The reality of the entire Easter event is so great and real for us that we must relive it, not only as an event of the past, but as something present and real that affects us today. We must think of it and live it in this way:

When Jesus died on the cross, I was there and admired him. When Jesus died on the cross and was buried, I was there and died and was buried with him, because I have been baptized into his death. When Jesus rose from the dead, I was there with him, because I rose with him to the new life of baptism. When Jesus, as the firstborn from the dead, went before us to the promised kingdom of heaven, I was there with him and began, with all the people of God, my journey to the promised kingdom of heaven, and I am still on the journey with hope.

Dear sisters and brothers, this is what we relive in this Easter Season. We celebrate life, and we celebrate it with joy.

During the Easter Vigil, which we celebrate on Holy Saturday night and which marks the beginning of Easter, we celebrate the central event of Christianity: the liberation of God’s people from the slavery of sin, so that they may enter into the new and eternal covenant by which God, by his own initiative, unites his people with himself in a profound union of life and love. For the people of God in the Old Testament, God saw the hardships they suffered in their slavery in Egypt, freed them, and made a covenant with them through Moses on Mount Sinai. For us Christians, God saw our slavery to sin and our inability to cast it off. So he sent Jesus, his own Son, to set us free by his death on the cross on the mountain of Golgotha, to give us life by his resurrection. We are now a free people, capable of love, service, and justice. During Easter, we celebrate this freedom and covenant of God’s love with us.

Now, it’s important to ask ourselves, from where did Jesus rise? From the cross? From the tomb? From among the dead? Or from some incredibly lower, deeper, darker place? Yes, indeed. He didn’t stop with death. He descended into hell, as the Creed which we profess every Sunday says. God’s kenosis, that is, the emptying of himself, goes much deeper than the cross and the tomb; it goes to the farthest depths. Easter begins from the darkest, most distant, and lowest point of human tragedy, but it doesn’t stop there. He is risen!! He is alive!! This gives us hope! And Jesus never rose alone. He shares it with all of us, with all of humanity. He wants you to embrace his salvation, his love, his resurrection. He wants you to live.

Happy Easter!!

Fr. Lalo Jara, OFM Pastor,
Mission San Luis Rey Parish

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