Easter 2024

The Catholic Church has an ancient hymn that reminds us that Christ conquers, reigns, and commands. This applies to emperors and popes, but also to all of us. Christ's power and authority come from Him, and He conquered sin and death. However, we have the choice to resist His reign in our lives. Easter is a time to reflect on whether we are allowing Christ to truly reign in our hearts. St. Paul reminds us to focus on heavenly things and think about eternity. We should live Easter with the same intentionality as Lent. A simple practice is to spend time each day thinking about heaven and asking Jesus to show us what it would be like. This will allow the joy of Christ's victory to enter our lives. No matter where we are in our relationship with the Lord, thinking about eternity can open our hearts to Jesus. St. Leo the Great reminds us that through Christ's passion, we are invited to share in the riches of paradise. Our There is an ancient hymn in the Catholic Church which begins Christus vincit, Christus regna, Christus impera. And in Latin that means Christ conquers, Christ reigns, Christ commands. This was often used to inaugurate the beginning reign of an emperor, a Roman emperor, or the beginning of a pope's, at the beginning of a pope's reign. And so it's a reminder to the one that is beginning their reign, whether it's an emperor or a pope, anyone in secular power or authority, that all power and authority ultimately comes from Christ, that he is the ultimate source of power and authority. And that is certainly what we celebrate today on Easter Sunday, that Christ has conquered sin and death, he is reigning, he died once, he will never die again, he reigns over the earth, over the whole universe, and he commands. He is in command of all, there is no part of the world that is outside the domain of Christ's rule. And then, so that's kind of the cosmic view, right? Christ is in, has conquered, he reigns, and he commands the entire universe. And yet, in that, there is still room for rebellion, right? Because for free creatures, we have the option of saying no, of refusing Christ's reign in our own life, in our own hearts. This is nothing that we can do that stops Jesus from being Lord and King of the universe, from commanding, from reigning in the universe, but because he respects our free will, we can resist his kingship in our own lives. And Easter is meant for us to be reminded that when we want Jesus to reign completely over our lives, we want him to be the absolute center of everything that we are and that we do, and that his kingship, his conquering of our lives, is good, because it allows us to share in the joy, the freedom, and the love that he has in himself with the Father and the Holy Spirit. And to reject that, to resist that kingship, means we give into the tyranny of sin, despair, selfishness, evil, all the negative things that we experience in this world due to a consequence of sin. And so, the beginning of this Easter season, this Easter Sunday, is a beautiful time for us to reflect on that, on how are we doing? Am I allowing Christ to truly reign in my heart? That second reading from St. Paul's letters to Colossians, very short, but it's just packed with a lot of meaning. He says, So, St. Paul is saying that if we've been baptized, we've been raised with Christ, we share in his death and his resurrection, but that life is real, but it's hidden, so we don't see it in all its full cosmic glory yet, we don't see it yet, we will, but that life is already with us, and we could say seed form, embryonic form, just the beginning of that divine life, and yet it's there and it's real, and every time we grow in love of God and others, we grow into that own, Christ's own life. So St. Paul gives the Colossians two very practical ways of growing in this new life. He says, So, what is above? Christ, eternal eternity, heaven. So do, are the desires of my heart ordered towards the right thing, are they ordered towards heaven, do I desire that above all else? And then do I think about it, right, do I spend time meditating, praying about, thinking about it? It might seem kind of very basic and not be very powerful, like, well, what does thinking about heaven do? Well, our thoughts determine our actions, right, we don't just act randomly, our actions come from our thoughts. So St. Paul is saying, well, if we want to start acting like heaven is the most important thing in our life, then I have to start thinking about it, I have to spend some time meditating on eternity. What will it be like to be with God forever and all, for all of eternity, to be in a complete and total exchange of love, to be freed from any and all sin, to be completely and totally healed of all vices, any unforgiveness, all broken relationships? Do I spend any part of my day thinking and meditating upon that? St. Paul says, well, if we want to be united with Christ, we need to seek and we need to think about what is above, not of what is just on earth. And so, that would just be my encouragement for us this Easter season, you know, during Lent. Most of us are pretty good about living Lent pretty intentionally. There's certain things we're doing, certain spiritual practices, maybe things that we're giving up, legitimate pleasures that we refrain from during Lent, and that's pretty common among us as Catholics, right, what are you giving up for Lent, what are you doing for Lent? And that's good. And that's good because it's helping us grow in our relationship with God. But often, too, I think an attitude can slip in where it's like, well, we'll just give up whatever we need to for Lent, and then we'll make it to Easter, and then it's, you know, everything's fair game now, right? Do we live Easter with that same kind of intentionality, right, of pursuing and growing in our relationship with Christ? And so, I would just offer that maybe this Easter, something very simple that we can do during this Easter season, is spend some time each day thinking about heaven, right, even if it's just five minutes of prayer, spending five minutes of our day thinking, asking Jesus to come into our hearts, Jesus, show me what heaven would be like, give me a desire, give me a thirst for eternity, help me to know that my desires on this earth will only be totally and completely fulfilled with you in heaven. It would be a beautiful way to start living Easter intentionally. And the more that we do this, again, the more that we're going to allow the joy of the resurrection of Christ's victory, His conquering, His reigning, His commanding into our life. We'll grow in confidence in Christ's personal victory over sin and death in us, not just in that grand cosmic sense. And this is something all of us can do, no matter where I'm at in our relationship with the Lord. Right? So even if I felt myself distanced from the Lord, or kind of keeping Him at arm's length, beginning to think about eternity, beginning to think about life after death, is a beautiful way of allowing a crack in the door of our hearts to allow Jesus in. Let's just end with some words from St. Leo the Great, who was one of our popes, and he had a beautiful reflection on this reality in a sermon on Christ's passion. He says, true reverence for the Lord's passion means fixing the eyes of our heart on Jesus crucified and recognizing in Him our own humanity. Foreshadowings of the future resurrection should appear in the Holy City, the Church of God. What is to happen to our bodies should now take place in our hearts. No one, however weak, is denied a share in the victory of the cross. No one is beyond the help of the prayer of Christ. Ignorance has been destroyed, obstinacy has been overcome. The sacred blood of Christ has quenched the flaming sore that barred access to the tree of life. The age-old night of sin has given place to the true light. Christian people are invited to share the riches of paradise. All who have been reborn have the way open before them to return to their native land from which they had been exiled, unless indeed they close off for themselves the path that could be opened before the faith of a thief. In taking our human nature while remaining God so that the Word became man, He left no member of the human race without a share in His mercy. He was to have both the reality of a human nature in the fullness of the Godhead. The body that lay lifeless in the tomb is ours. The body that rose again on the third day is ours. The body that ascended above all the heights of heaven to the right hand of the Father's glory is ours. If then we walk in the way of His commandments, we too are to rise to share His glory. The promise He made will be fulfilled in the sight of all. For He who acknowledges me before men, I too will acknowledge him before my Father who is in heaven.