An Easter Message
I love the refrain that carried us through these past Triduum days “Christ was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross, but God raised him high”. There was that sense of the refrain building up as each day of the Triduum passed. Everything is there in those few words and Easter is the greatest celebration in the cycle of our Church. We make a lot of Lent, I think, sometimes to the neglect of Easter.
The Sacred Triduum allowed us to walk with Jesus in his pain and desolation. It brought us many places, from a procession where palms were waving to an upper room to a garden and then to a hill, like no other hill. Yesterday we waited at the tomb, with that feeling that God was absent.
Then comes the great Easter Vigil as we read scripture, light candles, baptise new members of the church and celebrate the Eucharist. Easter lasts much longer than a vigil night, splendid as that celebration may be. Easter lasts for fifty days.
As we journey those days, may we hold in our prayers those who need most to hear that “God raised him high”. God will be with us all and raise us with him; this is the hope of the new beginnings that Easter promises.
May the Risen One be with you this Easter,
+ Denis