H appy Easter!

We say it happily and joyfully. Yet often it is also said as a matter of routine, without really giving it a second thought. It’s sort of seasonal in that sense, like Happy Fourth of July.

But that’s at the heart of our contemporary problem. We live in a secular society that slowly and quietly pushes God out of our public life and consciousness.

Easter, the resurrection of Jesus, God’s offer to the whole world of His final victory over sin and death is the most important thing that could ever have happened.

It is the salvation of all creation and our own personal offer of eternal life in joy. We cannot let it become routine or a distant memory. As the Letter to the Hebrews (2:1) tells us, “ … we must attend all the more to what we have heard, lest we drift away.” It must literally change our lives.

It certainly changed the lives of those at the time of Jesus. Last Sunday, we recalled Jesus’ celebrated entrance into Jerusalem. Crowds waved palms and cried out in his honor. But just a few days later, they were nowhere to be found as Jesus walked the Via Dolorosa carrying his cross. That rapid change tells us that, yes, there was enthusiasm for Jesus, real enthusiasm. However, whether because the enthusiasm was shallow and emotional, or perhaps without conviction that the crowds were intimidated into silence, only a few remained with Jesus throughout, and some of those at a distance.

After the resurrection, we see a different story. We are told in the Gospels that Mary Magdalene and another woman set out for the tomb early on Easter morning. In sorrow and loss their goal was to anoint the body of Jesus whom they had loved, now defeated and dead. They had no hope beyond that task. Instead, they were confronted by an angel and an empty tomb. The angel’s message was one of everlasting hope, that Jesus had been raised from the dead.

The joy of the women was immediate and profound. However, they could not stop there. They were to go and tell others. The message of Jesus’ resurrection, his victory over death that we could only hope for and sigh about with longing, was not to be kept private, for them alone. They ran to tell the others and then met Jesus himself.

That’s a roadmap for us isn’t it? We profess to be the followers of Jesus in 2014, not by our own merits but by his gift. We have been given the responsibility and the grace of believing in and living for the resurrection from the dead. Like the women, our first task is to accept the good news. Death, our own and that of our loved ones and friends, is not the end.

We must, then, leave behind our worldly sorrow and pessimism. We believe in the forgiveness of sins for ourselves and anyone who repents. We believe that because of the promise of eternal life, our choices and our moral decisions now cannot be made on the basis of a merely worldly calculation of right or wrong, advantage or disadvantage. The resurrection has changed all that.

But like the women, we too must tell others. There are so many ways to do that. Parents teach their children directly. Our system of Catholic schools and religious education in parishes is directly related to spreading the news that Jesus is risen. We can speak about it in our families, at work, at play, or wherever we find the appropriate opportunity. How about rejecting the social pressure to be intimidated, for example by saying grace before meals in a restaurant?

We cannot hold the news of Jesus’ rising from the dead to ourselves. We cannot play along with a secular world that would treat this game changing news for every man and woman as simply a tale from the past.

Please join me in wishing everyone a Happy Easter. And when you say it this week, make sure people know it is not just seasonal. It is our joyful act of faith.

Happy Easter to one and all, especially to those newly received into the Church and those who have come back to the faith!