Easter, A Reason For HOPE: UPDATE

Tomorrow, Sunday, April 24, 2011 is Easter Sunday. As Christians in all the churches get ready to both remember and celebrate the most glorious resurrection of the Savior Jesus Christ from the dead and the tomb, such a day gives me cause to pause and reflect.

During the course of this winter, a very bad one, that had just passed, and for this late date for the most important of all Christian holy days, a much cooler early spring, I have been dealing on-and-off with lower back pain that would cause me while during Sunday mass singing in my parish church’s adult choir to take needed short sit-down breaks. Also in the last few weeks, very difficult hot flashes that come with going through the “change” as well. Add that to a Lent that has been very, very difficult at times to observe, making me wonder if God has been there for me, yet over the last few weeks starting to see the process of the beginning of a new-found inner peace in my soul which is truly a gift from this same saving God Himself.

This weekend, during the Easter Tridium at my parish church, Saint Christopher’s in East Hartford, CT, USA, which has been seeing some what a bit of smaller gatherings, because of April/spring vacation for many kids and their families, even when my parish priest, Father Vincent Curran, having explained that he was late and that the mass of the Lord’s Supper was delayed in starting. He had said that the slightly smaller size for the worshipping community will bring about a more intimate family like setting. Thinking on that, I see not only Easter Sunday, but also Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and of course, today, Holy Saturday as a time to reflect on and go over the special family history of the Biblical accounts in both the Old and New Testaments leading up to the event of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Friday night, Good Friday, took part in the yearly “Living Stations of the Cross” as the weeping woman, and often, because the blessed sacrement HAD to be removed and placed in the priest’s/deacons changing room, and often the kids who would forget that the REAL JESUS was there even though they were talking with the perpetual light, with Deacon Bill Gillies telling them to ether go to the music room or to keep quiet. While during the”Living Stations of the Cross”, during the breaks for music, had taken the time to sit and pray asking Jesus for help to keep going, just as He must have had to do the same on that “WAY OF SORROW”.

Also as time goes on, and as I deal with the realities of both aging and the burdens that go with it, Easter as not only a holy day, but as a the reality of one word which in the last few years has been used so very much: HOPE.

This hope of the promise that the resurrection of Jesus Christ makes very clear, and one of which is why Easter has become more as time goes on my favorite holy day and holiday is more than just having and giving out Easter candy or making Easter eggs. Easter is the promise that despite all the struggles that I have had or will have to still go through, not only has God in human form has gone through before me but also He is also with me. For this reason, I have also in the last couple of weeks made peace with this most divine merciful God and that I can turn to Him for help in all the large and small concerns that are part of my life.

Lastly, Easter is also the hope that God keeps faithful to His holy word and that with God, nothing, nothing is impossible with Him and that in the end, He wins the greatest championship of them all.

To ALL my blog readers and their dear ones, I extend to all, a GOOD AND BLESSED HAPPY  AND HOLY EASTER. 

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