What’s YOUR Easter Story?

Easter Octive - Happy and blessed Easter!

It’s been a hectic and exciting few days

Bask in the glory & joy of Easter for 8 days-reflect on what it means for us

Acts - Peter preaching at Pentecost

Flush with the Holy Spirit, he testifies to Christ’s resurrection, his Messiahship

Witness to the Risen Christ

Gospel — encountering the Resurrection

Two stories — one of Light and one of Darkness

Mary Magdalene and “the other Mary”

(the mother of James, per Luke) come to the empty tomb

Jesus sends THEM as his 1st apostles — “Apostles to the apostles”

The tomb guards

They saw the empty tomb too; witnesses to Christ’s resurrection

But they allow themselves to be seduced by the world,

Rejecting the Truth in favor of a more convenient and lucrative story line

What’s it mean for us?

We’ve been ransomed by Christ — bought and paid for, our sins forgiven

But there’s more to it — not just flowers and songs and beautiful liturgies to celebrate our redemption and our Savior

Renewal of our Baptismal Promises at the Easter liturgies not by accident

It’s a reminder of who we are, and a call to New Life in the Risen Christ,

To become Christ’s Light to the world

In his 1st encyclical Lumen Fidei, Pope Francis put it this way

”There is an urgent need to see…that faith is a light, for once the flame of faith dies out, all other lights begin to dim. The light of faith is unique, since it is capable of illuminating every aspect of human existence.

”Faith, received from God as a supernatural gift, becomes a light for our way, guiding our journey through time…On the one hand, it is a light coming from the past…Yet… faith is also a light coming from the future… which guide(s) us beyond our isolated selves towards the breadth of communion. We come to see that faith does not dwell in shadow and gloom; it is a light for our darkness.”

We’ve got a choice to make

Probably not going to stand in front of crowds and proclaim the Resurrection like Peter — a stretch for most of us

The women testifying to the empty tomb, our Risen Lord — even though others refused to believe them, dismissed their stories as nonsense

OR the guards — they too saw the empty tomb, but decided to take an easier path when given the choice.

Rather than testify, they remained silent, and let the world call the tune for their lives

They gave in to the darkness

The tomb is empty, and we know why. Christ the Lord is Risen.

And we have a choice – what story will we tell?

Will we spread the Good News to the world, like Mary and the other women, even when it’s hard and the world pushes back? Will we be people of the Light?

Or will we be like the guards and let society call the tune, because it’s easier, safer, or more convenient for us? Will we give in to the darkness?

Our question this week — what’s YOUR Easter story going to be?

Not about preaching or teaching — it’s how we live our daily lives.

There’s a lot of darkness in our world today. We’ve been called to change that

We’ve been called to be “Easter People,” people of the Light, shining forth and TESTIFYING to that Light, even when the darkness pushes back

May these eight days of Easter help us to answer that call