"We must live as active witnesses to faith wherever we are. We your pastors notice that this mystery of life called Easter has overtaken many of your lives, no doubt, and we are thankful to God for this. Living our faith continues to be a challenge in a society that is increasingly less religious in focus. We might want to maintain our own habits, loving those who look and think as we do, judging those who do not.
We might want to ignore our faith’s invitation to radical change that invites re-examination of our own priorities, our words and actions and even our use of time. But the truth of scripture is ever ours, speaking anew to us each day, calling us to be truly an Easter people.
To be honest, there are Easter people among us here whose faithfulness inspires our own. You are the ones who trust the Holy Spirit’s presence, even in the midst of adversity. You are the ones who refuse to keep up with the envied “Joneses” and raise your children and grandchildren to do the same. You are the ones who accept your own illnesses as opportunities to intuit God’s love for you. You are the Christians who quietly feed the hungry and share your own resources with faithful abandon and shape the next generation so they will do the same. You are the Christians whose hearts ache with grief as you approach the Eucharist, tongues or hands outstretched and the “Amen” on your lips… “So be it, I believe.” And you are the ones who gather your families in the face of approaching death and remind them that they are an Easter people, a people of promises fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
We are the Easter people who believe that the cross transformed all suffering and pain and the Resurrection secured the promise of eternal life. It is this mystery this Easter faith that we are called to live each day."
~ Bishiop Joseph N Perry (from the CMCS archives)
