you risen! You have risen and will never die again … you are blessed for all eternity: never again will you see the shadow of suffering…. You are immovably settled in the highest happiness … Oh my God, I am too blessed because you are blessed…. Of course, I want to be blessed, to be together with you one day in heaven, but, my God what matters more than my blessedness is yours… the blessedness of heaven consists in loving you and in seeing you blest …
In your resurrection and in your infinite and eternal happiness, I have a source of inexhaustible happiness, a foundation of happiness that nothing can take away from me … For all eternity I possess the essential of what constitutes my happiness … a good that which is the substance of the angels’ and saints’ happiness, that which will make my life a heaven … on the one and only condition that I love you!
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"with our attitude, with our witness, with our life – we say ‘Jesus is Risen,’ with our soul.” @Pontifex http://t.co/jZ2avABLvY
— Sr Maria Kim Bui ن (@SrMariaKim) April 6, 2015
6. Fr. Barron: What does Easter mean?
7. From Saint Melito of Sardis:
The Lord, though he was God, became man. He suffered for the sake of those who suffer, he was bound for those in bonds, condemned for the guilty, buried for those who lie in the grave; but he rose from the dead, and cried aloud: Who will contend with me? Let him confront me. I have freed the condemned, brought the dead back to life, raised men from their graves. Who has anything to say against me? I, he said, am the Christ; I have destroyed death, triumphed over the enemy, trampled hell underfoot, bound the strong one, and taken men up to the heights of heaven: I am the Christ.
Come, then, all you nations of men, receive forgiveness for the sins that defile you. I am your forgiveness. I am the Passover that brings salvation. I am the lamb who was immolated for you. I am your ransom, your life, your resurrection, your light, I am your salvation and your king. I will bring you to the heights of heaven. With my own right hand I will raise you up, and I will show you the eternal Father.
8. Pope Francis today:
“We proclaim the resurrection of Christ when his light illuminates the dark moments of our existence, and we are able share it with others; when we know when to smile with those who smile, and weep with those who weep; when we accompany those who are sad and at risk of losing hope; when we recount our experience of Faith to those who are searching for meaning and happiness,” Pope Francis said. “And there – with our attitude, with our witness, with our life – we say ‘Jesus is Risen,’ with our soul.”
The Pope made mention of the “curious” truth that the Liturgy treats the entire Octave – eight days – of Easter as one day, to “help us enter into the mystery” of the feast.
“Let our lives be conquered and transformed by the Resurrection,” he said.
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#MotivationMonday @Pontifex pic.twitter.com/hqtQECfC6R
— World Meeting 2015 (@WMF2015) April 6, 2015
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"The paschal revelation gives us the right to sing "Alleluia" in a world overcast by the shadow of death". Benedict XVI
— FrSteveGrunow (@FrSteveGrunow) April 5, 2015
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