Be Not
Afraid, He is Risen
An Easter Reflection
By Rev. Fr. Bob Johnnene OFM
Mission Sts. Sergius and Bacchus/ Order Franciscans of
Mercy
An All Inclusive & Welcoming Old Catholic Ministry
of Reformed Catholic Church
Alleluia, Alleluia “This
is the Day the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad” (Psalm 118:24). “Do not be Afraid, You are looking for Jesus
of Nazareth who was crucified, He is not here, He has risen” (Mark 16:6). “Why
do you search for the living among the Dead” (Luke24: 5 ) “He is not here, He has been raised, exactly
as He had promised” (Matthew 28:6). “Rabbouni
(Hebrew for teacher) ….I have seen the Lord” (John20:18).
The above words taken from
the four gospels relating the Resurrection of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
should have special meaning for us and fill us with hope and trust in God.
The Gospel from Matthew
for this Easter day reads as follows; “After
the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the
other Mary went to see the tomb. And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for
an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone
and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as
snow. For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead
men. But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are
looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as
he said. Come; see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his
disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of
you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.” So they
left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly
Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his
feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and
tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”
The phrase, that I
especially love and keep deep in my heart, is “Do Not Be Afraid” simply put, if
you have faith in God and the truly believe the promises of Jesus Christ, there
is nothing in life that you need to be afraid of.
By placing your trust in
the will of God and believing that everything in life has a God given purpose,
even the dissension that causes
separation, bickering, or the power seeking of all those who profess to
be followers of Christ and act in an manner that is inconsistent with Christ's
teachings.
In these days where
division seems to be all around us in government and even faith communities we
need to seek out what the root cause of it is.
At the heart of most of
the discourse is the desire for power, control and most of all, MONEY.
How foolish we mere mortals are, we allow our pride, greed
and envy to cloud our eyes so that we forget the message proclaimed by Jesus
through His resurrection. The message that with God, all things can be
conquered, even death. We also seem to
conveniently forget what Christ has taught us by His life, words and deeds. “Love
one another as I have loved You”
Christ proved His love and
God's infinite mercy and love for us in the ultimate way, by willingly
accepting death, not just any death, but the ignominious death of crucifixion.
What greater love could a person have but to be willing to give up their own
life for another.
Christ not only conquered
death, he conquered our sins because by His overcoming death and with His
resurrection he brought us forgiveness for our weaknesses and gained for us the
promise of everlasting life.
Jesus came to us from
Almighty God to be a “Rabbouni” teacher to us. He came to teach us the way to
our own salvation and glory. The sad thing is, all too often, we are either not
willing to truly hear the teachings of Christ or if we do hear them we choose
not to follow them because they are inconvenient for us.
All the proclamations of
Hallelujah, all the prayers, all the ceremonial trappings and fancy vestments
are for naught if we do not follow through with actions. If we do not assist the poor and needy, speak
out against injustice and discrimination and share our gifts with those who are
less fortunate all our proclamations of loving God are just hot air. We need to affirm, as Mary Magdalene did
when she proclaimed “Rabbouni” that Jesus was the teacher and we learned His
lessons and we follow them by our actions in daily life.
Jesus was, is, and always
will be the head of the church. He is directing those who believe through the
Holy Spirit, “the giver of life who
proceeds from the Father and the son. With the Father and the son, is worshiped
and glorified. He has spoken through the prophets.” (Nicene Creed) He speaks to each and every one of us who
desire to know His truth and seek it out.
He does not just speak to the hierarchy but to all who, through Baptism,
have been called to “priesthood” not just those who have been consecrated as
“Presbyters”. Each and every person who
has been born again in Baptism needs to open their own hearts and minds and
listen for the voice of God speaking
within us and judge how what we are hearing complies with what Christ taught
us, in not only His words but by His actions.
We need to acknowledge
Christ by seeking the truth found in His teachings. We need to act in our daily
lives in the manner that is consistent with how Jesus instructed us in the
Beatitudes.
“Why do you search for
the living (Jesus) among the dead? “He has been raised, exactly as He promised”
Jesus is alive; he is
alive in the hearts and souls of all those who have been reborn through Baptism
and who faithfully live according to His instructions. Christ is alive in every
person who partakes of the “living Bread” the Eucharist.
He gave himself to us,
died for us and rose from the dead to conquer forever death from sin. Jesus taught us the way in order for us to
know how to carry on His work here on earth while he and the Father watch over
us. On this Easter day, we need to
believe and accept God’s will as taught by Christ in words, deed and actions
and emulate them in our life.
On this glorious day when
we celebrate the resurrection of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Let each of
us who believe in Him and accept the call to “Come Follow Me” (Luke 18:22) and work together to bring all who
believe in the message and teachings of Christ together again as one family.
Each and every one of us needs to make a concerted effort to repair the
breaches that have torn us apart into separate factions, usually over some man
made regulations that were instituted for the purpose of gaining control, power
or political gain and which have nothing to do with God‘s will.
There is only one God.
There was only one Jesus Christ. Christ,
though His Apostles established one church, one faith. It was not until that church, for political
gain under Constantine, began to selectively pick and choose the teaching that
fit their agenda and objectives that separation began and culminated when one
Bishop decided that He, and only He was infallible and those who were supposed
to be his equals were now subservient to him.
Every Baptized Christian
is called to be Christ's and God's servants and disciples.
All of us are called to
live our faith and the teachings of Christ in our thoughts, words, and actions
and not just by giving lip service.
We need to not only talk
the talk but we need to Walk the walk.
Those of us who have been
called to be shepherds and presbyters of His flock need find ways to work
together with one voice just as Jesus spoke with one voice. We need to stop the
name calling and jockeying for power and financial gain and come together in
unity with one message, the message that Christ claimed was the two greatest
commandments, “Love the Lord, your God,
with your whole heart, mind, soul and body and the second is like unto it, Love
your neighbor as you love yourself”
We need to realize that
every human on the face of the earth is a child of God and our neighbor. We
need to stop discriminating against people because of their race, creed,
marital status or sexual orientation and respect everyone as a child of God and
our neighbor.
The Easter season has many
symbols associated with it and some that people often do not know why we have
Lilies, Eggs, Rabbits and baby chicks on this holiday that really is a
Christian feast day.
The egg is a symbol of the
rock tomb out of which Christ emerged when he arose again. The chick, hatching
out of the egg, symbolizes new life or re-birth.
The rabbit, or hare, was a
symbol of abundant new life in ancient times, and reminds us of spring and new
life.
One symbol that many people do not know is the Butterfly, which symbolizes the risen Christ since the Caterpillar has to die in the cocoon ( grave) to rise again as the beautiful butterfly.
One symbol that many people do not know is the Butterfly, which symbolizes the risen Christ since the Caterpillar has to die in the cocoon ( grave) to rise again as the beautiful butterfly.
We Christians have a
responsibility to make known to our children why we have Chickens, Rabbits, and
eggs on this feast day and what they symbolize.
Without Christ rising form
the dead, his life, our ability to have everlasting life in heaven and the
forgiveness of sin and his enduring his passion and death would have all been a
total waste.
Christ has given us new
life just as His rising brought a new life and meaning to the teachings of God
through the ages.
By living in accord with
Christ’s teachings and proclaiming every Easter Sunday morning, “Alleluia, Alleluia, This is the Day the Lord
has made, let us rejoice and be Glad, Jesus Christ has risen, Jesus is alive.
Alleluia, Alleluia.” we are saying that Jesus lives today in each of us and
we are carrying out His way each and every day.
Let
us pray; “Give praise to the Lord, for He
is good: for His mercy endures for ever. Alleluia, Alleluia. Send down Your
spirit of love upon us and through your goodness make us of one mind who you
have bless with the Paschal Sacrament.
All glory honor and praise be yours, now and forever. AMEN.
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