St. Anthony the Abbot Catholic Church

St. Ignatius Loyola's famous little book, The Spiritual Exercises, contains several contemplations on the Resurrection. One of these deals with what St. Ignatius thought would have been Jesus' very first appearance after rising from the dead - an appearance to his Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary. This appearance isn't mentioned in the Gospels, but St. Ignatius considered it to be common sense. In fact, as a caption to this section of his book, he wrote, "Don't be stupid."

And indeed, Mary's name doesn't appear on the list of women who went to the tomb on Easter morning.  Why didn't she go with them, as she had done at the burial?  Maybe because Jesus had already risen and appeared to her.

Mary's great virtue is faith. She believed that "what was spoken to her by the Lord would be fulfilled."      She had heard Christ's prophecies: "The Son of Man will be killed and rise on the third day"; "Destroy this temple and I will rebuild it in three days." Mary meditated on this in her heart, and we can imagine how eagerly she was looking forward to seeing the risen Lord. When Jesus finally appeared, we can imagine how lovingly she embraced Him.

What might they have talked about?  Maybe they spoke about Mary's new mission - now she was the spiritual mother of the whole Church. Maybe they spoke about the Scriptures that Jesus had fulfilled through His passion, death, and resurrection. Maybe tears of joy were enough all on their own. This joy was of a whole new kind - it was the joy of the resurrection, an everlasting joy that neither death nor suffering could tarnish ever again. This is the joy that every Christian can look forward to, because of Easter; it's what makes us different.

This Easter we should relish the great victory Christ has won for us by His resurrection and thank Him for giving us a share in it. How different our day-to-day lives would be if we believed this truth with our whole hearts! We know the future! We know what's in store!

The sick child who has to be operated on is in pain and frightened. But the parent can reassure Him, because the parent knows that the operation, as painful and frightening as it might be in the short term, will bring health and happiness in the long term. We are those children! The sufferings and struggles of our lives are the healing cuts of God's scalpel. But we are also those parents! Because we know that if the cuts of the scalpel make us more like Christ crucified, they will also bring us to share in the glory of Christ resurrected.

How can we let the power of Christ's resurrection seep into the depths of our minds and hearts?  There is one very simple thing we can do that will make all the difference: Keep the Lord's Day Holy. Every Sunday of the year is a solemnity, a day dedicated to the cornerstone of our faith: the Resurrection. This is why the Church has made Sunday Mass obligatory - to make sure we don't forget about the Resurrection! To make sure we remember where we're going!

But we need to do our part, too. Coming to Mass is the essential. But if we want to live our Sundays to the full, if we want our lives to take on the rhythm of the Resurrection, we have got to use our creativity and imagination to make the whole day different. The way a Catholic lives Sunday should be different than the way a non-Catholic lives Sunday.

Easter is the greatest Sunday of the year, let's honor the Lord not only with our voices, but also in our hearts. Let's promise Him that between now and Pentecost we will use our creativity to make our Sundays different. And let's ask Him to give us a hand.