Artwork: ‘Mary Fountain of Living Water’ by Trish Bazar
Growing up I always preferred Christmas to Easter. Both were holiday times; Christmas was Mass followed by gifts and a lunch with family and friends. Easter seemed to be overwhelmingly religious with long Church services which were tedious and tiresome for a boy. It was only in the last years of high school that I began to understand and appreciate Easter.
Every Church feast is about Jesus and me. In the feast we are joined. Heaven and earth come together, and I am led into a deeper self-knowledge through Jesus.
Easter celebrates the Resurrection of Jesus Christ who suffered a most violent and seemingly meaningless death. From Palm Sunday we walk with Him and as we look into His eyes we recognise the plight of many people in our world today.
The last twelve months have been marked by gratuitous violence, decisions and actions which do not seem to focus on the wellbeing of others, and a mindset which is frankly selfish. As individuals we are lost in this, what is happening?
“Everything changes if we have the eyes of faith filled hope.”
Jesus died understanding this experience, He carried it to the Cross. There is nothing in the present struggles of the world that are not in some way part of Jesus’ experience, and as such everything in us today connects us with Him. He questioned the Israel of his times, and he walked with all those on the periphery. He carried our hopelessness.
On Easter Sunday, Jesus rose from the dead and in this we all rise with Him. We and the world are transformed. Yet, you will say nothing has changed. Everything changes if we have the eyes of faith filled hope. If my eyes change, I change and I see a world filled with love and hope. Our new vision can change the world.
I wish you a happy and blessed Easter.
Bishop Greg Homeming OCD
