We often hear it said that someone lives to do something. Lives to play golf, for example. Or travel, or bake, or you name it. 

 

The expression is figurative of course. But it does mean that someone dedicates a significant portion of their life for that particular good.

 

It is a good question in our day to ask ourselves, what do I live for? In the modern world that seeks to exclude God and revel in material things, if that question is asked at all it often receives a very earthly, short sighted answer.

 

For many in our day, thoughts are only about the pleasures (in various forms) of this world. No serious effort is then made to ponder the coming death that will face us all. Even more, no real thought is given to what will be after death.

 

On that basis, the weight of sin and the urgency of repentance and the seeking for forgiveness is minimized, if it does not completely disappear. And when that happens, people are left only to live an earthly life without hope.

 

These observations only begin to scratch the surface of the importance of Easter and of the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead that we will celebrate this Sunday. We will recall of course the details in the Scriptures about Jesus’s encounters with His disciples. But just as importantly, we will draw from that great news of a purpose for our life on earth and well-founded hope for life after death.

 

What seems hard for us to understand at a distance of two millennia is the surprise of the followers of Jesus recounted in the Gospels. Time and again Jesus told His disciples of His coming suffering and death. But He also told them that He would rise again from the dead. Still, the shock of Jesus’s horrible suffering and death on Good Friday seems to have deprived His disciples of hope in the following days.

 

Of course they still clung to their love of the Lord. Why else would Mary Magdalene go to visit the tomb where the dead Jesus was buried? Why else would Peter and John bolt for the tomb at the first hint that something was going on there? But the subsequent surprise and astonishment at meeting the risen Lord makes clear that they did not expect to see Him. They had in fact lost hope.

 

The only exception was Mary, the mother of Jesus. She, who was always full of grace, maintained the faith of the Church and the faith of the world on Holy Saturday.

 

When Jesus did come to show Himself to the disciples, we read about the unrestrained joy that they experienced. Their friend, once dead, was truly and even more fully alive than before.

 

Nevertheless, Jesus was not satisfied simply to show them the glory and joy of the resurrection. For the next 40 days, He taught them and strengthened them to live in this world with faith and hope. Jesus did not promise them an end to earthly suffering or to life’s struggles. But He promised a share in the Resurrection for all of His followers, even down to us, if we remain faithful.

 

What then do we live for? Easter Sunday gives us the answer. We live to be with Jesus Christ as part of our own resurrection that is shared with His. We seek to love Him, to be done with our sins, and to join the saints who are already with Him.

 

Because of the resurrection, our lives have hope. They have real meaning.

 

A very Happy Easter to all.