HE IS NOT HERE. HE IS RISEN

Today we have a guest blogger, Arlene B. Muller. Arlene B. Muller, OSF, is a Professed Secular Franciscan, lector & Extraordinary Minister at St. Pancras Church, Member of St. Margaret's Choir, and Itinerant Speech/language Therapist.

"HE IS NOT HERE. HE IS RISEN."

(Matthew 28:1-10)

At Easter Vigil and in the Gospel for Easter Monday (April 13, 2020) we hear the greatest news in the history of the world in the message of the angel to the women who came to the tomb early on Easter morning: "DO NOT BE AFRAID! I KNOW THAT YOU ARE SEEKING JESUS THE CRUCIFIED. HE IS NOT HERE, FOR HE HAS BEEN RAISED, JUST AS HE SAID." JESUS, the One in Whom they--and now we--have put all our hope--is no longer dead! HE IS ALIVE! HE IS NO LONGER DEAD! All that He ever said is TRUE! He is truly the SON OF GOD, the SAVIOR & the promised MESSIAH, and He has won the victory over satan, sin and death!

The longer we live, the longer we can realize that GOD works in mysterious ways that are usually very different from our ways and often very different from what we would like, because He allows bad things to happen to good people. In my way of thinking love usually means doing everything possible to protect the ones I love from suffering, hurt and pain, even moving heaven and earth if I only could! From an earthly, human perspective it is hurtful and even incomprehensible to think of the FATHER allowing and even willing that His beloved SON endure all these terrible things: betrayal, abandonment, scourging & execution by crucifixion, which was the most horrible form of execution ever invented! But because JESUS endured the Cross and suffered for our sins and the sins of all humankind, He was raised from the dead and He ensured that all who are faithful in following Him are forgiven of our sins and have eternal life. On my perpetual calendar for April 12 there is a very fitting prayer that sums this up very well: "THANK YOU. LORD, FOR TAKING THE WORST THAT COULD HAVE HAPPENED & FOR TURNING IT INTO THE WORLD'S GREATEST VICTORY AVAILABLE TO ALL WHO ACCEPT IT."

GOD allows some strange, awful things to happen in this world, but His purpose is always for good. We look at the coronavirus that has killed over 100,000 people worldwide and put us in a quarantine that prohibits us from celebrating public communal liturgies for the most important & holiest time of the year & wonder why GOD would allow this to happen! We don't know, but we know that GOD can take even the worst that could ever happen and use it for our good. We can trust the way He has worked in our lives & in the world in the past & we can trust the promises in His Word. In JEREMIAH 29:11 the LORD says that He knows the plans He has for us, plans for peace & not for disaster, to give us a future & a hope.

For the past several weeks of ongoing quarantine, once I realized that the miraculous DIVINE intervention for which I had hoped would happen in time to bring us back to Church in time for Holy Week was not going to happen, I had wished that Holy Week & Easter could have been postponed, since we are still living in a kind of extended LENT, EXILED from our churches & unable to celebrate with each other, to perform our ministries in a public communal liturgy, & to receive our RISEN LORD in the Eucharist! For me, Easter has meant celebrating in Church, getting dressed up in new clothes, prettily groomed (complete with a manicure & pedicure), serving in ministry & especially singing in the choir with other choir members all dressed up for Easter Vigil, the highlight of the Church's Liturgical year, joyfully singing our Easter ALLELUIAs with great joy & enthusiasm!  I felt as if it could not truly be Easter while we were exiled from church--that it could not be Easter until we could come back "home" to church to celebrate liturgy together. I felt somewhat like the disciples walking along that lonely road to Emmaus who had heard the good news of the Resurrection but were still living in confusion, bewilderment & discouragement.

But FINALLY on Easter morning, after participating in televised Holy Week services--Holy Thursday, Good Friday & Easter Vigil--I could absorb & understand the deeper meaning of Easter that can NEVER be obliterated, not even by coronavirus & quarantine. The RISEN LORD conquered satan, sin & death & in His time we will experience His victory over the coronavirus.

Because JESUS CHRIST IS RISEN FROM THE DEAD we can say with St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:54, "DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP IN VICTORY". When someone dies from a disease, whether it is my Mom, who died this past June after a 3 year bout with stage 4 cancer, or the people who have died from the coronavirus, we tend to see it from the earthly perspective and say that he/she lost the battle with the disease. But from a heavenly perspective, those who have died who have followed the LORD faithfully & endured until the end have NOT lost the battle--THEY HAVE WON THE VICTORY, they are now enjoying their reward in heaven, they will be raised up on the LAST DAY & we will see them again in a joyful reunion!

In the end Easter gives us a REASON TO HOPE.  The RISEN LORD is our LIVING HOPE in every circumstance & we can look to His Resurrection as PROOF that God can turn even the worst of our circumstances to good, sometimes even greater than we could ask or imagine, whether externally, internally, or both!

From the song by Bill & Gloria Gaither:

"BECAUSE HE LIVES, I CAN FACE TOMORROW. BECAUSE HE LIVES, ALL FEAR IS GONE. BECAUSE I KNOW HE HOLDS THE FUTURE. AND LIFE IS WORTH THE LIVING, JUST BECAUSE HE LIVES."