Easter Triumph

I don’t know about you, but my Lent wasn’t a perfect picture of fasting, penance and almsgiving – it was not as I would have liked it to be! Instead, it was rocky, imperfect – laden with “failures”. As we entered Holy Week, God’s word to me was simply, “My Mercy is new every morning!” And Thanks be to God! I am in need of His mercy every morning.

As we celebrate Easter, I am reminded that it’s not about how great my Lenten practices were, it’s about Him. It’s about Jesus Christ conquering death, conquering my sins, faults and failures.

I’m always touched by the Season of Spring aligning with the Season of Easter. The buds burst forth from what was seemingly dead. I need this reminder for myself. In the midst of the things in my heart that seem dead, through Christ’s Passion and Resurrection, fruits and flowers burst forth in my soul. And not because of anything I have done but because of Him!

After Jesus rose from the dead, He appeared to His disciples and showed them his wounds. As we hear in the Gospel of John,  Thomas was not with them when Jesus came and Thomas exclaimed that he would not believe unless he saw and placed his finger in the mark of the nails. ...“Eight days later, his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them…Then He said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here, and see my hands, and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing’.” (John 20: 26-27)

Do not be faithless, but believing! I’m struck by the detail that Thomas went eight days without believing in the Resurrection. What must those days have been like for Him? Let us not be disbelieving like Thomas, but let us believe that Jesus conquers all our sin and failures. Let us believe in the Resurrection. Let us believe that it is not about what we can do for Him but what He has done for us!

It is not about our own Lenten Triumph – but it is about His Easter Triumph!

Alleluia – He is Risen!

Sr. Emmanuel, CFR