Easter Sunday
Like the disciples of Emmaus, we often find ourselves thinking: if only it hadn’t happened that way, it would have all been so glorious. It doesn’t occur to us till much later, and it often takes the help of one more enlightened than we, that actually what happened was supposed to happen. It had to be that way. The tragedy of Calvary was foreseen and willed by God. The reality, two thousand years later, still stuns us. So it was really true? He actually was supposed to die and rise again? Yes, it was written, it was foretold and it happened.
And it all happened for one very simple reason: God is madly in love with His creatures and He knows no bounds in what He will do for them. There is no truth like that truth. There is no truth that can so deeply transform souls from the inside like that truth. When you finally come to realise how much God loves you, then everything changes. You can undertake anything and everything because you know that the conqueror of sin and death, the eternal living one is right here with us. Then Easter becomes as it truly is, a day of triumph, a day on which we might want to jump for joy, but on which we might be better inspired to linger in the bliss of the certitude that Christ lives, that Jesus Christ is alive, that Jesus Christ is here among us, giving us a share in His eternal life and love. Such is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith (cf 1 Jn 5). Such is the joy that is yours on this day if we truly believe in Him and are transformed by His grace.
Amidst our celebrations, let us not neglect to spend some quality time with our Risen Saviour, congratulating Him for His victory, telling Him how delighted we are to know that He can no longer suffer or die. To help us in this, I offer these considerations from the great Benedictine Saint Gertrude who, on this feast of Easter asked our Lord how to properly praise Him in reciting the Alleluia. He replied that she could do nothing more perfect than to unite with the heavenly host who unceasingly sing Alleluia to His glory, and He proposed this prayer:
Praise thee, O my Jesus, in union with that all-transcending praise wherewith all thy saints extol, in rapturous harmony, the thrilling influx of thy Divinity into thy deific Humanity, now that it is transfigured in unfading glory, in reward of the manifold bitterness of the Passion and death thou didst endure for man’s salvation.
I praise thee, O my Jesus, in union with that all-transcending praise, wherewith all thy saints extol the ravishing delight of that glad everlasting spring, wherein the eyes of thy Humanity feast in the green pastures of the one, whole, supreme, and undivided Trinity.
I praise thee, O my Jesus, in union with that all-transcending praise, wherewith all thy saints extol that most tranquil delight with which the ears of thy deified Humanity are soothed, in the ineffable endearments of the ever-adorable Trinity and the unwearying praises of angels and saints.
I praise thee, O my Jesus, in union with that all-transcending praise, wherewith all thy saints extol the entrancing fragrance which exhales from the Bosom of the most Holy Trinity, for the refreshment and delight of thy sacred and immortal Humanity.
I praise thee, O my Jesus, in union with that all-transcending praise, wherewith all thy saints extol with one accord the magnificent, the incomprehensible, inestimably precious influx of the Divinity into thy deific Humanity, which, now immortal and impassible, receives, in lieu of those corporeal sensations which it lacks, a double delight and joy from the divine influx.
We perceive in this prayer an echo of just how delightful Easter morning was for our Lord after the torment of His passion, and Easter morning that never passes, and that one day will also be ours.
Finally, on this day let us not neglect the duty of sons to their Mother, and let us turn our attention to the Queen of Heaven whose maternal heart, bitterly overwhelmed in the passion of her Son, was completely transformed by the light of her risen Jesus on this morning. In the Regina Coeli that we sing throughout paschal tide we hear an echo of the song the angels must have sung on that first Easter morning as the Saviour appeared to her and wiped her tears. Let us ask her to kindly introduce us to the ineffable joys of this feast, and teach us to never to lose hope amidst the sorrows and pains of our life.
The victory is ours, for Jesus Christ is risen, alleluia!
