EASTER 2020 – Father Gagné

Dear Parishioners,

         Each year we await natures rebirth at the end of winters bleakness. No matter how cold or harsh winter might be, creation responds to the sun’s rays, as it climbs higher in the sky, as the earth moves toward the spring equinox and on to the summer solstice. With the colors of the magnolia and cherry blossoms, and the yellow of forsythia and daffodils, creation announces itself amidst the grays and browns of past summer and fall’s faded glory.

        This recurring cycle of life brings stability and the reassurance of a new growing season. It lifts our spirits and brings us a renewed sense of purpose as we plan our gardens and prepare for the joys of summer, with its warm breezes, beautiful sunrises, and lingering sunsets.

       For the followers of Jesus there is also a spiritual springtime of awakening and new birth, a season of hope and possibilities. While are souls are held captive in our mortal bodies, the Easter mystery, indeed the Easter Sacrament, frees us to rise with Jesus to a new life. We rise with Jesus, who for our sake fell three times under the weight of the cross, and who rose. He showed us how to rise to love of enemy and friend alike, to rise to forgive even those who used the hammer, and he taught us how to stand in integrity before the world, as he stood before Pilate and the crowds, that called for his death.

       The yearly celebration of the Pascal Mystery is the springtime for our minds and hearts and souls and bodies, to rise from the snares of Satan’s hopelessness. We see in the resurrection of Jesus the end of Satan’s pride, the end of death, the possibility of new life. Like creation we too come back to life. We who are made in the imagine and likeness of God, come forth from our tombs of hopeless and despair. The power of Christ’s Resurrection, transforms our mortal nature in the image of his immortal one. Jesus humbled himself to share in our humanity, that we could share in his divinity.

       May Christ rising from the grave fill us with new life and hope, and cause us to join all of creation in its endless array of color and beauty, as renewed in mind and body we acclaim, “Worthy is the lamb who was slain, to receive honor and glory and power, Amen, Alleluia. A blessed Easter Season to you. 

Father Gagne