Easter Invites Us To Actively Participate With The Risen One

These pictures during work period at Don Bosco Residence evoke a strong presence of springtime irrupting in the Northeast, a sure sign of new life after a gruesome winter.  Easter’s a glorious exultant springtime, a celebration of God’s power irrupting in The Risen One, moving him from death to life.  Jose Pagola, author of Jesus: An Historical Approximation maintains that God was not a “passive” observer at Jesus’ crucifixion; rather God was on the scene to raise Jesus from the clutches of death.  The metaphor of awakening Jesus from the tomb represents the profundity of God’s active role to raise up and stand up the Crucified One.  While Jesus rose from death to life, it is all God’s doing.  Pergola points out that Jesus is “awake because God wakened him; he is standing up because God raised him; he is full of life because God filled him with God’s life” (Pagola, 389).  This loving act of God pervades through the resurrection to us.  Through Eastertide, may we be receptive of God’s desire to fill us up with life so that we can bring that Easter presence of the Risen One to all we encounter.