Easter Sunday
He must rise from the dead …
(Gospel of St. John 20 and 21)
The Resurrection is a time of joy because all the promises and prophecies, all the hopes and expectations of the Old Testament are fulfilled.
It is a time of great rejoicing because, by his rising from the dead, Jesus gives meaning to our life of exile. It ends our alienation from God and promises us a life of genuine happiness in a perfect union with God our Father.
We rejoice because we realise that we are not walking the pathway of life alone. Jesus is alive. He is with us personally and individually more fully, more completely than ever before in human history.
We are filled with joy because Jesus is with us assisting us, encouraging us, strengthening us for every task in life.
We are joyous and filled with genuine Christian Joy because we know that Jesus suffered all the pain, the sorrow, the hardships which are our lot in life. He is with us as our healer, our redeemer, our saviour.
This is precisely why Jesus revealed the Good News to us, so that we can be a joyous people. He said: “All this I tell you that my joy may be yours and your joy be complete” (Jn 15:11)