All throughout the diocese we hear the Alleluia sung with joy at the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. We celebrate this joy for 50 days up to the great feast of Pentecost. Christ brought back hope as he stood in the midst of the Disciples in their locked room. Can you imagine what that glorious moment must have been like for the Disciples?
Too often the Easter message is celebrated on Easter Sunday and put aside until next year. April showers may bring May flowers but this truth is nothing compared to the truth that Christ has died, Christ has risen, and Christ will come again. We spend 40 days faithfully living the Lenten experience. We sacrifice, pray, fast and give alms. Easter too is a “season.” We are called to proclaim the great news of Christ’s Resurrection. We are called to live out the paschal mystery and “rise” to a new life, new hope, and new joy. If we have died with him, we shall also share in a like resurrection, the Scriptures tell us.
Even after Christ appeared, the Disciples remained in that locked room for fear they too would be crucified. The shame Peter must have felt for denying him three times. Yet Christ came and appeared to “set them free” from the bondage of sin, shame, fear, and a sense of hopelessness. The dying and rising of Jesus was to lead us to “die and rise” in our journey of faith. Now that he has been raised from the dead, what effect will this have on the Disciples and on us?
At the Easter Vigil, in the darkened church, when the Easter fire was lit, and the Christ candle lit and it then led us into the church — each of us then took our candle and gained our light from this Christ candle. The flame of the Christ candle lit hundreds of our individual candles, but it never diminished the vibrancy of its own flame. We took the light of Christ along with the gathered assembly and the church became more and more illuminated.
Are we still walking with the “light of the Risen Christ” within us? Vatican II teaches us that one of the greatest presences of Christ is in the church family, the “body of Christ.” If the world is to know and encounter that living presence of this Resurrected Jesus, it is up to us to be “his hands and his feet,” ultimately his joy; alive, vibrant, and filled with peace, hope and love going forth as “intentional disciples,” creating “total stewardship parishes” filled with these intentional disciples gathering to worship and serve. We then become “total stewardship dioceses” all over the world.
It is not enough to do the Lenten regulations, or even to “get to” all the Holy Week services. These elements of our tradition must lead us to, at the Paschal mystery, a conversion to true “Discipleship as a Way of Life.” Get a copy of Sherry Weddell’s book, Forming Intentional Disciples. Read it, reflect on this invitation alongside the personal invitation Jesus offers us in Sacred Scripture, to “come and see,” to “come and follow me.”
Yes we must “take up our cross and follow him,” but this dying is asked of us, so that we might also “rise” to a new walk, new life, new hope. This is “becoming an intentional disciple” and choosing “Discipleship as a Way of Life.” Go find your “Emmaus road,” walk with him, read his “Word.” Get out of the boat, unlock the door, it is time for our church to “rise” to greater heights — “Discipleship as a Way of Life.” Amen, alleluia!