Dear friends, 

If there are words we need to hear in moments of anguish and pain, these are the ones who can bring some meaning to our existence. Darkness is over.  Death has been overcome.  Never in all of history has there been more darkness than the one experienced in Good Friday.  But never there has been a joy like the one the disciples felt on Easter Sunday.  If the resurrection would not have taken place, Jesus would have been a man, who according to St. Luke, “passed through life doing good. “  A rabbi with challenging teachings who could work some miracles.  A dreamer whose followers were called to love and forgive one another.   With Jesus’ death on a cross, his followers had nothing else to do but hide themselves behind locked doors and wonder what to do next.  That would have been the end of the story, if not for Easter. 

St. Paul writes in his letter to the Corinthians “If Christ is not risen, our preaching is empty and our faith is also empty”.  (I Co. 15: 14)  What is there to believe?  But we know that God raised Christ from the dead and made Him Lord of all.  “Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more.  Death no longer has dominion over Him.” (Rom. 6: 9)  And His resurrection gives us the hope of immortality.  “If we die with Christ we believe that we shall also live with Him.” (Rom 6: 8) The Easter story challenges us to live a new life in Christ.  Our sinfulness doesn’t need to be a part of us any longer.  Our pride, our anger, our moments of doubt and self-pity should not be part of our lives.  From now on, if we have risen with Christ to a new life, we need to become an “ALLELUIA people”.

But in order to rise to a new life, first we have to remove the stones that may be blocking the entrance to our own tombs.  Stones of prejudice or hatred, of envy or jealousy, of selfishness or pride.  Each one of us knows well what type of stones impede our rising from death to life.  And if we cannot removed them on our own, then we have to let the good Lord do His work in us. Our whole life should be a living sign of the resurrection of the Lord.  HE IS ALIVE!  And we are also called to this new life that only Christ can give us.  As St. Ignatius of Antioch so wisely said, “let us be an Alleluia from head to toe”.

In Christ,

Sr. Isabel Ordono, STJ