Christ Is Risen

The celebration of Easter is truly great. It is the greatest event since the creation of the world. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead! Try to beat that!

Other great events in the top 10 are all associated with Him. His Incarnation, when He became one like us, and His life, during which He performed countless miracles, or all of the stories in the Bible that lead up to His arrival, like the parting of the Red Sea and the Great Flood in the Old Testament. The historical event of His resurrection from the dead is most important for us to celebrate today as Catholic Christians, since so many people in our world today have never heard this saving message or continue to deny that it happened.

Last week there was a tragic bombing in which Coptic (Egyptian) Christian Churches, Catholic and Orthodox, were attacked by suicide bombers during the celebration of Palm Sunday. It often seems that not much has changed since the time of Lord, for He came to bring peace and was crucified for it, and He established His bride, the Church, to be a sign of true peace in the world, and She is continually attacked. But Christians have always seen suffering and persecution in the name of Our Lord, and especially martyrdom for the Faith, as the seed of Christianity.

This day is commemorated by many with egg hunts and bunnies for children, but those tend to reduce the importance of the true celebration if perhaps those same children, and perhaps many adults, do not even know what the true meaning of Easter is. The celebration of Easter is really the celebration of the most significant event in history. Everything changed today, and gives us a totally different view of the world, for death is not our end, but the beginning of a new life with the promise that we will rise again!

May the celebration of Our Lord's resurrection from the dead give us the strength that we need to be His witnesses in our world today.

Fr. Matthew Bartulica