Our Lady of Lourdes Church and School

“Surrexit sicut dixit!” He is risen as he said!
“Christos anesti. Alithos anesti” - Christ is risen. He is truly risen!

These words, from the traditions of our church, remind us that we have left behind the narratives of Good Friday’s bruised and beaten Jesus. We have turned from the darkness of betrayal and fears. We lift our heads to face into the light of Easter Day, that day on which we celebrate all that God desires for us in our lives. Death is conquered and glory fills creation, and we join in celebrating the life that is ours as children of God.

This movement from Good Friday to Easter Day, from death to life, is a remarkable movement of transformation. Movement, transition, change is the nature of our very life. All creation is charged with change, with transition. The opening narratives of Genesis which we read at Easter Vigil: “In the beginning…” These narratives remind us that life is filled with change. “Let there be light. And there was light.” The voice of God utters, and, as the psalmist puts it: “swiftly runs his command.” The desire of God weaves a world of mystery and awe, and in and through it all, the unfolding, the transitioning, the changing reality of life reveals itself to be mystery.

The transition from Good Friday to Easter Day is a reminder to us of all that Christ experienced for us. This Jesus who is raised from the dead is not a man beaten or broken, but one who confidently stands before his disciples and commands them to great things in their lifetime. There seems to be nothing that can confine Jesus, that can hold him back. He stands in the company of his disciples even though doors and windows are locked against him.

The four gospels, each in their own way, speak to this reality of transformation and change. Jesus is different somehow, after the resurrection. His disciples have difficulty recognizing him, but when they do, they are invited to be transformed too. Mark’s gospel holds the command to “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.” Matthew writes: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” Luke puts it another way: “And he said to them, “Thus it is written that the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem”.

Finally John writes: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”

Is this all just nice religious ideas? Hardly. These texts witness to the fact that the lives of believers were completely changed in the reality of the resurrection. In each of the four gospels, each of the authors serves up a reminder to believers everywhere that the Resurrection of Jesus didn’t just change him, but it also changed us. Our lives must, necessarily, be lived differently. Each of these mandates of Jesus to his followers have to be lived out. Accepting this challenge is to accept that our lives are changed, transformed. Once we assent to salvation in Christ Jesus, the Risen One, then we are agreeing that our lives must be lived differently. We cannot be the same after the resurrection as before. Just as the closest friends of Jesus transitioned from cowardice and fear, from hiding and running, so we are called to be different in and for the world. As they became courageous and inspiring, as they became powerful witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus, so we are called to lives of courage and inspiration, to lives in which we are not afraid to share the stories of our being blessed and graced by God.

Indeed, Christ is truly risen! And we testify to his glory in our lives.