“Transformed by Hope” is proposed as a space of listening and discernment on the Sunday Gospels that will accompany our Lenten journey.

The initiative, promoted by the UISG Women Theologians, is situated within the horizon opened by the Jubilee and seeks to prolong its grace, continuing to live our vocation as pilgrims of hope amid the challenges of the present time.

Each week, in the light of the Word of God, we will contemplate an aspect of the conversion to which we are called, allowing ourselves to be guided by the Spirit on the journey toward Easter. It is an invitation to allow evangelical hope to shape our way of believing, of living communion, and of participating in the mission of the Church.

For Easter Sunday, the Gospel reflection is by Sr. Mary John Kudiyiruppil, SSpS, Executive Vice-Secretary of UISG.

We have been reflecting, with the help of the liturgical readings of the Sundays of Lent, on the salvific mission of Jesus vis-à-vis our journey of faith.   This faith journey reaches its culmination in the celebration of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus days most sacred to all Christians.  

The Church presents us with a number of resurrection narratives to choose from for the Easter liturgy all of them replete with messages of peace, joy and transformation. 
The Gospel for the Vigil Mass (Mt. 28: 1-10) says twice: do not be afraid (vs 5, 10). The women in the narrative were fearful yet overjoyed (v 8). This curious co- existence of fear and joy is also manifest in Mark’s resurrection narrative in the question the women pose Who will roll away the stone for us? (Mk 16:3) and in the Gospel of John in the proclamation I have seen the Lord! (Jn 20:18).  

God’s ways surpass our own. What seemed to be an overwhelming defeat, in reality, resulted in the most magnificent victory ever witnessed. Holy Saturday serves as a reminder that situations that appear to be the most catastrophic may not always be as they seem. In a world shattered by war and at the point of despair and hopelessness, the resurrection of Christ carries the conviction that we can count on God’s words, works and promises, that with God it is always victory, with Christ we are always victorious.

It is important to note how the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistle to the Romans speak of the resurrection of Jesus: “God raised Jesus from the dead” (Acts 2: 32; Rm 6:4) By raising Jesus from the dead, God has the final word over suffering and death. The Resurrection reveals that Jesus truly lived in complete communion with the heart of God. 

On a personal note, nearly a year ago I lost my mother. Her departure through death posed a series of questions and doubts in me about the life after, the kingdom of heaven, faith in the resurrection and eternal life.  Today, in spite of the pain and nostalgia her memory still evokes, I am able to look at that loss as something that comes from a mercifully caring and wise God who knows and does only what is best for us. I am able to say: it is good that it happened and the way it happened. But for that realization to happen, I had to first go through the intense Good Fridays and the sombre Holy Saturdays. New life comes when we let go of and allow ourselves to be embraced by God’s love. 
 

To illustrate this point, I shall narrate an experience I witnessed many years ago in Australia. One Sunday, after the Mass, some of us parishners decided to go on a long bushwalk. Among us was a family with two adopted children- a boy and a girl aged seven and eleven.  Preparing her foster children for the long trek, the foster mother placed the boy on her lap and started to tie his shoe lace.  While she was doing this, the boy spontaneously and affectionately hugged the mother saying “my darling mom”. The mother looked at me beaming with joy and said: “Mary John, today is Easter for me.  This is, for me, the experience of the resurrection”. The boy recognized in her foster mother a “darling mom” and did not hesitate to say it aloud. 

When did I last give somebody an experience of Easter? When did I last uplift somebody by offering him/her courage and care? 

In Porta Fidei Pope Benedict 16 reflects on the mystery of the resurrection as follows: The joy of love, the answer to the drama of suffering and pain, the power of forgiveness in the face of an offence received and the victory of life over the emptiness of death: all this finds fulfilment in the mystery of his resurrection.

No matter what we are facing, when we confront the situation with Christ, everything changes. May this Easter season help us experience the Resurrection of the Lord:

• in moments when fear slowly gives way to hope
• in encounters that renew our faith
• in the courage to proclaim, like the women at the tomb: “We have seen the Lord.”

HAPPY EASTER!
 

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