The Risen Christ Makes Us A New Creation
Easter Sunday
“This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.”Ps. 118
Jesus did not come just to teach us to be better people, kinder, or even more charitable or sacrificial, nor to give us a moral code to follow. Christ came to make us new creatures, to divinize us, to make us children of God. This does not happen merely by following morality or even religious practices; it happens when we open ourselves to the Holy Spirit through faith and allow ourselves to be guided by Him, letting Him be our soul, our light, and our guide.
We cease to belong to ourselves and belong to Him. We stop commanding ourselves and doing our own will to instead do the will of God. We stop living for ourselves and begin to live for Him in everything: our way of seeing, thinking, loving; our criteria for judging, speaking, asking, spending. Our priorities and desires are no longer those we would have humanly; they have changed and been completely transformed by the light of Christ, which gives us the Gospel and the guidance of His Spirit.
The Christian life is, therefore, a new life in which one seeks not one’s own will but the will of God, not what pleases oneself but what pleases God, with the conviction that this is what is best for oneself and for others. Thus, the Christian is a gift from God to the world. So much does He love the world that He sends you, as His child, to be light and salt, to radiate His wisdom and love through various works of charity, according to the gifts each person receives from the Holy Spirit.
This is made very clear in many passages:
“That those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again for them… Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, everything has become new. And all this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ… We are therefore ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God!”2 Corinthians 5:15ff
“If we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.”Romans 14:8
We are citizens of heaven, fellow citizens with the saints, members of His body. Christ came to reconcile us with God, to bring us into communion with Him, not merely to give us a moral code for better behavior. He came so that we might pass from death to life, from being without God to having Him as our soul and life.
“If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.”Colossians 3
Seven Sorrows of Mary
The Seven Sorrows of Mary refer to seven key events in the lives of Jesus and Mary: the prophecy of Simeon, the flight into Egypt, the loss of the Child Jesus in Jerusalem, the meeting of Jesus and Mary as he carried his cross to Calvary, the Crucifixion and death of Jesus, the removal of the Body of Christ from the cross, and the burial of Jesus.
These events illustrate the great suffering endured by Our Lord and his Blessed Mother, and remind Christians to unite our own sufferings with those of Jesus, following Mary’s perfect example.
Devotion to the sorrows of Mary dates to the early centuries of Christianity, with such proponents as St. Ephrem, St. Alphonsus Liguori and St. Bridget of Sweden.
The Seven Sorrows devotion can take the form of seven Hail Marys, seven Rosaries or a novena, all recited while meditating upon the individual sorrows.
Weekly Readings
Sunday: Acts 10:34a, 37-43/Ps 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23 (24)/Col 3:1-4 or 1 Cor 5:6b-8/Jn 20:1-9 or Lk 24:1-12
Monday: Acts 2:14, 22-33/Ps 16:1-2a and 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11/Mt 28:8-15
Tuesday: Acts 2:36-41/Ps 33:4-5, 18-19, 20 and 22/Jn 20:11-18
Wednesday: Acts 3:1-10/Ps 105:1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8-9/Lk 24:13-35
Thursday: Acts 3:11-26/Ps 8:2ab and 5, 6-7, 8-9/Lk 24:35-48
Friday: Acts 4:1-12/Ps 118:1-2 and 4, 22-24, 25-27a/Jn 21:1-14
Saturday: Acts 4:13-21/Ps 118:1 and 14-15ab, 16-18, 19-21/Mk 16:9-15
Next Sunday: Acts 5:12-16/Ps 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24 (1)/Rv 1:9-11a, 12-13, 17-19/Jn 20:19-31
Observances for the Week
Sunday: Easter Sunday
Monday: Monday within the Octave of Easter
Tuesday: Tuesday within the Octave of Easter; Earth Day
Wednesday: Wednesday within the Octave of Easter; Administrative Professionals’ Day
Thursday: Thursday within the Octave of Easter
Friday: Friday within the Octave of Easter; Arbor Day
Saturday: Saturday within the Octave of Easter
Next Sunday: 2nd Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy)
