What does it mean to be Easter people?

“We are an Easter people and Alleluia is our hymn of praise!” Do you know who said this?  Do you know that the great St. Augustine was the first to proclaim this fact in an Easter Sunday sermon to the Catholic people of his Diocese of Hippo?

With the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead and after keeping the discipline of Lent of intense prayer, active good works of charity and the doing of sincere penance, is this great proclamation ours? If we say yes, then for this yes to be true and sincere, we must actually live like Easter makes a difference in our lives. That is what St. Augustine was preaching in that Easter Sunday sermon.

If we say no to this proclamation, that is truly a great sadness. We have literally wasted Lent and more. We have wasted the time the merciful God has given us to use His grace to correct our faults and to conform our very lives and persons more closely to Jesus. In essence, we have admitted that Easter does not really matter in our lives; we prefer to go the way of the world rather than follow faithfully Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life.

However, no matter what, the Lord does not abandon us but continues to offer us the opportunity to return to Him with our whole hearts. If we neglected the discipline of Lent, we could still do it if we choose. We can still go to confession and receive worthily Holy Communion and be faithful to our obligations as Catholics.

What St. Augustine meant in that Easter Sunday sermon when he taught his people what it means to be “Easter people,” was simply this: their faith in Jesus Crucified and Risen must be lived by imitating Him in daily life by the way they spoke, thought and acted. Anything else was a betrayal of Jesus and their faith. It was true then and is just as true today and will always be true.

Pope Benedict XVI put Easter Sunday this way: “God lives!” This should help us understand what St. Augustine was preaching. We have a hope that only the Risen Savior can reveal to us and to the world. With this faith and hope what else could we possibly need?

Have a most Blessed and Holy Easter and Easter Season!