A New Fire Kindled Within Us

Easter tells us that Christ came to save us from our least selves. That is the gift as well as the challenge of the resurrection. The Gospels tell us that the disciples were scattered and shamed, broken and bewildered as a community. In a way, we are the very same. They were restored to a new life of message and mission. 

Resurrection is about the healing and restoration of bruised and broken relationships between God and humanity, between one another and ultimately with the elements of the unique gift of creation that we have damaged and even destroyed.

Easter empowers, inspires and kindles in us a new fire of enthusiasm to become the gospel truth and evidence that we proclaim, witnessing to the continuing presence of the risen Christ among us now and always.

Easter is about the One who died abandoned, ‘so disfigured did he look’ (Isaiah 53:14), like the many rejected and bereft homeless and displaced people we meet today. The Lord now keeps us company on our own crosses, despite the stark silence, where we whisper or cry out in anguish, My God, my God, why have you deserted me?’ 

Even when God seems silent and distant, Easter tells us that we are not alone, but share together the risen life of the Lord.

John Cullen, The Sacred Heart Messenger, September 2023