Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday is the greatest of all Sundays, and Easter Time is the most important of all liturgical times. Easter is the celebration of the Lord’s resurrection from the dead, culminating in his Ascension to the Father and sending of the Holy Spirit upon the Church. It is characterized, above all, by the joy of glorified life and the victory over death, expressed most fully in the great resounding cry of the Christian: Alleluia!

All faith flows from faith in the resurrection: “If Christ has not been raised, then empty is our preaching; empty, too, is your faith.” (1 Corinthians 15:14)

“What you sow is not brought to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel of wheat, perhaps, or of some other kind; … So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown corruptible; it is raised incorruptible. It is sown dishonorable; it is raised glorious. It is sown weak; it is raised powerful. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual one. So, too, it is written, ‘The first man, Adam, became a living being,’ the last Adam a life-giving spirit. … Just as we have borne the image of the earthly one, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly one” (1 Corinthians 15:36-37, 42-49).

In her icon of St. Mary Magdalen, called “The Apostle to the Apostles”, +Sister Mary Charles McGough showed the moment when Mary Magdalen arrived at the Upper Room to tell the frightened Apostles that Jesus was alive! Alive! Let us rejoice! Alleluia!