Journey of the Heart / Jennifer Burger

Easter and the Eucharist remind us we are ‘Resurrection people’

Easter Sunday may seem like it was a while ago, but I love that we are still able to greet everyone with a joyful Happy Easter! I appreciate the liturgical seasons in the Church that call us to orient our hearts and minds and our very lives around the person and life of Jesus. However, sometimes our lives do not always seem to follow suit.

Sitting in adoration on the Monday of Holy Week, I was giving thanks to our Lord for the many blessings in my life—with special thanks for the beautiful wedding we had just shared with our daughter and her new husband that Palm Sunday weekend. My heart was so full of love and joy—it felt like Easter already!

I began to wonder if this is what my posture should look like going into Holy Week, and if I ought to feel less joyful to “appropriately” enter this time of walking with our Lord in his Passion.

The Easter Triduum led me there later that week, but during this time in prayer in my state of bliss, I could not deny what I was feeling, and I’m certain that God did not want to take that away from me either.

It was our day of reconciliation at Our Lady of Fatima Retreat House in Indianapolis, and I was aware that there were some in that chapel who perhaps were getting ready to or who had just laid down their burdens, pains and sorrows.

I was reminded that in Christ, we carry his dying and his resurrection. I was also reminded that during Holy Week and the Easter season there would be joy and sorrow: babies would be born, and people would die; some would lose their jobs, and others would discover new opportunities; some would celebrate their first Easter together, and others would experience their first Easter without a loved one; some would enter the Church while others would remain fallen away.

Even during my daughter’s wedding, there were tender moments of both joy and sorrow, including knowing that my son-in-law’s mom, who passed away 6 ½ years ago, was not with us. The silent tears of her family and friends in attendance and the heartfelt speeches echoed her loss, but there was also a beauty in it that brought a sense of deeper joy—a peace—because it was shared.

In Christ, one’s suffering becomes our suffering, and one’s joy becomes our joy. We support and celebrate each other this way as Christians. It is the life of Christ in us. It is a life that is shared in its totality. I couldn’t think of a more beautiful way to walk through life than with each other and with Christ.

When we come together, our lives intersecting in times of joy and sadness, there at the center of these crossroads, we find Christ. It is love itself. It is the sacrificial love of Jesus on the cross and his life-giving love in the Resurrection. It is Easter.

Yes, Easter is the “feast of all feasts” in the liturgical calendar, but it is also a season for all time. We have access to Easter in the celebration of the Eucharist at every Mass, and we carry this love within us as we are sent out, sharing our lives with others.

“We are resurrection people,” St. Pope John Paul II once said, “and Alleluia is our song.” Let us celebrate it well and all year long! Happy Easter!
 

(Jennifer Burger is program manager at Our Lady of Fatima Retreat House in Indianapolis and a member of St. Simon the Apostle Parish in Indianapolis. She is also a spiritual director.) †