Are you still trying to put yourself into becoming “overcome with Paschal joy”? the Easter season isn’t a time to work ourselves up into an emotionally fevered pitch, rather it is an event of the Resurrection of Christ, a fact which redefines all of creation and human history.
It’s the positive element of the Church’s proclamation of the Gospel. And still, somehow, we can’t even seem to figure out how to live faithfully in the post-Resurrection world.
However, Easter instructs us that the Resurrection of Christ illuminates across the past, present and future. It determines how we desire to view our past sin, what we wish to do in the present, and what we may hope for.
So, the first step towards Easter not as a season but as a way of life isn’t to remove it to the past like for instance, “Christ is risen but that was a long time ago and now we’re on our own”.
Easter is the thread that connects our past, present and future. If we can see that, then we’re more likely to recognize the presence of the Risen Christ and then we can be able to talk about a more-than-merely-passing “Paschal joy.”
So, looking at the past: the Risen Christ doesn’t cancel the enduring reality and meaning of Crucified Christ. Be cautious about anyone who speaks in this manner: “There was the cross BUT, there is the resurrection.”
The constant preaching of the Church emphasizes that, where Christ Crucified is found, Christ Risen is also to be found. The Resurrection isn’t a divinely-added dessert to Christ’s suffering or to ours.
Looking at the present, and looking at the past, as we see that Crucified Christ is Risen Christ, we can find Reigning Christ even in the present, where mandatory emotions make no sense, a present where evil doesn’t appear to acknowledge that victory of Christ.
In the present also, we can meet the Reigning Christ in the life of the Church, especially in the Gospels, and in the sacraments, specifically in the Eucharist.
Time-by-time, the Reigning Christ gives Himself to us as the Way, the Truth and the Life. Time-by-time and above all in the Eucharist, Christ calls us to conform our minds to his, to conform our hearts to his, to conform even our flesh and blood to his.
Living for and from such invitation, clearly and joyfully, we can face the future with hope.
Also, looking to the future and looking at the present, seeing that Crucified Christ who is the Risen Christ is is also the Reigning Christ, we can see that Our Blessed Lord is also the Returning Christ.
The glorified humanity of Christ which stands forever before the Heavenly Father. And this is an icon of what awaits all the faithful Christians who have been conformed to body and soul of Christ which is an icon that is reflected by Our Blessed Mother since the time of her Assumption into Heaven.
That glorious future is constantly calling us forward to our only true home, where a banquet is already prepared for us. Therefore, looking to such a future will help us to yield to the power of the Holy Spirit breathed into the Church at Pentecost, which is a power that can bear us up into Heaven.
In that case, we meditate on the Scriptures and deep ourselves in the coming Solemnities which includes the Ascension, Pentecost and the Assumption then our lives can make sense, and we can live the graces of Easter, not as a mere season, but as the defining reality of our lives and all of creation. And that’s worth for celebration even we feel like it or not.
