Richard A. Sokerka
As we begin the Sacred Triduum today on Holy Thursday, our eyes can now become fixed on knowing that after the Passion and death of Jesus comes Easter, the greatest feast on the Church calendar, when Jesus is raised from the dead.
The Resurrection of Jesus carries the promise that death cannot separate us from God. Christ lives and so will we. The Resurrection of Jesus was his pledge to us that there is no barrier that can separate us from each other as Our Lord and Savior has conquered death.
This Easter, more than ever, we are all in need personally, and as a nation, for the Resurrection. Recall last Easter, as the pandemic began its heavy toll on all our lives, that our churches were closed. Never before had we not been able to personally take part in the glorious celebration of the liturgy on Easter as the pandemic’s lockdown kept us behind our own closed doors for fear of being a victim of COVID-19.
Recall that the disciples of Jesus were terrified after his crucifixion — so much so, that they also hid behind closed doors in fear that their lives were in jeopardy because they followed Christ.
Nevertheless, on that first Easter, from Mary Magdalene to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, to the disciples locked behind the doors of the upper room, Jesus showed himself to them.
The disciples believed in his Resurrection because they saw Jesus alive after they had witnessed his brutal death by crucifixion. They had the powerful testimony of firsthand evidence of seeing Jesus before their very eyes in the flesh bearing his wounds.
The power of Christ’s Resurrection in turn empowered them to proclaim the good news to all that Jesus had risen. Their message brought hope to a hopeless society and it resonates to this day.
This Easter will be different from last year. Our churches will have their doors wide open for us to celebrate the great feast of Easter.
Let us embrace once again the importance of Christ’s Resurrection in our lives and may it empower us, like his disciples, to bring this message into every town in our divided nation, which is in such dire need of the Resurrection, so that all may come to believe and healing can truly begin in our nation.