EASTER SUNDAY: Now it all makes sense.

So we had the Passion on Good Friday.   We spoke about overcoming evil and how the death of Jesus could make that possible in our lives.  On Holy Saturday we began to think that it was all well and good but what was the point in the end if nothing really changed and evil was still attacking us.

Today however we got the answer.   There was a reward, a new life, there was Heaven, and there was the love of Jesus, who, rising from the dead, assured us that we too would do the same.   As St Paul told us "If Christ be not risen then our Faith is in vain"   It was all good and well to overcome evil but what would be the point if in the end there was no reason or purpose to do so.  So Christ has risen, Alleluia.

I listened to the Pope on television this morning.  It was his Urbe et Orbe (To the City and to the World) talk he makes every Easter.    He spoke of all the different sufferings in the world and named all the parts of the world where this suffering was happening.   He came to a more personal level and spoke of the "Children who see no future".   Urbe et Orbe has always been about the Pope addressing the problems, not of Catholics only, but all peoples and all nations.   It was inspiring again to hear him talk of the dignity of every human being.   Yes, that is why we are Christians, we recognise the dignity of every human being whatever race or whatever colour from the moment of conception to their ultimate death.    But it is not just about recognition, it is very much about passing the love of Christ to others by seeing Jesus in them and loving them in all their beauty.   Every person he has created is a thing of beauty.   God made them to know him, love him, and serve him in this world and to be happy with him forever in the next.   How many would love to know this, yet Christians fail to tell them.    We do not want to mix perhaps with such a family.   Yes, we feel sorry for the children who are broken and unhappy but we must not let them into our lives, that would be too much.    Keep them at a distance.

If we are a Christian then every word of love, every word of encouragement comes not from us but from God.  It is through us that they will learn that there is a God who loves them.    We are not meant to build Churches and turn them into self serving institutions   We are to be evangelists like Paul and Timothy.  We are  to love like Jesus and Mary.  

Christ is risen, Alleluia.   Let us proclaim Him not with our words but our deeds.      

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