Living the Resurrection

We have all sung the “Alleluias” on Easter Sunday. We rejoiced in the truth that Jesus Christ, who died on the Cross for our salvation, rose again on the third day. We have sung the hymns of His resurrection and prayed to His joyful and glorious Mother, “Queen of heaven, rejoice! Alleluia! For He whom you deserved to bear! Alleluia! Has risen as He said, Alleluia!” But are we living in the mystery of His Resurrection?
 
Each morning as we wake from sleep in our beds, we participate in the mystery of Our Lord’s Resurrection. Each time we kneel, make the sign of the Cross, offer our first prayers of the day, and then rise, we proclaim our belief in the Resurrection of Christ from the dead and our faith that He already shares with us the power of His rising.
 
Each time we enter a church to participate in the Mass, we profess our faith in the Risen Lord who is in our midst. When we come before the altar, we are immersed in the Paschal Mystery of the Lord’s Passion, Death and Resurrection.  On the altar, in the hands of the priest, by the consecration of the elements of bread and wine, Jesus Christ makes His unique Sacrifice present, Calvary’s deed of mercy for our redemption.  By His Sacrifice made present, the Risen Lord embraces the world with the light of His Resurrection.

If this is true of the power of the Resurrection of Our Lord (and it most certainly is true!!!), then we must live our life conformed to the Crucified Lord in His Passion and Death as He transfigures us by the power and glory of His Resurrection.  Hope triumphs over despair! Faith drives away every doubt!  Charity destroys all strife! For Christ has risen, defeating death and darkness! At Mass He feeds us with the fruit of the tree of the Cross, His glorified, risen Body and Blood!
 
It is especially at Mass that we live in the mystery of Jesus’ Resurrection.  Then why do we not come to receive the Risen Lord at Mass each day? Why do we not live the glory of His Resurrection by participating in His Paschal Mystery at Mass each day?
 
Most Reverend William J. Waltersheid
Auxiliary Bishop of Pittsburgh