Happy Easter!

"He is Risen! Alleluia!"

Easter Sunday is the Solemnity of all solemnities. In Easter Sunday we celebrate the summit of our Faith -- The Resurrection of Jesus. Through the Resurrection we profess that our faith in this Jesus is never in vain. For indeed, He is risen!

Easter Sunday then is a day of new beginnings. Jesus, after rising from the dead, destroyed death forever. Death has lost its sting. Jesus has conquered the power of sin and evil.

The body of Jesus still has the marks of the nails and the flagellation. The body that has risen is still the same body, yet the disposition is very different. The wounds no longer represent suffering and pain; instead, those very wounds represent the power of love!

Perhaps it is helpful that as we go to our parishes this day for the solemn Liturgy of Easter, let's pray for the grace to start anew -- to leave behind us a life of sin and selfishness, to put asunder all grudges and hatred we have for others, and to rise again to newness of life forgetting our pains and sorrows. We pray that like Jesus, we may look at the wounds of our life no longer in the perspective of pain, but in the light of love and new life. We start anew for indeed, our Lord is risen and He brings all things new.

Happy Easter and Happy New beginnings!