It's A New Dawn, A New Day: Easter Sunday

Already the sun is rising.  Here in the DC area the air is fresh.  Cherry blossom abound through the city.  The downtown area is in traffic gridlock.  The train cars on the city's Metro system are jammed.  All signs of a new Spring and the beauty of God's nature after a very long, long winter that brought bitter cold and snow, and snow, and snow.  Today, Easter Sunday, we are not just reminded of a new Spring.  The sound of of birds proclaiming a new day and a bright sunshine speak of a new life.

If you recall the gospel reading used in the Palm Sunday blessing of the palms, St. Luke recalls Jesus sending two disciples to get a new, never sat upon colt for his arrival into Jerusalem.  Jesus told the disciples, tell the owner that Jesus has need of the animal.  During the season of Lent we have just concluded, we learned that very same request of ourselves.  Jesus has need of us.  Jesus wants us to share fully the gift of his ministry.  Obviously God does not need anything.  But, hopefully, during the hours of prayer, sacrifice and fasting, we may have come to hear Jesus speaking to us.  "I need you.  I want you to have the gift of redemption."

So, with a sense of genuine joy, celebrate this Easter Sunday with an awareness that we are the objects of God's love.  All that we recalled during Holy Week should have captured our hearts once again with a proof of Jesus love for us.

Today we begin, again, a reading of the Acts of the Apostles.  If you can, read this work of St. Luke's mind and heart.  Let it be for you a reminder of what is written in the second reading for today's liturgy:

To him all the prophets bear witness,
that everyone who believes in him
will receive forgiveness of sins through his name.

This is the joy we proclaim today.  We are like young chicks pecking our way out of a shell.  We are breaking out of the past into a new world, a new experience.  God the Father gives you the graces that are nothing less than pure love.  Rejoice!  Yes, rejoice.  Live in the mindset that God needs you!  He has given you new life.

And words from a man who is carrying Christ's cross in his life and the life of our Church today, Pope Benedict XVI.  From his address as Bishop of Rome to the "world and city (of Rome):
 
Dear brothers and sisters, Easter does not work magic. Just as the Israelites found the desert awaiting them on the far side of the Red Sea, so the Church, after the resurrection, always finds history filled with joy and hope, grief and anguish. And yet, this history is changed, it is marked by a new and eternal covenant, it is truly open to the future. For this reason, saved by hope, let us continue our pilgrimage, bearing in our hearts the song that is ancient and yet ever new: "Let us sing to the Lord: glorious his triumph!" (Courtesy of Whispers In The Loggia)

Photo:  Ian Britton, FreeFoto.com