Christ Is Risen: A Weekly Reflection

By Fr. Mike Boutin

"Christ is risen! He is truly risen! Alleluia!"

Listen to "Jesus Christ Is Risen Today" thanks to YouTube!

For the last couple of weeks, New England has been flooded by torrential rainstorms.  Major highways have been closed, dams and bridges have failed, and entire towns have been turned into inaccessible islands, with people getting to their flooded homes by using boats and canoes. Finally, on the Tuesday of Holy Week, the rains subsided and we all could stop building the Ark...

Today, Good Friday, as I write this reflection, the sun is out, my office windows are open, and spring has sprung... New life indeed.  Grass is getting green, birds are chirping, and the crocuses and daffodils are in bloom...

Jesus Christ is risen today! Alleluia!  But without a Good Friday, there is no Easter Sunday.  No joy without suffering... no new life with death. The local flooding has enabled a gorgeous springtime, and in a few weeks, when our basements are dry and we have begun to put back together our homes and lives, we will be rejoicing in the new life of spring and summer that the rains enabled.

Christ's resurrection is our access to heaven. With the sin of Adam and Eve, the bridge between heaven and earth was washed away. In the wood of the Cross, that bridge is restored. Heaven and earth are united once again and the promise of heaven is for us who believe.

St. Augustine said: "God loves each of us as if there were only one of us." Or, to put it another way: even if I were the only person that God ever created, with all of my imperfections and sinfulness, God loves me so much that God would have sent His only Son to die and rise from the dead just so that God could be with me in heaven forever.

Easter is our Christian springtime.  The death of our Lenten winter gives way to the bright promise of our Easter springtime. Celebrate the new life Christ brings us.  Live that joy and look forward to the heavenly possibilities... and especially, share the Good News of Christ's resurrection with our world: "Christ is risen. He is truly risen. Alleluia!"

Now pray....

 

Father Mike Boutin is the co-pastor of the Church of the Blessed Sacrament, Walpole, MA, and travels widely, leading pilgrimages throughout the world to various Catholic religious sites. He is a frequent speaker on liturgy, music, spirituality, and pastoral ministry.