ALLELUIA, UP FROM THE GRAVE HE AROSE

ALLELUIA, UP FROM THE GRAVE HE AROSE: Acts 10:34.37-43, Col. 3:1-4, Jn 20:1-9. Today we sing and shout Alleluia because our patience, hope and faith have not failed us. Today is the greatest of all Sundays in the Christian calendar because of the renewal of life that it brings. St Paul was convinced of this when he acknowledged: “For his sake I count everything as a loss, and I regard them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him” (Phil. 3:7-10). The resurrection of Jesus is a gift of new life to us transforming our darkness into light and dreariness into life. We could look into the false assumptions about life, vanities that we are after and false securities we rely upon, where the light of Easter has not penetrated and throw open the light of the Risen Lord.

In reordering one’s own values and priorities, in stretching out our hands in kindness and compassion and in daring to hope in the hopeless situation, Jesus is risen. In Easter we dare to believe the ‘impossible.’ God has the answer. He will not let His creation slip out of His hands. He loves the world. He loves us. He is risen! We need to be Easter people: We are in truth called to be an "Easter people", because there are many Easter moments in our lives. It may be in prayer, when for a moment we really experience the love of God, especially having felt His absence, as we often do, like the disciples who experienced the emptiness of the tomb. It may be that moment when we are touched and given hope by a word of Scripture - like the disciples on the road to Emmaus when their hearts were uplifted in joy and hope as the Lord opened up the scriptures to them.

May the Lord help us that our lives may proclaim the goodness of God, our work give God the honour and our voices celebrate Him forever! Amen!! Good morning and Happy Easter!!!