Today is\nDivine Mercy Sunday \u2013 however, it is also the final day of the Easter Octave.\nTherefore, I am going to reflect upon Easter as a whole, rather than on Divine\nMercy Sunday in particular. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This year,\nfor one of the few times in nearly 2000 years, the People of God were not able\nto witness the celebration of Easter. That is, they were not able to witness\nthe Resurrection of Our Lord in sacramental signs through attending the Easter\nVigil. This is a great evil \u2013 and we should pray to God that it will never\nhappen again. And yet, it is precisely this inability to witness the Easter\nliturgy that makes this Easter \u2013 in a certain sense \u2013 like unto the first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unlike our\ntypical Easter Vigils, which take place in packed churches throughout the\nworld, the first Easter occurred in secret. In the stillness of the tomb,\nwithout anyone to witness the act directly, Christ rose from the dead.\nCertainly, the guards at the tomb beheld the angel of the Lord and were struck\nwith fear. Certainly, the weeping women beheld the empty tomb. Certainly, the\nLord himself \u2013 resurrected and glorified \u2013 appeared to his disciples. Still,\nnone of them witnessed the Resurrection firsthand. Only through the witness of\nothers, whether it was an angel or the Lord himself, did the first Christians\ncome to learn of the Resurrection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our\npresent-day situation, therefore, is not so different from the first Easter.\nThis year\u2019s Easter Vigil was celebrated by priests around the world. Christ was\ndeclared the Lord of time; the light of Christ scattered the darkness of sin\nand death; the Gloria was intoned; bells were rung; water was blessed; bread\nand wine were offered; and our Lord in His resurrected flesh appeared. Yet, we\nwere not witnesses. We were stuck at home making do with live-streaming on\nlaptop screens. Like the first disciples, a veil sits between us and the\nResurrection. What can all this mean? I dare say that God is calling us back to\nthe first Easter. The past 60 or 70 years have largely erased the evangelical\ngains of past centuries and the Gospel once again lies hidden in the tomb \u2013\nwhich is to say, the world is ignorant that Christ, through his death and\nResurrection, has delivered mankind from the bonds of sin and death. Frankly,\nwe have no one but ourselves to blame. Too long have we treated the\nproclamation of the Gospel as an accomplished fact, or worse yet, as no longer\nnecessary or even desirable. Too long have we trusted in institutional\nmomentum, cultural heritage, or convoluted theology. But now our institutions\nhave crumbled, our culture is dead \u2013 or at least well on the way \u2013 and even\nconvoluted theology begins to wear thin. If evangelism is going to happen,\ntherefore, it must happen the good old fashion way \u2013 by preaching. In a word,\nGod is inviting us to proclaim the Gospel anew, with all the fervor of the\nApostles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course,\nthis responsibility to proclaim the Good News belongs to all Catholics. But in\na special way, this responsibility lies on those who have experienced the\nEaster Vigil firsthand this year, namely, priests. Having witnessed the\nResurrection of our Lord firsthand and having touched his sacramental flesh,\npriests now serve as witnesses of the Resurrection \u2013 and they should act like\nit. They are the angels who sit in the empty tomb and proclaimed, He is not\nhere; he has risen (Mt 28:6). And as with the angels, the Gospel must first be\npreached, not to complete strangers, but to those who are already Christ\u2019s\ndisciples. That is, Catholics must hear the Gospel and be converted. The laity,\nfor its part, must realize that its faith is dependent on the ministry of\npriests. This has nothing to do with clericalism, but is simply the recognition\nthat God has specifically entrusted priests with preaching the Gospel. How\ncould it be different? How could the priests who witness our Lord\u2019s\nResurrection through the eucharistic sacrifice not be given a special role in\nproclaiming this same reality? During this time, then, may priests who are true\nwitnesses of the Resurrection take up the message of the Gospel and proclaim it\nproudly. May the paschal flame, which is now so small and obscure, grow in the\nhearts of the faithful in the world over. And may this Easter, which is very\nmuch like the first, sustain us as we press on towards the final Easter, when\nChrist will put off the obscurity of sacramental signs and appear before us\nwith all the brilliance of eternity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ian Mahood<\/strong> \u2013 St. Joseph Seminary, Edmonton, Alberta<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Divine Mercy Sunday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2248,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,17,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-strona-glowna-najnowsze","category-strona-glowna-slider"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n