Hopefully, this is the most upbeat weekend of the year. The Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ offers all of us the basis for living with confidence and hope.
Living in this world parallels the arrival and passing away of the seasons of the year. Spring is a time of hope and anticipation. We look forward to the blossoming of plants and flowers. Hopefully, we will experience abundance in the growth of crops that serve as food. Many of us look forward to enjoy eating fresh vegetables and fruit as these are in season. What can get any of us down is the passing nature of the beauty of Spring. Trees and plants bloom and flourish, but then their blossoms and petals fall to the ground. The seasons that yield our favorite fresh fruits and vegetables seem all too short.
Our lives in this world parallel the passing of the seasons. As we grow up, we look forward to that which is attractive: for example, excelling in some sport, achieving academic excellence, advancing in some career or profession. We are eager to embrace the life style to which the Lord is calling us, whether it be that of marriage, the single life, priesthood or the consecrated life. In each of these life styles, we experience that which is passing. Reflecting upon the passing nature of all things, including our own lives, can be sad and depressing. We yearn for that which lasts. We long for that which no one or nothing can ever take from us.
The experience of our Lord’s Rising from the dead offers us that for which we yearn. A message that comes through loud and clear for us in our Lord’s Resurrection is the assurance that in an ever passing world, God is never through with any of us. The Lord has great plans for each of us, a future that far exceeds anything we might imagine or envision.
Let’s look at how we might plug into all that the Lord would give to us and do in and through us. This happens as we strive to be content with what we need in order to live as the Lord’s People in this world. Hopefully, the disciplines of fasting and penance free us from being enslaved to the ugly notion that if we are to be happy, we have to have more and more of that which our society regards as important.
As we allow the Lord to free us from the bondage of wanting more and more of that which is passing, we are set free to live our lives in an on-going conversation with the Lord. At times, living in daily communion with the Lord comes to expression in words. The Lord’s Prayer illustrates this in a most excellent manner. Words offer direction to the way we live. As a result of making time and room in our lives every day for conversing with the Lord, we will grow in the ability to recognize and to graciously receive the affirmations that the Lord offers to us each day. At the same time, we will grow in the ability to affirm others each day as the Lord wants us to do this.
This is one way of describing what it means to make the Lord’s Easter Victory our own. Living in this way offers a sense of that which is fresh and vibrant in a world in which all is passing. When we leave this world some day, we will be able to receive the gift of eternal Spring which our Lord’s Resurrection has gained for each of us. In the meantime, may we continue to be open to all that the Lord would give to us and do in and through us each day of our lives in this passing world.
Warmly yours in Christ,
Fr. Nelson Beaver – Pastor