Christ is Risen - Easter 2022
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April 14, 2022
Dear Friends of St. Stephen Deacon and Martyr,
For us Catholics and Christians throughout the world, Easter is the pivotal celebration of our faith. Christ’s resurrection is the foundational truth upon which our identity as disciples of Jesus is built. As followers of Christ, we enter into the celebrations of Holy Week with most devotion and celebrate Easter with most solemnity. The profound truths of our faith, the beautiful rituals and symbols, all coinciding with the changes of the season of spring - it is new life that we are given! Christ is Risen!
Allow me to share a few thoughts on the Apostles as they experienced that very first Easter morning. We know that they had been deeply shaken by the experience of the passion and death of Christ. We know that as they received reports brought to them by the women about Jesus being alive, they still found themselves confused and worried. Even when Christ finally appeared to them on the evening of Easter, “they were still incredulous for joy” (Luke 24, 41). In other words, they were still disbelieving. From the accounts of the Gospels we can say, that the Apostles became ready to fully accept and understand what Christ had accomplished through His passion, death, and resurrection, only at the Pentecost, fifty days after the Easter morning! It was only then that they fully understood their own mission and were able to embark on the journey of spreading the Good News as given to them by the Risen Lord: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Mt 28, 19-20).
Perhaps we ourselves need more time, just as the Apostles did, a bit more space, to make fuller sense of what the Easter message holds for us, to understand a bit clearer the reality that is opening before us. But I know this for sure: as we enter into Easter and celebrate it throughout the season that concludes with Pentecost, we ourselves will be transformed and called by Christ through the very same Great Commission that the disciples received two thousand years ago: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Mt 28, 19-20). The Lord calls us and makes the promise of His faithfulness, but we must respond generously, we must go out as Easter people…
May you all have a truly blessed Easter!
In Christ,
Fr. Michael Wyrzykowski
Pastor
