EASTER SUNDAY: "NEW LIFE"
Each weekend during Lent and on Easter Sunday, we will offer a reflection based on the lives and writings of Saint Francis and Saint Clare of Assisi. We hope and pray that you will find these reflections helpful as you walk with Christ Jesus on the long road toward his passion, death, and resurrection.
An Easter Prayer of Thanksgiving
Let us begin our Easter meditation with an Easter Prayer of Thanksgiving from the Earlier Rule of Saint Francis of Assisi:
All-powerful, most holy,
Almighty and supreme God,
Holy and just Father,
Lord King of heaven and earth
we thank You for Yourself
for through Your holy will
and through Your only Son with the Holy Spirit
You have created everything spiritual and corporal
and, after making us in Your own image and likeness,
you placed us in paradise . . .
We thank You
for as through Your Son You created us,
so through Your holy love
with which You loved us
You brought about His birth as true God and true man
by the glorious, ever-virgin, most blessed, holy Mary
and You willed to redeem us captives
through His cross and blood and death.
We thank You
for Your Son Himself will come again
in the glory of His majesty . . .
to say to all those
who have known You, adored You
and served You in penance:
"Come, you blessed of my Father,
receive the kingdom prepared for you
from the beginning of the world."
The Sacrament of Baptism
We mark special events and milestones in our lives through celebrations. We add birthday candles to decorated cakes to mark the passing of another year in our lives. We march across a stage or through a stadium wearing colored caps and gowns with tassels as we graduate from kindergarten, elementary school, high school, and sometimes college. These and other events commemorate changes in our lives.
In our spiritual lives, we also mark special moments with celebrations. As Catholic Christians, we have seven very special occasions that we remember: Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Reconciliation, Matrimony, Holy Orders, Anointing of the Sick. These seven sacraments are special occasions where we encounter our Lord Jesus Christ, where the Lord comes to us to celebrate with us, and to change our lives.
Today, we gather to mark the holiest day in our Christian tradition: the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Crucified now risen from the dead. As a community of faith we have come to celebrate the hope of new life which Christ has bestowed upon all who believe in Him. For "we were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life (Romans 6:4)."
New Life at Easter
On this Easter Sunday, we are surrounded by signs of new life and by the symbols of our own baptism: the font of water and the Paschal Candle. During the Easter celebration, we renew our baptismal promises whereby we renounce Satan and all his works and all his empty promises. And with one voice and one heart we profess our faith in God - Father, Son, and Spirit and in the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. The renewal of these baptismal promises continues with the sprinkling of the congregation with the waters newly blessed at the Easter Vigil. In this act of faith, we are again reminded of our new life in Christ. The Risen Christ has conquered death and sin and opened for us the path of holiness and brought us into the kingdom of light.
On this Easter Sunday, we also bask in the glow of the Paschal Candle, lit for the first time at the Easter Vigil. This beautiful candle was brought into a darkened Church to help us recall the power of the Light of Christ in our lives. This light was given to each of us at Baptism. It is a sign of Christ's presence in our everyday life. The light is the sign of our rebirth in the Risen Christ through the waters of baptism. The challenge is to keep this flame of faith burning brightly in our lives. Through example and word, we are called to be bright lights of faith to one another and to the world.
New Life in Assisi
In Assisi, a pilgrim can see the baptismal font in which not only Clare and Francis were baptized but also countless citizens of Assisi across the centuries. In the Cathedral of San Rufino in Assisi, one enters the church and to the right is the alcove where the baptismal font remains to this day. There we can see where both Francis and Clare received their first call to follow the Lord Jesus, in the gift of faith given to them at Baptism. They were just babies when their parents presented them for baptism. Who could know that the seed of faith planted in their hearts that day that would grow and bear fruit for the Lord and for the world?
The gift of "new life" in the Lord would also be manifested in these two saints of Assisi. With Francis' conversion, he stripped himself of worldly goods and benefits and took the robe of a poor man, the sackcloth of sinners. In this dramatic act, in the city center of Assisi, Francis rejected his earthly father and his inheritance and professed his faith in his heavenly Father and the riches of eternal life that God offers. And throughout his ministry, his mission, his service to his brothers and sisters, Francis lived the new life in Christ with faith, hope, and charity.
In a similar way, Claire also stripped herself of her earthly riches and blessings and took the veil of new life in Christ. In her act of dedicating herself to the Crucified and Risen Christ, Claire cloistered herself in prayer and experienced the graces that flow from a humble and contrite heart, from complete trust and faith in the Lord. Even in the darkest moments of physical pain or spiritual suffering, Claire basked in the light of Christ ever burning in her heart and soul, that true light of Christ first given to her at Baptism.
New life is promised to all of us in Baptism. On this Easter Sunday, as we gather in the Church for the celebration of the resurrection, may the light of Christ continue to burn brightly in our hearts and in our lives. And in the tender compassion of our God, the dawn from high shall break upon us to shine on those who dwell in darkness and in the shadow of death and to guide our feet into the way of peace.
May the Risen Lord give you peace at Easter and alway!
Saint Francis, pray for us!
Saint Clare, pray for us!
Holy men and women of Assisi, pray for us!
