Happy Easter! Today we joyfully proclaim, “Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!” I hope you have wonderful plans to celebrate the day with family and friends. A particular welcome to anyone reading this article who is visiting this weekend or coming from out of town or usually worships elsewhere, I’m happy that you joined us today. As for my own Easter festivities, this afternoon after Masses I’ll be heading out to my parents’ house and enjoying a double celebration as today also happens to be my dad’s birthday. Happy birthday, Dad! Not a bad way to kick off the next year of your life, you know, sharing it with the Lord’s resurrection, no big deal.
My own birthday was two days ago on Good Friday, so naturally I waited on the cake and ice cream in deference to the Triduum solemnities. But these sugary delights are for sure on the culinary docket for today’s menu. This year, I turned 38 and since I love even numbers, I’m planning on it being a great year. Every birthday I’m happy to be alive and grateful for another year of God’s patience and faithfulness to me. As at New Year, so also at birthdays and anniversaries, we remember it is a grace of God’s design to experience the cyclical passage of life, which constantly provides us with familiar and stable markers that gauge our change and growth. Maybe this is your 38th Easter, maybe it’s your 88th. For Jesus, it’s approximately his 1992nd anniversary of rising from the dead. The hope is that you and I can look back since the last go-around and see whether another year of life has made us another year wiser, another year holier, another year stronger. How much have I fed my soul on the Word of God this year? How often have I gone to battle against my sins and bad habits this Lent? Have I given up or continued to strive? How faithfully do I choose God in my daily life instead of the fleeting empty diversions of this world? What sway does the power of the Resurrection of Jesus actually hold over my soul?
As I mentioned in my homily a few weeks ago, accepting the gospel is not a club membership or a fan membership; it is a team membership, a jersey with your own name on the back. Paying dues to the club allows you to come and go as you please and requires only the commitment of your credit card. Being a fan is as easy as lip service and switching on a TV. But only the team raises a trophy. Only team members are required to make the actual sacrifices, and only the players’ names are written in the record books.
Jesus rose from the dead not because he was interested in fans and club members but because he was interested in players. The acceptance of team membership awakens a deep hunger in you that drives you to improve, to commit to your teammates and to the team culture, to contribute something valuable to the whole, a hunger to persevere no matter how long it takes or how much it costs. It gives a vision of victory over every opponent in your life that stands between you and the final trophy. So let us praise God for Easter, which offers us a spot on the team roster and gains for us the power to attain that victory. And let us continue to advance in wisdom, holiness, and strength.
Fr. Brian