St. Mary of the Assumption

Maple Park, Illinois

April 2019 Parish Calendar

 

HAPPY EASTER TO ALL!  May the Lord’s love overflow in your hearts on the most blessed day of the year!

Pope Francis expressed the significance of the day very well when he said,

Death, fear and solitude are not the last word.  There is a word that transcends them, a word that only God can speak: it is the word of the Resurrection.

We look around us today at a world in which we could easily be discouraged and disheartened.  Sin and crime are featured in our news media on such a regular basis that we are surprised when it doesn’t appear on a particular day.  We see so many people struggling in so many ways: from ill health, from personal tragedies, from unemployment, from loneliness, addictions, sinful life styles, and on and on.  Many people observe these things and are tempted to lose hope.

But in the face of all these things, the Church proclaims at Easter: don’t despair! The answer to all these things is the victory of Christ, who went into the heart of death and in the Resurrection brought victory over death and everything evil.

The problem, of course, is that the full victory of Jesus will not be complete until His second coming, and in the meantime we have to live in the midst of spiritual warfare.  The enemy is found in “the world, the flesh and the devil.”

By “the world” we don’t mean God’s material creation, the earth and all things on it.  We mean the corruption of the goodness which God placed in His creation.  It is the use of created things to build an environment in which we are led away from God.

By the “flesh” we don’t mean our physical bodies.  Rather, we mean the inclination to sin that the Church calls “concupiscence.”  Because of original sin, we have within us, even after baptism, an inclination to sin, an attraction which draws us to use our desire for pleasure in ways opposed to God’s purpose for them.

By the “devil” we mean, of course, the fallen angel whom Scripture calls “the prince of this world.”  This evil spirit rebelled against God’s dominion over creation and “prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” [1 Peter 5:8].

These sources of opposition to our victory in Christ can seem so powerful and indestructible that we are tempted to fall into doubt and sometimes hopelessness. But the message of Easter rings out and calls on us to cling to Christ, our Rock and our refuge, who has told us

… in me you may have peace.  In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world [John 16:33].

On this marvelous Easter day, may we take His words into our hearts with gratitude and a courageous re-commitment to follow Him wherever He leads.  Remember the message of the Book of Revelation: Jesus has won, but the enemy keeps fighting a losing battle, unable to accept defeat.  But He will come again to claim total victory...because He has risen from the dead, and He is Lord!