WHAT DOES EASTER MEAN TO ME?
I just can’t delete this very inspiring message in my inbox without sharing it all to you. A big thanks to Fr. Rudy Horst, SVD who wrote this for Kyregma. I only want to spread this very inspiring words. Keep reading and hope everyone had a wonderful celebration of the Easter Season. God bless everyone!
“We continue to celebrate Easter for six weeks until Pentecost Sunday, for Easter is the celebration of the foundation of our faith. “If Christ has not been raised, then empty is… your faith,” as St. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:14. Unfortunately, in our modern times, many try to explain away the resurrection of Christ. This is nothing new. Already on the first Easter, as today’s Gospel tells us, the Jewish authorities in Jerusalem tried to cover this up. But St. Peter, whose first sermon at Pentecost we read today, declared it loud and clear, “God has raised this Jesus; of this we are all witnesses.” He proclaimed this without fear before the same people who, six weeks ago, had brought Jesus to the Cross and saw Him dying in agony.
What does this mean for us in 2013? The witnesses of Christ’s resurrection realized that their Rabbi was not just one of the many teachers or miracle workers in Israel. They realized that their teacher was divine — the Son of God. They realized that His teachings were more than another teaching of a rabbi, but the Word of God. That means one cannot just hear and forget it, or do away with it. As the Word of God, the teachings of Jesus have divine authority.
And here we discover the importance of Easter for us today. We hear Jesus’ teachings at every Mass. Do we listen to them as the Word of God spoken to us today? Do we try to put into practice what the Risen Lord tells us through the Gospel reading?
We are tempted to select, to remember what we like, and forget what seems difficult to do. It is nice to hear Jesus telling us to come to Him with our burden, for He will comfort us. But we shy away from His demands to take up our cross daily or to forgive our enemies.
May the celebration of Easter and our spiritual encounter with the Risen Lord in the Eucharist lead us to appreciate more His teachings as God’s Word and help us to practice them, even the difficult ones. Fr. Rudy Horst, SVD
REFLECTION QUESTION: Which of Christ’s teachings do you have difficulty putting into practice?
Risen Lord, I thank You for the joy of celebrating once more Your resurrection. Help me to listen more attentively to Your teachings and give me the strength to put them into practice.”
