Easter Blessings to All!

By Fr. Frederick Edlefsen  

At Easter Masses, we renew the Gift of our Baptism.  Through the priestly ministry of the Church, we received the Holy Spirit.   On our behalf, our parents and godparents rejected Satan and his empty promises; acknowledged God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; acknowledged Jesus as God’s Son, who was born of the Virgin Mary, died for our sins, and rose from the dead on the first day of a new week – what we now call Sunday.  Christ will raise us all from the dead at Time’s End.

Genesis 1 narrates six days of Creation.  God rested on the seventh day.  This tale was written when the Babylonian empire occupied Israel and made God’s People work seven days a week.  The Creation Story reminds Israel to observe rest and prayer on the seventh day.  This Sabbath prepared the way for Christ’s coming – the coming of an eighth day of Creation.  A New Day.  "I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind” (Isaiah 65:17).

Here and now, where is this New Creation?   Jesus says, “The Kingdom of Heaven is within” (Luke 17:21).   Baptism brings the Kingdom into the human soul.  “Your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Corinthians 3:3).   This is a hidden yet potent mystery.   Its full beauty will be revealed at Christ’s Second Coming, when he renders the Final Judgement and raises the dead.  Those who died in his Love will be raised to a New Life.   This was foretold by the Prophet Ezekiel: “Therefore prophesy and say to them: This is what the sovereign LORD says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel” (37:12). 

I leave you with this prophecy from the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “At the end of time, the Kingdom of God will come in its fullness.  After the universal judgment, the righteous will reign forever with Christ, glorified in body and soul. The universe itself will be renewed” (CCC 1042).  

Happy Easter to all!