A Tidy Collection of Readings for Easter 2020

The Healing Of The Ten Lepers by El Greco

Fr. Tomlinson

Easter is not a day but a season of joy within the Church during which we celebrate the great event of faith; the resurrection of Christ. So do make sure the chocolate eating, wine bibbing and general revelry is kept up even amidst the lockdown. Laugh, enjoy yourselves and be of good cheer. For we are a resurrection people and alleluia is our song! We are called to live by faith and hope in life eternal and not in gloom and fear of death.

Bishop Steven J. Lopes

He who is risen is a person, not a proposition. And so, we will keep vigil, we wait for a person, to be embraced by Him, so as to embrace Him. To be loved by Him, so as to love Him. To be called by Him, so as to respond. And to be saved by Him because, without Him, sin and death reign. The Resurrection is simply too big, too wonderful, and too new to encapsulate one word, one phrase, one image, one gesture. But, with the poetic memory of the Church, tonight set free, we can trace His rising to our communal and our personal history. This is how He speaks to us. This is how He has always spoken to us. This is how He reveals Himself and calls us into a relationship. So embrace the risen Lord. Trace your finger into the wounds from the Passion. Doubt no longer, but believe. For He who has died for our offenses lives. He is risen, as He said.

Joseph O'Brien

Be Not Afraid!

During his homily for the 8am Mass, Father Klos said that because of Christ’s resurrection, even in this time of pandemic, Christians should take courage.

“As we have gone through this holy Triduum, in this pandemic of the coronavirus, we find ourselves prepared and, I hope, with hearts open to understand a particularly important lesson, a lesson taught to us over and over again,” he said, adding, “That lesson is: Be not afraid! Be not afraid of death! Be not afraid of the powers of this world! Be not afraid of the coronavirus!”

Christ’s resurrection, Father Klos said in his homily, puts the pandemic in the proper Christian perspective.

“So, my brothers and sisters,” he concluded, “on this Easter Sunday in the midst of this pandemic, we are called to hope and to be not afraid. Yes, take the proper precautions that are necessary. Be prudent. Be wise. But also be confident in the love of God. Recognize that as lovely and wonderful and important as this life is, it is not God. It is not the end, but only … the beginning.”

Laura Dittus

One of the excerpts of the letters of Padre Pio that I read back in February of this year was written in 1917 to one of his spiritual daughters, Antonietta Vona. In that letter, he writes the following:

Have no fear at all about any future harm that could happen to you in this world, because perhaps it might not happen to you at all, but in any event if it were to come upon you, God would give you the strength to bear it ... If God lets you walk on the stormy waters of adversity, do not doubt ... do not be afraid. God is with you. Have courage and you will be delivered. (Letters III, p. 833)

[...]

The five maxims he gives her in this letter are the following:

1. “We know in everything God works for good, with those who love Him” (Romans 8:28)
2. “God is our Father”
3. “Did you lack anything?” (Luke 22:35)
4. “Eternity”
5. “I glory myself only in the cross of my Jesus.” (Galatians 6:14)

Pope Francis - Urbi et Orbi Message

Easter, 12 April 2020

Dear brothers and sisters, Happy Easter!

Today the Church’s proclamation echoes throughout the world: “Jesus Christ is risen!” – “He is truly risen!”.

Like a new flame this Good News springs up in the night: the night of a world already faced with epochal challenges and now oppressed by a pandemic severely testing our whole human family. In this night, the Church’s voice rings out: “Christ, my hope, has arisen!” (Easter Sequence).

This is a different “contagion”, a message transmitted from heart to heart – for every human heart awaits this Good News. It is the contagion of hope: “Christ, my hope, is risen!”. This is no magic formula that makes problems vanish. No, the resurrection of Christ is not that. Instead, it is the victory of love over the root of evil, a victory that does not “by-pass” suffering and death, but passes through them, opening a path in the abyss, transforming evil into good: this is the unique hallmark of the power of God.

The Risen Lord is also the Crucified One, not someone else. In his glorious body he bears indelible wounds: wounds that have become windows of hope. Let us turn our gaze to him that he may heal the wounds of an afflicted humanity.

Queen Elizabeth II

This year, Easter will be different for many of us, but by keeping apart we keep others safe. But Easter isn’t cancelled; indeed, we need Easter as much as ever. The discovery of the risen Christ on the first Easter Day gave his followers new hope and fresh purpose, and we can all take heart from this. We know that Coronavirus will not overcome us. As dark as death can be — particularly for those suffering with grief — light and life are greater. May the living flame of the Easter hope be a steady guide as we face the future.

Father Bradford

Easter Day

April 12, 2020

Easter is the Festival of New Life. It is more than remembering Christ’s own triumph over death. It is that, of course. But since He did everything for us, His Easter triumph is for us. We call Easter the springtime of souls, when all the mysteries of Christ’s life and teaching appear and open to us their hidden power. These very days we see the buds and blooms of nature now appearing and opening their beauty to us. The beauty of nature’s springtime only lasts a short time. Christ’s victory is forever.

So many people, cynical of life, and confronted by the hideous reality of a worldwide pandemic, may have said “I wish I were dead.” And many are dying, and, tragically, alone, because of the necessity of social-distancing. Each of us has more than just an abstract idea of how difficult life can be. We can read about that daily in the newspapers. And we wonder how desperate must be the condition of souls who do not have Easter faith as bedrock for their souls.

The gospel message is that Christ’s mysterious Godhead begins to shine in His Resurrection. You can only have the Resurrected Jesus. He isn’t available any other way. And the Resurrected Lord Jesus is glorious in and through human nature. In this time of great pestilence and mortality Gospel-centered lives can be scared to be hopeful. The Gospel sends the message to suffering souls that all human life, under any and all circumstances, is a sacred thing: full of the ingredients and hope of transcendent life.

Christ Risen is not simply the subject matter for stained-glass windows and sacred music with lively choruses. Christ Risen shows us human nature living by the Divine power of goodness and beauty. It is Christ Risen which inspired those windows and music. The human nature of Jesus Christ is taken into God so that we can be there too, and be inspired to participate in that Divine realm of goodness and beauty. The Gospel Good News is not a bit of mirth to cheer us during the pandemic. The fact of the Resurrection is to be with always. God’s praises penetrate into all we suffer, as it most surely did for the saints.

The joy of the Lord is our strength in all circumstances, and a very present help in time of need. The world is a different place because Christ is Risen. His Resurrection is the very foundation of redeemed human life, giving all life its unnegotiable and everlasting worth.