2021 Easter Message - Fr. Gagne
Dear Parishioners,
During this year of covid-19 we once again prepare to celebrate Easter. This Easter our churches will be open, unlike last year’s lock down during Holy Week. In the midst of so much suffering and death, fear, and anxiety, spring has come again, and with the rebirth of nature, our rebirth and the renewal of our faith in the risen Christ.
T.S. Elliot reminds us that April is the cruelest month. This is because spring comes from the cold bleak landscape of winter. Like spring, Easter breaks forth from the tomb of hopelessness and despair that followed the passion and death of Jesus on the cross.
The promise of Easter joy was preached by Jesus as he hung upon the greatest pulpit; the cross. His last seven words are the greatest homily ever preached. His words represent the core meaning of his life with us, and the essential truth of our relationship with him and with others.
Our words proclaimed to others would be so much more effective if we could see in the pain and sufferings of our everyday lives the “pulpit” from which makes our words powerful and relatable to others.
Jesus’ words from the cross begin with the heart of his mission: “Father forgive them; for they know not what they do.” The heart of the gospel is forgiveness. How hard it is to forgive, yet how necessary. How hard to ask for forgiveness, yet so needed.
“I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” The purpose of his mission is to bring all of us to heaven. We all long to be with him forever, and to hear these words at the end of our earthy life.
“Woman, behold, your son! Behold, your mother!” He gives us to each other as he gave his mother to us, and us to his mother. Community is essential to our living our faith, because it is where and how we love friend and enemy alike.
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” For all the times we have felt abandoned by God and others, Jesus cries out to his father from his pain on behalf of all of us.
“I thirst.” Like Jesus we thirst not only for drink, but like him we hunger and thirst for righteousness, and for love. “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit!” Jesus shows us how to let go and surrender our spirits to our Father, who is the source of all life and who loves us. We do this throughout our entire lives, letting go and letting God.
“It is finished.” Jesus in these words brings his mission on earth to its final moment. He has done the will of his Father, and now entrusts us to finish, in our own lives, the task of completing his work of redemption for future generations to come. As members of his body, the church, we await his return in glory, when all will truly be accomplished and finished.
Easter tells us that no tomb can confine him or us, to despair or hopelessness or even death itself. We proclaim Jesus Christ, and him crucified. This is our faith, this is the faith of the church, and we are proud to profess it in Christ Jesus our Lord. May Christ rising this Easter, be that morning star that illumines the hearts of all believers and dispels the darkness that surrounds us. “Jesus Christ is risen, sound the trumpet of salvation.” A Blessed Easter Season to you and your families.
Father Gagne