THIS IS THE DAY THE LORD HAS MADE, LET US REJOICE AND BE GLAD! ALLELUIA!
Easter is a season for rejoicing in the new creation God has brought about in the Resurrection of Christ. But that does not mean that we pretend that there is no darkness in the world. Easter is not about leaving suffering behind, forgetting where we have been. Quite the reverse. The disciples can only recognize the risen Christ by his wounds. In Easter, the season of the new creation, we learn to find hope and joy not by forgetting the sufferings of our daily lives, but by recognizing that Christ is with us in those very sufferings. Death no longer has the last word. We are dying, Saint Paul said, “and behold we live” (2 Corinthians 6:9).
Today is Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. Let us pray for God’s ancient people, our Jewish sisters and brothers, the first to hear the word of God, for greater understanding between Christian and Jew, for the removal of our blindness and bitterness of heart. That God will grant us grace to be faithful to his covenant and to grow in love of his name.
May 5 is National Day of Prayer. We Pray to Almighty God to remember America and its foundations on which it was built, remember the prayers of our mothers and fathers and do not forget us in our time of need.
As the Church celebrates today the Beatification of Pope John Paul II, we pray, "John Paul the Great, pray for us!"
