Often times, we celebrate Easter with great joy on Easter Sunday. We rejoice by singing Alleluias. We take delight in Easter eggs and good food. We savour the goodness of being greeted with ‘Happy Easters’ from family and friends. And in Mass, we worship with much gratitude for Jesus’ resurrection that reveals God’s love that saves us.
The challenge however is to make Easter life and joy part of our everyday life. Easter only makes sense when it becomes our way of living daily, especially in how we reconcile with and love each other in the same ways God did this for us with Jesus’ death and resurrection.
Our article for reflection and prayer this week develops the points above. It is Marina McCoy’s “Living Our Way into Easter Joy.” It invites us to consider how we can live as an Easter people by letting the spirit of the risen Jesus be our spirit too. Here are some paragraphs you might find especially meaningful:
In many Resurrection scenes, we find Jesus offering reconciliation.
Remarkably, Jesus is uninterested in talking about the past. Instead, he is focused on offering healing, peace, and love in the present, with an eye to the future. Jesus’ response to all of this confusion is not to dwell on the past or to go into the reasons why his friends betrayed him or what could have been done differently. Instead, Jesus offers peace, reconciliation, and mission.
…Jesus offers peace and reconciliation in an intimate and personal way and then asks the disciples to pass on the very gifts that they have been given: forgiveness, belief, and selfless love. He does it all slowly and in an easy and unhurried way, for example, walking with the disciples on the way to Emmaus before revealing himself, or eating breakfast on the beach before talking to Peter.
We can give ourselves time to see God in the Resurrection and give ourselves the same gifts of patience and simplicity that Jesus offers his friends. In this way, we live our way into Easter joy .
Having read McCoy’s article, here are three questions for you to ponder on for this week:
- Why is Jesus so focused on proclaiming and enacting peace and reconciliation? What does this tell you about God and how God works through Jesus for you?
- How have you experienced the Easter joy of peace and reconciliation as a person with SSA? Can you identify 1 or 2 moments in your life when you have had such experiences? Why did it matter to you?
- We read this line in the article “he offers peace and then asks them to pass on that peace in forgiving others’ sins.” How you think God is inviting you this Easter to pass on the peace and reconciliation you have experienced from God to others? Who is God inviting you to pass on this peace and reconciliation this Easter time to, and how do you want to pass it on?
You can read the article here: https://www.
Words of Encouragement for this week
“He is not here, for he has been raised just as he said.” – Matthew 28:6.
Easter joy calls us into the good company of the risen Jesus. Let us keep faithful company with him. For us and our community, let us also keep faith as we encourage each other to live chastity as best as we can with prayer and encouragement for one another.