The Resurrection and Easter Faith - Fr. Louis Bulletin Letter - April 16, 2006
“The Lord has risen indeed!” (Luke 24:34) A Happy and Blessed Easter to you and your loved ones! May the Crucified and Risen Lord abundantly bless all of you! Thank you to everyone who made our Holy Week celebrations so prayerful and beautiful – those who cleaned the church, members of the Sacred Worship Committee, decorators, sacristans, musicians, cantors, choir members, lectors, extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion, altar servers, ushers, and each of you through your participation! May the special graces of these liturgies bring continued spiritual renewal to our parish family. Thanks, too, for your thoughtful Easter cards and gifts. Your personal kindness and generosity to me is always deeply appreciated.
“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that He appeared to Peter, then to the Twelve” (1 Corinthians 15:3-5). These words of Saint Paul – written approximately in the year 56 AD – take up the most ancient expression of the core of the first Christian proclamation. With solemn language, Saint Paul notes that this is not something that he invented, but rather that he is faithfully handing on that which had been given to him. What is more, this is not just some ordinary information, but something of utmost importance: namely, that Jesus of Nazareth died and was raised from the dead. (1) Jesus really did die and that is why He was buried. His dying, though, was no ordinary death. The Scriptures – especially Isaiah 53 – bear witness to the fact that Jesus’ death was for our sins. (2) Furthermore, this crucified Jesus was raised from the dead, not merely as a resuscitated corpse that would experience death anew sometime in the future. Rather, the Risen Jesus has been personally brought from the state of death to that of a new and everlasting life. The Scriptures bear witness to the fact of Jesus’ resurrection on the third day, the day par excellence in which God intervenes to save His people (Hosea 6:1-3). Also, this third day is the day of the discovery of the empty tomb and that of the first appearances of the Risen Christ. Indeed, Jesus Risen manifested Himself only to those whom He had chosen to receive this revelation: here Saint Paul names, first of all, Saint Peter, and then the Apostles, along with many others (1 Corinthians 15:6-8). Manifesting Himself to these ones chosen according to the mystery of His Divine Will, the Lord entrusts to them the unique mission to bear witness to His Resurrection.
May we who have been given the gift of Easter Faith embrace more fully the hope that is ours at the saving Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ! In our very lives may we bear ever more clear witness to the Risen Lord!
Saint Peter, pray for us! Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us!