Easter joy: Christ is our Light

By Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond

Clarion Herald – 4/15/17

Happy Easter!

I extend to you my prayers and the blessings of the Risen Christ.

  
Easter first calls us to go to the tomb where Jesus was buried. We, like Mary Magdalene and the other woman, walk into the tomb, and we see that it is empty.
 
In Matthew 28:1-10, the angel goes to the women and says, “Do not be afraid. He has been raised from the dead. Just as he said.” In prayer, we walk into the tomb, and it is tremendously dark. Yet, when we are told by the angel that Jesus has been raised, the light shines. “Do not be afraid!”
 
We use that as a symbol at the Easter Vigil. Into a completely dark church, we walk in with the Easter candle, and we hold the candle up high and we say, “Christ, Our Light!”
 
The Risen Christ is our Light. That is what we celebrate on Easter – that Jesus lived among us and was one of us and like us in everything but sin. He suffered a very cruel death and was buried, only to rise to return to the Father’s kingdom and to continue to walk with us in the journey of life.
 
Christ is our Light!
 
For you and for me, this Easter we ask Christ the Light, the Risen Christ, to shine into the darkness of our lives, wherever that may be.
 
The darkness may be a struggle within the family; it might be our own weakness that we are trying to work on but keep falling back into sin; it might be an addiction; it might be a feeling of despair or inadequacy; it might be the people around us who bring darkness to our lives or the darkness of war throughout the world.
 
Whatever the darkness is, at Easter time we are called to bring our darkness to the Lord Jesus. As the Risen Christ, he comes to bring us light and hope.
 
That doesn’t happen all of a sudden, but we believe and await his response. We are a people of faith, a people of belief, that in his time and in his way, whatever is dark in our lives, the Risen Christ will bring his light, which no one else could ever give.
 
God’s blessings to you as we celebrate this great feast of Easter. May Jesus, the Risen Christ, be the light in your life, and may you bring that light to others by the way you respect them, by the way you love them, by the way you care for them and by sharing your faith.