Easter 2023
Easter message to LSA, friends and families
In the narrative of the disciples of Emmaus (Luke 24: 35-48), perhaps the most beautiful passage of the Gospel of Luke, is the following: “the disciples are under the impression that the death of Jesus has put an end to what they perceived as an enthralling ideal that has become a mere illusion. “.
“We, we hoped…”
Jesus was able to reveal the meaning of the Paschal mystery to the two disciples because, they had previously opened up about their lives and their hopes. Cleopas and his companion have a project for the individual and for the world: the “liberation of Israel”, a project which is so powerful that it brought them to totally commit themselves. They believed that Jesus would carry out this plan… but in vain. Back in Emmaus, they discuss along the way, this hope; a hope that no longer makes sense.
We too, we hope. How not to hope in a world that needs so much hope? We hoped that the war in Ukraine would not have lasted over a year. We hoped that in the 21st century there would no longer be more than 200 million people suffering from hunger. We hoped for a world in which inequalities would decrease instead of soaring, where wealth would be fairly distributed between countries and people. We hoped…
Jesus joined the Emmaus disciples in the midst of their concerns as he does in the midst of ours, and He allows them to take the time they need to express their disappointed hope. Jesus speaks with them not to change their project but to give it its true meaning. Jesus starts from what they were experiencing; he places their lives in God’s great project expressed through the Scriptures. He reiterates their hope in terms of Scripture. And their hearts burn. Jesus appears to them and makes them, as he makes us, witnesses. At our community gatherings, let us not hesitate to share with each other these moments when our hearts burn within us, a sign of God’s life in us.
Our hearts are set ablaze when in contact with the Scriptures, but the recognition is only finally made in the Eucharistic gesture of the breaking of bread.
With the disciples of Emmaus, there is a journey of the heart. It goes from the experience of the Cross, from a dead hope to a living faith when the presence of Jesus is acknowledged. Hope is a call to the infinite; it invites us to a never-ending search. It is when it all seems desperate that the light of hope dawns within us.
We too need the proximity of Scripture to strengthen our sense of hope. So it is the Eucharist, which will tell us again where this hope comes from and where it leads us. Like the disciples of Emmaus, this experience of resurrection, which the liturgy of the Church helps us to renew each year, takes us back to the community, to the mission, to an inner impulse to share our deep joy, wherever we are sent.
“…One of the fruits of Easter feasts for us” says Fr. Pernet “will be the resolution that we will take together to go to Jesus risen in glory, to listen to His word, to put ourselves under the action of His grace and to willingly lend ourselves to it”[2].
In our last General Chapter, we discovered ourselves to be companions of hope of Ruth and Naomi, two women who also set out after the apparent failure of their lives: with no husband, no progeny, nor land. In the midst of their loss, they were able to discover a project for the future.
Life circulates in the Congregation. The spirit is instilled from generation to generation, with the same desire to experience God’s saving love in weakness and poverty. An invitation to walk together in trust, entrusting the future to the Risen Christ.
With the resurrection of Jesus, all is done and all remains to be done. This is why the joy of knowing that love, life and truth have triumphed does not leave us inactive. Quite the contrary, it pushes us towards the mission. A mission that starts by saying our joy and our certainty: Jesus is Risen, and his Reign is already among us.
May the Risen Christ guide us in rediscovering the project of the Kingdom, which does not progress at the pace of our wishes, but which is as certain as the triumph of Life over death that the Easter sequence proclaims so well:
Death and life clashed in a prodigious duel.
The Master of life died; alive, he reigns.
“Tell us, Mary Magdalene, what did you see on your journey?”
“I saw the tomb of the living Christ,
I saw the glory of the Risen One.
I saw his angels as witnesses,
the shroud and the garments.
Christ, my hope, is risen!
He will go ahead of you in Galilee”.
Happy Easter to all, friends and families !