May the grace and peace of the Risen Lord Jesus be with you! We have just celebrated the great Feast of Easter, culminating the sacred Triduum, the Three Days that are the holiest time of our year and the center of our life, especially our liturgical life. We have rejoiced once again in His gift to us of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and of the priesthood. We have solemnly commemorated His sacred Passion and Death. We have rejoiced at the glory of His Resurrection. We celebrate that Resurrection in a very special way on Easter, but it is obviously also true that His Resurrection is part of the ongoing, even daily, celebration of our life.

His Resurrection power in us is what gives us the ability to be His People. It is that very power that enables us to "become children of God" (St. John 1:12). This same power acting in us "is able to do superabundantly more than we can ask or think." (Ephesians 3:20). It is that very power that the Lord Jesus had to lay down His life and to take it up again. (St. John 10:18). He has given us this power. This is the power that St. Paul longed to experience, praying that he might "know him and the power of his resurrection." (Philippians 3:10). He prayed for those he loved to also have this power: "May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy." (Colossians 1:11). Clearly our celebration of Easter is not simply about the power of the Resurrection having raised the Lord Jesus from the dead. It is also about His having shared that very power with us. We who are His followers are meant to walk and to live in the power of His Resurrection.

But do we? That is the $94,000 question (the $64,000 question correcting for inflation) Do we live our daily lives in the power of the Resurrection? Or do we live, for all practical purposes, as if we possessed none of that glorious power? This is something for us to reflect on as we continue in our celebration of the Easter season. For, in addition to using this time to joyously celebrate His Resurrection, we also need to use it to prepare our hearts for a deeper coming of the power of the Spirit as we now approach the great Feast of Pentecost. For His Spirit dwelling in us is that source of Resurrection power, as St. Paul points out to the Romans: "If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit which dwells in you." (Romans 8:11) He longs to give us more and more of that power. If right now we are living as if we were dead, i.e. did not possess that glorious Resurrection power, then we need to plead with Him to give us more of His Spirit of life, that He might give that life to our mortal bodies. This is how we receive the abundant life that He promised us (St. John 10:10). Let each of us, in all humility, soberly assess our situation: are we alive in the power of the Spirit, or are we dead? And, if we are dead, are we willing to let Him once again bring us to life, the fullness of life that He has for each of us? This is what He longs to do: "if you then…know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? (St. Luke, 11:13). I commend you to the care of the Mother of God and the protection of St. Michael.

Fr. Ed