[1] https://incarnationandmodernity.wordpress.com/2014/02/18/he-painted-beatitude-beato-fra-angelico/, accessed on May 16, 2022.
What is the Joyful Message of Easter?
The joyful message of Easter is captured by today’s psalm antiphon: “Let all the earth cry out to God with joy,” (Ps 100). The Easter Season will end soon but its effects should remain embedded in our daily attitudes and prayer. Having lived the spiritual joy of the Resurrection, we are always invited to seek what is above: “If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God,” (Col 3: 1). Saint Paul, a convert, passed from evil practices such as the persecution of Christians to be an Apostle, and to spread the message of the Cross, but also of the Risen Christ who had appeared to him. Paul became an apostle of the Resurrection and of the joy of conversion.
How was Christ glorified?
According to the fourth gospel, the glorification of the Lord begins with His Passion (discourse of the Last Supper) but, it obviously continues with His Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven, the upcoming liturgical celebration. It is through the spreading of this message, that our Church initially grew and consolidated herself throughout the nations. The account of the Acts of the Apostles, the first written piece of history of the Catholic Church, is a standing testimony to that: “Day after day the churches grew stronger in faith and increased in number,” (Acts 16).
How do we Spread the Christian Message?
The Christian message, and therefore, our Christian life, calls us to work as apostles, not simply as hired servants, but rather as disciples of the love of the Risen Christ. How can we accomplish this task faithfully? We can only, through the transformation of grace. The first step in such process is what Jesus tells us today in the passage of the gospel of John: “… you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world…,” (Jn 15). Our conversion and discipleship begins with His election to be one of His loved ones. The disciples, and the holy women, Mary first, had a clear conscience of that calling, so they remained faithful, and therefore, joyful.
We do not belong to the world…
Yes, we do not belong to the world. Neither did Jesus, nor Mary, nor Mary Magdalene, nor the Twelve, nor Paul… The Catholic Church is a long-standing testimony of saints and martyrs, and even regular people who do not belong to this world, but who want to transform it for the Lord. Why? Because we who “were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.”
