Easter Joy!

As we begin this fourth week of Easter, let us maintain the joy of Christ’s Resurrection in our hearts.  As Pope John Paul II has said, “Do not abandon yourselves to despair.  We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song.”  We are the Easter people and Hallelujah is our song.  What does this mean for us?

This statement means that we are a people who are defined by Easter. It means we are defined by joy. One of the greatest arguments for Christianity is Christians themselves.  It is their joy through suffering, their love that is defined by sacrifice, their joy because of suffering.  This is what it means to be an Easter people!  It means looking at the cross and seeing pure love and joy. It means looking at the cross and seeing Jesus’ personal love for us and all mankind.  This love is all sacrifice, and it’s all beauty. We cannot look at the cross without the Resurrection because it is not merely the suffering that appears to our naked eye.  Likewise, we cannot look at the Resurrection without the cross.  They are unbreakably united and joined. We must never lose sight of the Resurrection when we experience hurt, suffering, and struggle in our lives.  We can choose, as St. Paul says, to rejoice in our sufferings, and in our flesh fill up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of the Church. The risen Christ still bears His wounds and the nail marks in His hands and feet.  Being an Easter people does not mean that we are free from woundedness, sorrow, or brokenness, but it means that we are not defined by our suffering, but by a loving God who loves us tenderly not despite, but because of our wounds.  How is our suffering transformed in this way?  How do we live as Easter people in the midst of pain and hurt?  To do this, we must choose to be people of Faith, of Hope, and of Love.


Faith and Hope are so closely linked that it is hard to look at one without the other.  As Catholics, we hope for things like Heaven, like Jesus’ return as triumphant King, and we know (have faith) that these things exist and will come to be.  We hope ultimately for union with Christ, as this is what we are created for, and He is what our hearts are oriented toward. We hope for freedom from certain addictions, situations, and sins. If we use the term hope loosely, we may even hope for good weather, for certain things that we want, though these are not the main objects of our hope.  Our hope lies in a God who loves us and ultimately knows what is best for us.  We must believe this (have faith in this) if we really want to live in Easter joy!  St. Paul writes in Romans, “All things work for good for those who love God (Romans 8:28)”  What need have we for fear or worry?  All we need is to pray and trust. St. Padre Pio said, “Pray, hope and don’t worry.  Worry is useless.  God is merciful and will hear your prayer…Prayer is the best weapon we have; it is the key to God’s heart.  You must speak to Jesus not only with your lips but with your heart.  In fact on certain occasions you should speak to Him only with your heart.”  To live as Easter people means to live free from worry and free from fear of any kind. Fear and worry must be replaced by Faith and Hope.

To live as Easter people in the midst of suffering also means to be people of Love, to transform our suffering into love, as Christ did on the cross.  Christ on the cross is in pain, a man rejected and betrayed, but He chooses to love anyway.  Love is a choice.  Love is a sacrifice.  We can choose to transform our sufferings into sacrifice and into Love.  God gave us this gift when He redeemed suffering.  He gave us an example and He gave us hope through His Resurrection.  Suffering is not meaningless, but is given abundant meaning when we unite it to Christ’s suffering and leave it at the foot of His Cross.  We are not called to suffer without a purpose.  Everything we do, every cross we bear, has a purpose. This is what defines us as Easter people!!! The saints show us this in their true understanding of living as Easter people.  St. Paul, after much persecution, proclaims wholeheartedly, “In all our troubles, our joy knows no bounds.(2 Cor. 7:4)”  St. Francis described perfect joy in a similar way when he spoke to one of his brothers saying, “Above all the graces and gifts of the Holy Spirit which Christ gives to His friends is that of conquering oneself and willingly enduring sufferings, insults, humiliations, and hardships for the love of Christ.  For we cannot glory in all those other marvelous gifts of God, as they are not ours but God’s, as the Apostle says: ‘What have you that you have not received?’  But we can glory in the cross of tribulations and afflictions, because that is ours, and so the Apostle says: ‘I will not glory save in the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ.’”  The source of this joy through the pain, and laughter in the midst of tears, is Christ, Love Himself. 

Easter is a time for rejoicing, for embracing our identity as Easter people. The love of Christ did not end on the cross, and this is the source of our Easter joy.  It is that love that fuels us to the love of sacrifice the whole year through.  Easter is about finding hope and joy in all of our trials and sufferings, for we have experienced the hardship of the cross AND the joy of the Resurrection.  We know that suffering has meaning, the Cross leads to the Resurrection, and as we say in the Creed every Sunday at Mass, “We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.” We live and walk by spirit. The same Spirit that raised Jesus gives life to us, and we live and walk in Him. We live in faith, hope, and love because nothing, absolutely nothing, can separate us from the love God. “We are the Easter people.  Alleluia is our song.”

Written by Kristen, Special Events Coordinator for the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm