April 8, EASTER
SUNDAY 8:30 am, 10:00 am and 12:00 noon
April 9, Monday Mass
– 9:00 am Office
Closed
HAPPY EASTER
A special welcome to
the new members of our St. Dominic Community:
Tracy McCaughan, Glen Harper and Baby Rachel
Harper!
The Resurrection of
Christ is the cornerstone of our Christian faith. St Paul tells us in his
letter to the Corinthians, (15:14), that if Christ has not been raised from the
dead, our faith will be empty and useless. But the Resurrection of Christ is
not merely something "out there," not merely an historical fact at
which we gaze admiringly. It is a present reality in which, through Baptism, we
are intimately involved. "If we have been united with him through likeness
to his death, so shall we be through a like resurrection" (Romans 6:5).
Our sharing in the
crucifixion-Resurrection of Jesus brings about a mysterious change in our very
being. Paul expresses it in a startling way: "I have been crucified with Christ,
and the life I live now is not my own; Christ is living in me" (Galatians
2:20). The English poet Andrew Young, in his poem "Nicodemus,"
arrives at the same conclusion:
Why do I kneel before
your empty tomb? You are not here, for you are everywhere; the grass, the
trees, the air, the wind, the sky, Nothing can now refuse to be your home; nor
I Lord. Live in me and I shall live.
This intimate union between
Christ and the Christian calls for a new way of life. We must change our
behavior. Saint Paul writes that we should put to death whatever in our nature
is rooted in earth (see Colossians 3:5), precisely BECAUSE we share the new
life of Christ. Corruption and wickedness must yield to sincerity and
truth. He invites us to put teeth into today's annual renewal of
baptismal promises. Putting teeth into our baptismal promises will challenge
each of us in different ways. The goal is "Easter Living" all year
long.
