Easter 2008
Dear Parishioners and Friends,
It is with great joy that the parish community welcomes such a great number of people to the celebration of the Easter Eucharist. As a large parish, we are accustomed to large numbers of the faithful, but today we see with new eyes that the whole Church is gathered. Around the Lord’s Table this morning we see the Body of Christ in all its diversity of expression and in the oneness of our faith. In the worship Assembly we encounter Christ risen from the dead. We see him and we know him in the diversity of language and cultural expression, in the wonderful hues of the human family, and in the shared expression of Easter joy and hope.
Perhaps some of us approach the empty tomb with the mixed emotions recorded in the Scriptures, somewhat joyful and somewhat fearful. The empty tomb is in one sense unbelievable and in another all too believable! The tomb, however, is only the beginning of the story of Resurrection. What gave intense joy to the early believers was their encounter with the Lord, once dead, but now risen to life. Some met him in the garden, others in the Upper Room, and still others encountered him along the roadside.
This Easter Sunday gives us the occasion to reflect on how we, in our times, continue to encounter the Lord. From the earliest days, the Church gathered to proclaim and hear the Scriptures. They heard the story of this man Jesus. They intertwined their personal and common stories within his story. They began to believe in that conversation with God’s Word. Just as wonderfully, today we recognize and know him in the Breaking of the Bread. The presiding priest, along with the whole community, remembers how he took bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it to the disciples. He did the same thing with the cup being blessed, poured out, and given.
What we do today and on every Sunday of year allows the Lord to show himself to us in the broken and blessed Bread of the Eucharist. As we bless and pour out the cup, we are confirmed in the Lord’s new covenant. The blessing today is that as a people we have passed from death to life in Christ Jesus, he has shown himself to us, and we have come to know him and believe.
As our Easter joy flows from the Church today into our world, so may Christ’s Presence permeate our homes as we gather around our family tables. As we have affirmed with our “Amen” the Body and the Blood of Christ, may we be transformed into the very Body of Christ. Our blessing becomes a blessing for the peoples of the earth, as we are broken and poured out in Christ for the life of all.
In Christ's Peace,
(Fr.) C. Donald Howard, S.A.
Pastor
