I recall Angola in wartime when many missionaries found it a real challenge to celebrate Easter in the face of terrible suffering. However, the people wanted Easter in all its splendour – a sense of resilience and confidence in face of danger.
The mystery of the Resurrection is central to our faith. If Christ is not risen, then our faith collapses and nothing remains. Every episode of the Gospel is imbued with the light of the Resurrection, and the Gospel should thus be read from the viewpoint of the Resurrection because this is the way it was written.
If Jesus had a social media account on Easter Sunday morning, I imagine his first tweet would most likely have been: #you too. How many ‘hits’ do you think he would have received? Well, from what we read in the accounts in the Gospel of the events leading to his crucifixion
Like millions around the world I have struggled to find meaning in the Coronavirus pandemic. We talk about it. We think about it. We may dream about it. Meaning continues to emerge as we sleep. I woke in the middle of the night with many of these words in my head. The imagery of the Stations of the Cross helped to frame some of my thoughts. It helped me understand what we are experiencing as a process. Jesus taught us how to live. He also taught us how to suffer. He has gone before us in all our struggles. He is with us as we struggle now.
A word that has gained increasing currency in our conversations is the word ‘passion’. A day doesn’t go by but one hears in the media that, to be successful in any particular field of endeavour, one must have a passion for one’s particular chosen career, be it in business or sport, or religion.
The Raising of Lazarus is the last of the seven signs of Jesus reported in the Gospel of John. It is climatic in that it summarizes everything about his identity as the one sent by the Father to reveal his love. The symbolism of this wonderful drama rests in terms such as Light, Life and Glory, and yet the narrative unfolds with the stench of death filling the nostrils of those who watch and wait. This is the human condition so fallen and so exalted. We are invited here as Séamus Heaney says to “Walk on air, against our better judgment!”
We are a Roman Catholic Congregation of Priests, Brothers and Lay Associates. Our congregation was founded in Paris in 1703 by a young 24 year old Breton Lawyer, Claude Poullart des Places.
He founded a community for young men who wished to become priests and dedicated it to the Holy Spirit.
