Contributed By: Rev. Stewart M. Lindsay, OSFS
(Download Reflection)

Father Stew is a priest with Holy Family of Jesus, Mary & Joseph Parish in Niagara Falls. This reflection is Father Stew’s Easter newsletter message for the Holy Family Parish. It gets us started off on the right foot for our walk through Holy Week. It reminds us of the journey ahead, the stops along the way, and especially about the blessings at our ultimate destination—Easter Morning.

Dear Parishioners,

BLESSED EASTER TO ALL OF YOU.

There is a story about a lady in Hanover Germany who was very strong in her belief that there was no resurrection from the dead. When she died and was buried, she made arrangements to have placed over her grave huge slabs of granite and marble cemented together and fastened with heavy steel clasps. Over the years a tiny seed under the slab began to grow and it eventually broke through the slabs and the grave was exposed.

We Are All One

Easter is a testimony that if nature can move huge stones, God, who moved the stone from Jesus’s grave, can break through the stony heart, the slab of hate and division, the mountain of self-centeredness that separates people from God and one another. This tiny virus, that is changing the whole world, does not care if you are rich or poor, what religion you believe in, what country you came from, what age you are, whether you are a saint or sinner. We are all one.

Easter is also a testimony to the over-abundance of love shown to us by Jesus Christ. He died for our sins on the cross and on the way to his death he washed the feet of the apostles and kissed Judas. He healed the ear of Malchus whose ear was cut off by Peter. He consoled the women along the way of the cross. He thanked Simon of Cyrene for helping carry the cross. He forgave the soldiers and prayed for his murderers. He reassured the man who was hung on the cross next to Him and told him he would be with Him in paradise. He entrusted his mother Mary to his disciples. All of this as he was led to his death for us.

Easter is about resurrection, not just Christ’s but the possibility of our own resurrection—from sin and despair, from all those things that keep us from God and one another—if we respond to His grace.

CHRIST HAS DIED, CHRIST HAS RISEN, CHRIST WILL COME AGAIN. BLESSED EASTER TO ALL OF YOU.

Father Stew