Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
What a glorious day! A bare sanctuary is filled with the fragrance and beauty of flowers. The church smells clean and fresh. The sound of water trickling over the baptistery is back. The “Alleluia” resounds once again throughout our churches. The year has come full circle. We celebrate the most important thing we believe as Christian people: Jesus has risen from the dead!
It took the disciples of Jesus some time to fully realize what “to rise from the dead” meant. We can only imagine their confusion when the body of Jesus was missing. At first, they may have imagined that it had been stolen. That would have been even another insult and indignity to their Master. Just when their hearts had sunk to the lowest point, they were faced with another possibility. Could he have risen?
So, on this Easter, we light a new fire, we bless water and are sprinkled with it, we renew our baptismal promises. We welcome new members and are strengthened by their faith. And we glory in all that has happened.
It takes a lifetime for us to realize what happened that day almost 2,000 years ago and what happens over and over again – and will do so until the Lord Jesus returns.
When we celebrate Easter, we hold holy the memory of God’s great act in raising Jesus from the dead. We believe that God’s graciousness will be extended to ourselves and that our own death will not be the final word. Our faith educates our hope that we will participate fully in Jesus’ Resurrection on the last day. But a question emerges: Is our faith limited to remembering Jesus’ Resurrection and hoping for our own on the last day? What happens between these two moments in time? What about today?
When we look at our world today, we have to close our eyes and ears not to see and hear how suffering, violence and war continue to disfigure so many people. There are people here today who can feel the wounds and suffering they have had to endure in their own lives. What does the Resurrection of Jesus say to all this?
The challenge of Easter today is to understand the history of human suffering in the light of Jesus’ Resurrection. This means that we have to take God’s part, as it were, in protesting against the violence and the suffering that are accepted so readily as inevitable. As Christians, we have to make our protest against death in the midst of life and to bring peace to the world.
Each one of us in many ways can participate in our risen Lord’s mission. For example, we are invited to be a voice for the voiceless, to support and care for the needy in all walks of life of our society. We are challenged to transmit Christian values to our children by our words and our good example. Especially – and this is something we all can do – we can pray that all people, without exception, will receive the great Easter gift of our risen Lord – God’s Holy Spirit – the Spirit who alone can transform our lives and the lives of others.
As the beloved disciples of our Savior who see in the dark what no one else sees, we too believe firmly that the Spirit of our risen Lord can bring us and this world to a newness of life.
Happy Easter!
Most Rev. Michael Pham
Bishop of San Diego