Everyone at Chestnut Hill Center sends you our warmest greetings on this great celebration of Easter, the feast of the Resurrection of Our Lord.
During Holy Week in Rome, Pope Francis addressed university students who had come to visit St. Peter’s Church and so many other sites in the Holy City. He spoke of the tremendous reality and emotional exultation of the Risen Lord. Pope Francis noted that the words, Christ is Risen, “contain not only an announcement of joy and hope, but also an appeal to responsibility and mission. And it does not end with the Easter cake, the eggs, the parties – even if this is nice because as it is a family celebration – but it does not end with that. There begins the journey to the mission, to the proclamation: Christ is risen. And this announcement, to which the Triduum leads us by preparing us to welcome it, is the center of our faith and of our hope, it is the core, it is the announcement, it is – a difficult word, but which says everything – it is the kerygma, which continually evangelizes the Church and that it is in turn sent to evangelize.”
These are striking thoughts for us to meditate and act upon these days. We should reflect upon our role of Christians and our responsibility to spread the message of the Risen Christ. Do we desire to spread this message? We can start right we are, in our families, at our workplace, the gym. It often takes just a smile, a kind word, a show of interest to motivate someone to seek out the Risen Christ and what a difference He can make in their lives.
The Prelate of Opus Dei, Msgr. Fernando Ocariz, made a suggestion at the Holy Thursday services in Rome that can help us respond to the thoughts of the Pope and fortify our resolve to bring Christ to others. We can respond “by offering to accompany Him, taking part in the Holy Mass, spending time with Him in front of the tabernacle or in an act of Eucharistic adoration. What place does the Eucharist have in my life?”