Promises, Patterns & the Message of the Empty Tomb

Alleluia! Christ is risen! As we accompanied Him through Lent in His Passion and death, we longed for the Lover of Our Souls to rise in all His glory, depart the empty tomb transfigured, and change absolutely EVERYTHING. 

The Easter season is here. It's a long and glorious rejoicing in our Savior, His love, our freedom, His mercy, our heavenly inheritance, and His infinite desire to claim our hearts for Himself. Together, we have glimpsed the summit of our Faith. 

So, What's Next? 

Through Easter, God invites each of us to stand with Him in Gethsemane, meet His eyes in the streets on the way to Golgotha, and linger beneath the Cross at Calvary.

He calls us to give ourselves entirely to God, trusting in plans we cannot understand, waiting and praying while our lives remain shrouded in mystery. 

He beckons us to look to the empty tomb and the empty Cross as our collective and personal victories. We are invited to take heart in the Resurrection and the redemption He has won for us. It's staggering - astounding - how much He loves us all. And how He loves each of us with all of His love. 

As immense as it is, look beyond the salvation of the world for a moment, set aside the joy that unites us and the inheritance promised to us, and ask yourself one question during these fifty days of Easter:

How does this change my life? How will I live differently? 

Renewing Promises

Each Easter until Jesus returns, He invites you to renew your faith in His Divine plans, for which Easter is only the beginning. He waits to receive once more the promise of your love and the desire of your heart for His peace, healing, provision, and protection.

Easter is a call to return to your pledge to love Him the way He deserves to be loved, and to love others with everything you've got - and then some, because you know that His grace fills in the cracks where you are lacking. 

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Easter is the renewal of a promise made between God and His children. And it is the renewal of your own promise to Him. We have passed through the forty days of Lent into the joyous Resurrection, but it's not finished. 

It has only just begun. 

The real work begins on Easter Monday, after the excitement of Resurrection Sunday. The real work, brothers and sisters in Christ, is the continued challenge of the empty tomb and the empty Cross. It's living the hope of Easter.

Eat the last jelly bean and rejoice in the last egg hunt with the kids. The sun sets, Resurrection Sunday passes, but the glory and hope of the Resurrection live on. 

Because of Easter, joy and hope should penetrate every aspect of our Christian lives. This is the promise and gift of the Resurrection. By giving us fifty days to celebrate the Easter season, the Church reminds us of this truth and encourages us to live in the eternal hope of Easter as we come to know Jesus and make Him known in the world.

The Easter Pattern

Beyond the story, there's a pattern for us to understand and embrace. It's not an easy one. For most of us, it takes a lifetime, and we live it with varying levels of success as we mature in our faith. 

It's a pattern for life in Christ, Who has saved us, desires us, and loves us more than we can possibly imagine. He modeled this pattern, so that we could live in the world while awaiting union with Him in heaven and so that we could persevere here, on our way to glory. 

It's a simple pattern when put into words, but living it? That's much more difficult than describing it, considering our limited humanity, our woundedness, and the disordered world we live in. It's definitely not for the faint of heart. 

It looks like this:

First there was self-giving, then there was painful suffering. Then there was a death. Then, there was an almost unbearable waiting. 

Then, and only then, was there a Resurrection!

In the order of Easter, we surrender ourselves to Him, entrusting everything to Love. Most of the time, it's not pretty. It's a difficult journey through our own Gardens of Gethsemane to our Calvaries, and finally, out of the empty tombs of our lives that bring about our transformations in Christ. 

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This is the resounding hope of Easter - that no matter our circumstances, Christ has suffered them Himself, and won eternity for us, defeating death so that we can claim victory over our own challenges, even those that seem insurmountable in the moment.

Going before us, He has paved the way for our salvation. Despite our indifference and disobedience to God's supreme laws, Jesus has saved us and given us new life! 

He has risen, and we with Him. Can there be a greater end to a more magnificent story? Because of Easter, we need not fear, regardless of how things appear in the moment. We need only to trust in His incredible love.

50 Days of Glory

Easter celebrates and reminds us of His promises and His merciful love for us, and models how we should persevere in holiness during our lives on earth. It's everything we need, in one incredible season. 

During these next fifty days, aspire to live like you believe it! Fruitfully, victoriously, and triumphantly.

Together, let's spend the next fifty days asking ourselves the big questions of Easter:

• How will this Easter change my life? 
• How will the merciful love of Christ cause me to show mercy to others? 
• How will divine intimacy with Jesus prompt me to greater tenderness and care with everyone I encounter? 
• How will His outpouring of selfless love cause me to empty myself of all that separates me from Him?
• How will the truth of Christ fill my life with hope, peace, fulfilment, and joy - then spill out into the world through me? 

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"We are an Easter People and Alleluia is our song!” We are not looking for a shallow joy but rather a joy that comes from faith, that grows through unselfish love, that respects the fundamental duty of love of neighbour, without which it would be unbecoming to speak of Joy. We realize that joy is demanding; it demands unselfishness; it demands a readiness to say with Mary: 'Be it done unto me according to thy word.'" - Pope St. John Paul II

We Christians are an Easter people. We live for it; we suffer for it. We love for it, we hope for it, and we wait for it. 

How will you let it transform you this year? 

Ask Him to reveal to you how He wants these truths to change you, then renew your promise to Him, in the season of His incredible promise to you.

May the Alleluia restored to the Mass in the Easter season swell within our hearts and overflow into our lives as we live the hope of Easter and glory in our Savior and Redeemer.

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