The Gifts of Easter Continue...

Reflection on the gospel reading

2^nd Sunday of Easter (4/15/12)

John 20:19-31

The gifts of Easter continue…

There were two verses from today’s gospel that stood out to me.

“Peace be with you.”

“Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”

God does want us to have a peaceful heart and mind.  Jesus greets the apostles twice in this one reading with the words, “Peace be with you.”  Think about how you feel when you do God’s work or when you’ve made a decision based on prayer – we tend to be overcome with a sense of peace or even joy.  That is what Jesus is offering to us.  That is yet another gift He wants to give us, but we have to be open to receiving it.  If we insist on seeing the wounds - the lance in His side - or ask for miracles to happen on demand, we are missing out on the amazing beauty of God’s glory that surrounds us every day.  Our hearts are shut off from the peace that can be found in a simple still moment.

If we believe without having seen, we can find the peace that Christ offers.  That line in the gospel is speaking to all of US.  We are the ones who have not seen and have believed.  I feel like this message can be applied even beyond belief in Christ.  Even though we cannot see the plan that God has laid out for our personal lives, if we believe that He will sustain us and that He knows what will bring us happiness, then God will bless us in our journeys because we have believed.  He will bring us joy.  Through our belief and trust, we can learn to hand over our worries and allow Christ to sustain us…to fill us with “life in His name.”  I’ll be the first to admit that handing over my worries is not an easy task, but it is one worth striving for.  I believe that faith and trust go hand in hand.  As I work to build my faith, my trust will also grow, allowing me to depend more fully on Christ and His plan. 

Shake it out!!!

As we continue our journeys during Lent, we come to closer to understanding the importance of faith in our everyday lives. In the readings on Sunday, we hear about Abraham being put to the test of faith when it comes him to making a grave sacrifice of his son. It isn't until he is at the point of sacrifice that God sends an angel down and rewards Abraham's faithfulness with descents that number the stars. We are all called to have faith in God in the darkest and lowest of times as Abraham did. We are asked to put faith in God no matter the circumstance and because of our faith in Him, we will be rewarded in heaven. The priest likened it to mountains and valleys in our lives. Even when we are in the lowest valley and our faith is faltering, we must continue to have faith that this the path that God has set for us and through that faith we can begin to climb out of the valley and onto the mountain tops, restoring our faith to fullest.

Last week I was listening to the radio and stumbled upon a song that, in my opinion, is a great reminder of the ultimate outcome of Lent. I preface this song analogy by saying that we are all open to different interpretations of songs and I respect your opinions if you don't agree.

The song relays the feeling of regrets piling up and seeing no way to get away from them. The writer then begins to understand that "I am done with my graceless heart,  So tonight I'm gonna cut it out and then restart." We use this time of Lent to be done with our own graceless hearts and start anew and wait for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter. The writer points that it's always darkest before the dawn. We have to thank God for the fact that we are given a dawn to look forward to and to open our eyes to change and allow ourselves to "Shake it out" and to "shake him (the devil) off!" so that we can again dance in the light of God! 

I hope you enjoy the song and comment on your own interpretations of the song!

Click here to listen to the Music and lyrics together!