Living Resurrected

For some weeks now, the worldwide Covid-19 crisis has been on everybody’s lips. This pandemic is sowing fear, upending our daily routines and has struck down countless victims. Despite the remarkable advances of science, human beings are confronted once more with their vulnerability. “Life is so fragile, so fragile,” Luc de La Rochelière sang.

One might question why God permits such catastrophes. We should remember that God is not a magician and that Jesus did not come to spare us from all the tribulations that assail humans — not even that of death — but to bear them alongside of us, giving them meaning by his resurrection.

And, that is the Good News of Easter: “The Christ whom you have put to death, God raised up.” (Acts of the Apostles 10:40)

Disciples have proclaimed this Good News high and wide, often at the cost of their blood. For 2000 years, unnumbered Christians have taken up the task to witness to it in word and act in the name of the Resurrected One.

Living resurrected means to love God and to believe in his immense goodness. As Saint Brother André often said, “How good the good Lord is!”

Living resurrected means to put love, pardon, and solidarity at the center of our lives, as Jesus did.

Living resurrected means to believe that despite our weakness, our neediness, our hurt, we are God’s beloved and are called to live with him forever. “Where I am,” said Jesus, “you also shall be.” (John 14: 1-3)

Living resurrected means to witness to the joy of the Risen One.

Saint Brother Andre put it in his own way, “Gladness comes from God; sadness from the devil.”

Early in his pontificate, Pope Francis published his first apostolic exhortation whose title was “The Joy of the Gospel.” God knows how this always affable and smiling Pope testifies to the love and joy that lives within him in his warm-hearted contact with folks!

Finally, let’s not forget to pray for those attacked by the coronavirus, for their professional caregivers and for the extermination of the virus. Let us redouble our generosity towards each other.
Despite the grim days that we are braving, I nonetheless wish you Happy Easter.

Yvon Laurence, CSC