God lives!

By the time you receive the May issue of our diocesan newspaper we will have celebrated our Catholic Church’s greatest feast, Easter Sunday, as the culmination of the Paschal Triduum. While the holy penitential season of Lent came to an end at the close of Wednesday of Holy Week, we began the shortest (in number of days) but most solemn liturgical season in our year, the Paschal Triduum, beginning the evening of Holy Thursday and ending with the evening of Easter Sunday. I want to assure each of you that I offered the Church’s liturgies during these days for your intentions and for the continued growth of all of us in the Diocese of Bismarck in our faith, hope and charity.

What do we learn from this most sacred time in our lives? The act of supreme love which Jesus gave to us under sacramental signs at the Last Supper, He gave up in His flesh to His Father for us on the altar of the cross on Good Friday. With His descent to the faithful and holy dead on Holy Saturday and His glorious resurrection on Easter Sunday, we learn that God lives and is a most loving and merciful God. What a gift and what a lesson for each of us! In spite of all of our sins, He does not stop loving us and waiting for us to return to Him.

The next fifty days of the Easter season give us the grace-filled chance to live what we began during Lent and take it to the next level of holiness of life. The Paschal Triduum not only helps us remember how merciful God has been to us, it reveals to us our own future in God’s plan, if we wish to be a part of His plan. Our future is not here but it is in heaven. Jesus Christ has literally given this future back to us—along with every means to make our future a reality. He will never repeat His holy passion, death and resurrection again; it is not necessary. What is needed is our firm resolve to not do anything that will be an obstacle to having the future He has given us.

As we know, the month of May in the life of our Church, by long and rich custom, has been dedicated to the honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary. A good way to fully involve ourselves in the glory and graces of the Easter season is to pray the holy rosary each day. Place yourself next to Mary and as you pray each mystery of the life of Jesus, think with the mind and heart of His mother. She loved Him totally and her entire life and her very person revolved about Him and His life. His joys and sorrows were her joys and sorrows; His glory is now her glory with Him in heaven and, all of this is ours if we want it and seek it in and through His Church.

May all of us continue to have and enjoy a most blessed Easter season. May Jesus Christ be praised!

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