He is Risen!

We’re at an interesting point in the religious calendar, sandwiched between the Annunciation and Easter – the beginning and end of the Gospel story – within a week of each other. The proximity drives home the point that what makes Monday’s Annunciation so glorious is Friday’s crucifixion and Sunday’s resurrection. We care about a Jewish virgin’s encounter with an angel because we care about her son’s march to the cross. Mary points us to Christ.

Maybe there’s another symbolism there as well. Each one of us, individually, is caught in a transient place, looking backward to our birth, forward to our death, and beyond that to the resurrection of the saints.

Yet in another sense, our resurrection has already happened in Christ. To quote St. Paul from this year’s Easter Mass reading of Colossians 3:1-4,

Brothers and sisters: If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory.

This truth is the source of our celebration. New life in Christ.

Happy Easter to all our Cross Catholic Outreach partners and supporters, and to the poor throughout the world. May we rejoice together that “He is risen!” and may we declare with St. Peter, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

-Tony M.