Solemnity of Solemnities
Easter Sunday – 12 April – The Solemnity of the Resurrection of the Lord
A Blessed and Holy Easter to you all!
Alleluia!
Christós anésti.
Jesus Christ is risen! He is truly risen!
Alleluia!
Amen
Today we forget the troubles of the world, for we have reached our goal, today is Easter, the day we celebrate Christ’s Resurrection. This is the single most important feast day of the Church. With Christ’s Death and Resurrection, Christ has conquered sin and death, the gates of heaven are now open to man.
Yes, Lord, make us Easter people,
men and women of light,
filled with the fire of Your love.
Amen
Pope Francis
Fr Francis Fernandez from his ‘In Conversation with God: Daily Meditations, Volume Two.’ explains why this feast is so pivotal:
“The glorious Resurrection of the Lord is the key to interpreting His whole life and the ground of our faith. Without this victory over death, says St Paul, all our preaching would be useless and our faith in vain.
Furthermore, the guarantee of our future resurrection is secured upon the Resurrection of Christ, because although we were dead through sin, God, full of mercy, moved by the infinite compassion with which He loved, gave us Christ…and He raised us with Him. Easter is the celebration of our Redemption and, therefore, the celebration of thanksgiving and joy.
The Resurrection of the Lord is a central reality of the Catholic faith and has been preached as such since the beginning of Christianity. The importance of this miracle is so great that the Apostles are, above all else, witnesses of Jesus’ Resurrection (cf. Acts 1:22; 2:43; 3:15; etc.). They announce that Christ is alive and this becomes the nucleus of all their preaching. After twenty centuries this is what we announce to the world – Christ lives! The fact of the resurrection is the supreme argument for the divinity of Our Lord….”
“And Jesus Christ lives.
And this crowns us with happiness.
This is the great truth which fills our faith with meaning.
Jesus, who died on the cross, has risen.
He has triumphed over death,
He has overcome sorrow, anguish and the power of darkness…
In Him we find everything.
Outside of Him our life is empty “
AnaStpaul 