My Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
We are journeying with great joy this Easter season doing God’s will, proclaiming the Good News by the wondrous deeds of charity, hope and love in the name of the Lord. Family, friends, and all the people are the witnesses to Jesus the Eucharist. As St. Peter requests of the first disciples, you, too, are learning to sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts.
Easter is the victory of love over hatred. Jesus took upon himself the sin of the world and freed us all – all creation – from the dominion of evil. Our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, asks in his Easter message, how was Jesus able to be victorious? Where did He receive His strength? How could He have offered this gift of salvation to us that we might be transfigured as His own? Pope Leo XIV said, “This strength, this power, is God himself for He is Love who creates and generates, Love who is faithful to the end and Love who forgives and redeems.”
WOW. This is the Divine Love that we receive as we partake in the Eucharist. This is the Divine Love by which we are created and by which we are called to live. This Divine Love is truly the finest wheat, the richest nourishment for our soul. How beautiful is this Gift. He opens the heavens in front of our very eyes.
As we receive this inimitable Gift, we begin the journey to walk with Jesus all our days. Jesus shows us as He stumbled and fell carrying the Cross, that all will not be perfect for us because we will continue to stumble and fall. Yet, even as we reject and move away from Jesus, He remains with us. Rather than becoming bitter or indifferent to us because of our rejection, He helps each one of us to get up. He breathes upon each one His Divine Love and calls us to come follow Him, time and time again. He asks each one of us to become a part of His salvation story, to offer forgiveness, to allow our heart to be transfigured by this immense Love. Jesus asks each one of us to be a bridge of peace.
Pope Leo XIV remarks, “We are growing accustomed to violence, resigning ourselves to it, and becoming indifferent. Indifferent to the deaths of thousands of people. Indifferent to the repercussions of hatred and division that conflicts sow. Indifferent to the economic and social consequences they produce, which we all feel.”
St. Peter tells us that as we are filled with hope, people will ask why we are joyous, even amidst all the difficulties of the world in which we live. He reminds us to “always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence” (1 Peter 3:15,16). Be ready to proclaim the Good News. Be ready to embrace your faith that you might speak mightily about your love for God. Let your deeds speak for your lips. Let your care for all the people lead others to know, love and serve God.
During the month of May, we honor our Blessed Mother, she whose fiat gave a human face to the source of all mercy and benevolence: the face of Jesus. Through His eyes – first as a child, then as a young man and as an adult – the Father’s love reaches us and transfigures us. We pray the prayers of the devotional, the Rosary, as we ponder Mary’s fiat and how we might also serve God. We pray with gratitude for our mothers, living and deceased, and women who serve as mothers to us that we might know the matchless love of God. We are astounded by the number of children preparing for and receiving their first Holy Communion. This is the proclamation of God’s love as we pray with gratitude for those who continue to form the heart of our children in the image of God — parents, godparents, guardians, siblings, teachers, and so many others! We also pray for those who are graduating and ask God to guide them all their days, that they may come to know the depth of their splendor in the sight of the Lord.
May we sanctify Christ as Lord in our hearts. May we recall the wonders the Lord has worked in the history of salvation and in our own lives. May we praise God and glorify His name for the whole of our Christian lives.