Christ is Risen!

Many feast days come and go without a second thought on how these events have touch us, shape and form us.  I would like for each of you to reflect on what impacted you during this Lent, Holy Week and Pascha.  How has our Lord’s Resurrection changed anything in your life or moved you to seek His Kingdom with a bit more urgency?  

I invited parishioners of Holy Apostles to share their thoughts and several people responded.  Here are just a few: 

“I was humming the hymns that were sung on Holy Friday and Saturday and the phrase “BE RADIANT” kept coming up.   My prayer was to make a conscious decision to be more radiant throughout the day, to be more mindful to reflect the love of Christ to my family, friends, and everyone I encountered.”

  “The bridegroom services reminds me that the giver of light wants to make the vesture of my soul radiant and full of life!  Our faces, our bodies, our actions are to reflect the light of Christ so that we may shine this light to the world.  Just as the moon reflects the light of the sun, I am to allow the light of Christ to be reflected in me and to extend this love and light to the world.” 

“When Father Tom was slinging myrrh water on Friday, I was wondering, "What IS he doing?  He's having way too much fun with the water."  Then it came to mind about the women putting myrrh and spices on Jesus' body, and then that the Church IS the body of Christ!  That was awesome!”

Another parishioner reflected on a short homily I gave about being contagious.  He said, “I never thought about being a contagious person and that it is not just physical germs I spread, but I spread an attitude wherever I am!   And while the process of people around me catching my attitude may be as invisible as the transmission of germs, the results are just as real.  People can get ‘sick’ from being around me-or they can actually feel better because they have been around me.”

Knowing Christ took on our flesh and God became man because He loves us can motivate each of us to become vessels of love and optimism.  You know that both optimism and pessimism are infectious and they spread from the heart outward in such a rapid speed.  So a husband infects his wife with whatever attitude he brings home-positive or negative.

A parent spreads their attitude to their children, a boss to his employees, a worker to his or her co-workers, a Christian leader to those who serve with him.  A friend infects other friends with the health or sickness of their attitude.  As we have taken the Paschal light of Christ’s resurrection and as a pilot light ignites the fire of a furnace that heats a home.  Let’s all ask God to fan the flame of our hearts.

Seldom do we consider how active participation in the church cycle has a positive affect on our children.   

Another parishioner writes:  “What a blessing it was to hear my children humming hymns of Holy Week in the middle of the day. “You Youths bless Him, You Priests Praise Him, and exalt him forever, unto the ages!”  I’m realizing the incredible blessing of my children hearing these hymns, year after year in their own language, making these melodies and words part of their soul.  I’m am very grateful to be a part of Holy Apostles.”   

Personally, I heard for the first time, Psalm 63:3, “Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you”.  These words jumped from my Holy Week book on Holy Tuesday and settled in my heart.  Just imagine truly living life from this comfortable and peaceful position knowing that the love of God, our Creator is better than “life itself!”

St. Paul tells us in I Corinthians to be ignited with love, to make it our habit to sincerely desire to aspire towards the essential spiritual gifts of faith, hope and love.  He clearly states that we should make love our great desire, our great quest.

We must come to see our world and ourselves in the light of God’s grace. In Christ our lives are transformed and we must accept it, choose it and it will permeate our lives with blazing light of the glorious Resurrection.  

O giver of Light, make radiant the vesture of our souls and save us!

Fr. Tom