Sunday Reflection | Easter: New Life Every Day of our Life

Easter: New Life Every Day of our Life

People sometimes feel an anti-climax after the Sacred Paschal Triduum and the initial joy of Easter. It doesn’t have to be like that. The Church proposes we celebrate the Lord’s death and glorious resurrection every week. Over time, the Church made what earlier Christians had lovingly observed into a duty. The Christian need for the Eucharist became the “Sunday obligation” to help us when our weak human nature would prefer to press snooze, turn over, and continue sleeping.

Today’s gospel begins with the Eucharist: “The two disciples recounted what had taken place on the way, and how Jesus was made known to them in the Breaking of Bread.” The Breaking of the Bread that is His Body reminds us that the resurrection is not just a past event in history. Rather, “here and now we experience His power at work among us” (St. Leo the Great).

The Eucharist is the great Paschal Sacrament, the Passover the Lord longs to share with us (Luke 22:15). Sharing in the Body and Blood of Christ, “we are changed into what we receive” (St. Leo the Great). We take Him with us in everything we do. He lives His life in us. We become fully ourselves in Him.

Every week, we can relive the Sacred Paschal Triduum, most of all at Sunday Mass. The entire weekend/week-beginning is a mini-Triduum. Every Friday (unless it’s a solemnity), we consider Christ’s passion and undertake some kind of Friday penance. Every Saturday, Our Lady’s day, we turn to Mary and share the unswerving hope she had on that first Holy Saturday. Every Sunday is a Little Easter, the Day of the Lord’s Resurrection, the first day of the week, the day we share in the Holy Eucharist, the day we rest and spend time with family, more time with the Lord, and time, perhaps, even visiting the sick or lonely.

Even more, every day, we can relive the Paschal Triduum in the Holy Mass where the riches of Christ’s death and resurrection are there for us and we are drawn anew into His passing over from death to life. There, the graces of His lifting-up on the Cross are available to us. The more we give ourselves, the more He can do with us and for us.

Easter, then, is not just once a year. It is a way of life every day of our life. It is new life every day of our life.