Dear St. Lawrence Parishioners,
Happy Easter! He is risen- He is risen, indeed!
We celebrate over these next weeks the Season of Easter, and this celebration reminds us of the simple fact: Jesus has risen from the dead. What does this mean, exactly? This means we have a profound reason to rejoice! Ever since the first fall of Adam and Eve, there was a severe rupture, and that unleashed on humanity so many effects- one of which was the loss of the ability to enter into heaven.
However, Jesus was not willing to let us suffer the fate and consequence of that fall, or even our own personal sins. He suffered and died on the Cross to save us from these sins, and His Resurrection means that He has conquered death once and for all.
This is not news that we should receive with indifference. We cannot simply assume that all has been done- but we need to do the work of now adopting the this Resurrection for ourselves. When we hear that the tomb is empty- do we change our lives to do what Jesus asks to allow this news to be fruitful? Are we allowing our hearts to rejoice- and to react? What’s more, we live in a time that needs the Good News. Many in this world today want to claim that the Resurrection does not matter. Many still say that it was fictitious. Worse, many of us may look upon the Resurrection and simply say that we can now live the way we want, and it doesn’t matter. Yet, that is not so. If Jesus has been raised- we need to live as if He has so that others can see our lives and the ways that our lives have been changed for the better by this news!
Jesus has Risen, and what this means is that we are truly free- if we change our lives and pursue Jesus’s Resurrection in the way that we live our lives. We need that joy, and the hope of eternal life that the Resurrection now allows us to enjoy!
He is risen- He is risen, indeed!
In the Risen Christ,
Fr. Belken
