Even though fear and worry continue to grip the world, Jesus offers all of us the gift of joy today and every day. As St. Pope John Paul II famously reminded us, “Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song”. Easter is not a time for sorrow but a time to rejoice because Christ is risen. Catholics are constantly invited to embrace the joy of the resurrection.
When we light our little candles from the Easter Candle every Easter Vigil, a wave of light illuminates every parish church all over the world, showing us how to move through the darkness of our sin to victory in Christ. During the Easter Proclamation (Exsultet), the priest sings:
This is the night when Jesus Christ
broke the chains of death
and rose triumphant from the grave.
What good would life have been to us,
had Christ not come as our Redeemer?The power of this holy night
dispels all evil, washes guilt away,
restores lost innocence, brings mourners joy;
it casts out hatred, brings us peace, and humbles earthly pride.
Yet, as we pray these words every year, the obvious question we must ask ourselves is, “Do I really allow Christ to redeem me, to set me free in truth, in the nitty-gritty of my daily life?” It is not easy to actualize our faith, to move beyond mere ritual and lip- service. Saint Teresa of Avila explains how to experience the resurrection, “let this presence settle into your bones and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise, and love”. This process of spiritual transformation ushers in the tangible, infectious joy of the Lord.
The Saints Were Not Miserable
Look at our pope, whose namesake is Francis; his very countenance radiates kindness and joy even as he bears the burden of shepherding the world’s Catholics and a gruelling schedule as the pontiff. It is clear God is using Pope Francis to challenge present-day Catholics to rediscover their roots and live daily in the Resurrection, not just the suffering of the Passion.
Joy cannot be held at heel: it must be let go. Joy is a pilgrim virtue. It is a gift that walks, walks on the path of life, that walks with Jesus: preaching, proclaiming Jesus, proclaiming joy, lengthens and widens that path (Pope Francis).
Joy is a Choice
At the suggestion of a priest. I read a list every day for a year renouncing ingrained lies from my childhood which were like chains around my neck and proclaiming the truth by quoting corresponding verses from Holy Scripture which countered each lie. After a year, the resulting freedom seemed miraculous.
Joy is what makes life worth living, but for many joy seems hard to find. They complain that their lives are sorrowful and depressing. What then brings the joy we so much desire? Are some people just lucky, while others have run out of luck? Strange as it may sound, we can choose joy. Two people can be part of the same event, but one may choose to live it quite differently than the other. One may choose to trust that what happened, painful as it may be, holds a promise. The other may choose despair and be destroyed by it.
What makes us human is precisely this freedom of choice.
No matter the hardships and trials we experience in this life on earth, we can choose to abandon a solitary, grim existence and embrace the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, our Paraclete, Advocate, Consoler, Comforter, and Intercessor. Christ promised to not leave us orphaned.
I have told you this so that my own joy may be in you and your joy be complete (John 15:11).
More Than Laughter
The spiritual journey toward complete union with Christ is intense and often painful but if we keep a sense of humour and don’t take ourselves too seriously the journey becomes much easier. A friend of Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk, once asked him if it was possible to tell if another person had truly undergone an inner, spiritual transformation where their false self truly died replaced by the life of Christ. Merton responded by remarking that it is very difficult to tell but usually it is accompanied by a wonderful sense of humour. I understand Merton’s insight and so does Pope Francis.
The Holy Spirit transforms and renews us, creates harmony and unity, and gives us courage and joy for mission (Pope Francis).
Joy adapts and changes, but it always endures, even as a flicker of light born of our personal certainty that, when everything is said and done, we are infinitely loved (Pope Francis).
The Joy of the Gospels
Pope Francis has summed up the reasons we are called to live joyfully as Catholics in his first Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, Joy of the Gospel. He opens the document:
The Joy of the Gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. Those who accept his offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness and loneliness. With Christ joy is constantly born anew. In this Exhortation I wish to encourage the Christian faithful to embark upon a new chapter of evangelization marked by this joy, while pointing out new paths for the Church’s journey in years to come.
Easter morning is a day to encounter the Risen Lord once again. This encounter ignites a humble joy in our hearts, a gentle joy which sorrow cannot snuff out Pope Francis explains:
The Gospel of Easter is very clear: we need to go back there, to see Jesus risen, and to become witnesses of his Resurrection. This is not to go back in time; it is not a kind of nostalgia. It is returning to our first love, in order to receive the fire which Jesus has kindled in the world and to bring that fire to all people, to the very ends of the earth (Pope Francis,Easter Vigil Homily, 2014).
Every time we receive the fire of Christ’s love, we are transformed. This encounter can become our very life on a daily basis, not just on Easter Sunday. This transformation is simply a normal Christian life.
Let’s take up the pope’s challenge to celebrate in, with, and through the Risen Lord, not just on Easter Sunday but every day.
7 thoughts on “We Are Easter People”
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Dear Melanie, Thank so much for your encouragement to be joyful on this glorious day. I do have one objection to the one sad note you struck:
“The Joy of the Gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. Those who ACCEPT HIS OFFER of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness and loneliness.”
Jesus does not OFFER salvation to the unsaved. He saves them if not now then later. All unrepentant sinners are committing suicide. They have jumped into the lake of despair and death. Jesus comes along in a boat and grabs the drowning person who fights back, screaming at Jesus to let him go. He wants to die. But, Jesus will have none of this. Jesus hauls him out of the water and into the boat of salvation where he is dried off and loved. Jesus doesn’t offer anyone salvation. He doesn’t pay any attention to our wish to die. And if we do die in sin, he resurrects us. The resurrection of the unbelieving sinner is a wonderful Divine promise that they will be made whole. There is nothing negative about the resurrection.
Rowland
God does NOT save everyone; He respects people’s free will. You are preaching a heresy called Universalism, and you have already posted similar comments on at least four previous CS articles. CS’s tolerance is wearing thin; please refrain from preaching this heresy in future comments or they will be deleted.
This is just what I needed on an Easter morning! Thank you. I will have to reread it again and again There is so much here to comfort me when my own Easter journey is one I’d rather not have to walk.
Wonderful, Melanie. Thank you once again.
And thank you, Ida, for your generous words of encouragement- I needed that.
You should post here more often. Sir Michael Tippett was an English composer among whose works is an opera called The Midsummer Marriage. In the movement called St John’s Fire are words that reflect Easter’s joy. “ From heavenly One the Two divide and three as Paraclete, can make symbolic union with the Four: the Messenger, the Path, the Door between the Light and Dark, the Guide, Ah Wonder ! Ah Praise! Rejoice Exceedingly.”
I really must listen to that opera.