Easter

The Three Most Powerful Words

Lina Lucci Leave a comment

Link to the original publication of this article…
http://www.catholic365.com/article/3992/living-the-year-of-mercy.html

He is risen! Three little words; and yet, their meaning is beyond comprehension. In those three little words, the words that defy reality, death, our only surety in this life, is defeated. No longer will we rot in our graves. In Christ we are promised to rise to a life more glorious than this, one with no tears, sorrow, pain, suffering, insects, predators, terrorism, politics, natural disasters, or evil.

Death, for those who believe in Christ, now means perfect, incandescent, euphoric happiness which will never cease. This alone is unconscionably amazing, but it doesn’t end there. We are called, in each day, to live as a people who are risen. When tragedy strikes, do we greet it from a perspective of death, allowing the sorrow to overcome us? Or, do we react as those who know Christ is risen, trusting in a life after this one, where all God’s plans will be revealed? In the normal mundane reality of every day life, do we putter through, with minds distracted by earthly logistics? Or, do we constantly turn our hearts to God, asking him, even in the mundane, how he is calling us to live as reflections of his resurrection?

The truth is that Christ is risen. Unimaginable? Impossible? Perhaps it seems so, but that is our reality. Christ lived, Christ died, and then beyond all understanding, he rose from the dead. This Easter season may we practice living as people who have risen from the death of sin and will one day rise from the once permanent death of this life. May we constantly turn our hearts to God filled with gratitude for all he has done and hope for all that he will continue to do. May we seek the reality of these three little words: He is risen!

An Easter Miracle: Risen

Lina Lucci Leave a comment

 

He is risen! How glorious these three little words! This Lenten Season has been one of the most visibly transformative for me in ages. Even now, as I sit down to share the wonders God has worked, I struggle to find words worthy of his miracles. Two years ago, I got my tattoo which reads “Ecce nova facio omnia” (Behold I make all things new). At the time, it was a promise I desperately needed to cling to, in the years that followed it became a hope of what might be possible, and now it has become my reality. I have journeyed with the Lord into death, its all encompassing darkness, all consuming hopelessness, and its deafening threats of permanence, but Christ has paved the way before me. He died and rose, so that this Easter, his daughter, Danielle Adelina Castellucci, could rise from the death brought on by another’s evil act. He has made of me a new creation. My joy has been restored, my hope expanded, and my soul feels more free than I can ever remember. You see, as Christians, Christ’s resurrection does not just promise that we will rise from ultimate death to eternal life, but it also promises that we can rise from the death of sin and evil that we experience in this life. Where in your life do you need to claim the promise of the risen one? May we all seek to find ways this Easter season to live as people whose God ROSE FROM THE DEAD! He is risen. Think of what that means!