4/17/2022

A Glorious and Blessed Easter to each and every one of you today! This is the day which we have been preparing for all during Lent. It is the celebration of the “Big Bang” of the New Creation. The original Big Bang was an explosion from a single point, which has no dimensions of length or width or depth, into the whole universe. Scientists think that this happened 13.8 billion years ago.
Christ came to usher in a New Creation, made possible by the Incarnation, then brought about by the suffering, death, and Resurrection of Christ, Our Savior. We call Christ “Our Savior” because through sin in the Old Creation we die, but in the New Creation Christ makes possible eternal life for us in union with God. The first creation is studied by astronomers using the tools of physics and chemistry; the second we know mostly from what Christ did after His Resurrection, the sending of the Holy Spirit, and periodic eruptions of grace throughout history. We really don’t understand the physics or the chemistry of it. What we know about it is through faith which tells us that the old must die in order to set off the transformation into the New Creation. So we all die to this world (Old Creation) when we are baptized, in order to begin our entry into the New Creation. Today, on Easter Sunday, we marvel at the power of the New Creation and the transformation of everything that it will ultimately entail.
One of the consequences of the New Creation is the tremendous availability of the grace of forgiveness. The Resurrection provides the power (it is the dynamo) that drives the outpouring of grace into and through the Church and the sacraments – enough grace to make holy all of humanity. One of the great sacraments, which we traditionally celebrate on Easter, is Baptism. The one we most frequently celebrate is Eucharist. The grace is there if only we will open our hearts and souls.
It is no coincidence that Divine Mercy Sunday follows on the heels of the celebration of the Resurrection. The grace to forgive and be forgiven explodes onto the scene. The love which drives this forgiveness radiates from the side of Jesus as water and blood. It is a special feast for us, one in which we seek forgiveness, in which we seek to be bathed in the mercy of our Risen Savior. And God as provides, all we can say is “ALLELUIA!”
Next Sunday, April 24th, we will not have a service here at 3 PM as we did last year (unless someone wants to gather and pray – the church is always open for that). Rather, Conception Abbey is inviting anyone and everyone to come and chant the Divine Chaplet with them at 3 PM on Sunday, April 24, in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. They have asked for a number of us priests to come and hear confessions at the service. I will be one of those priests. I encourage you to come and pray, receive the mercy of God in confession, and celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday afternoon at Conception Abbey. There is a plenary indulgence associated with receiving communion, going to confession, and praying the Divine Chaplet on this Sunday. Details for the indulgence will be posted on a large bulletin board in the gathering space, FYI.
For the next 50 days until Pentecost, we will be celebrating the Resurrection and its many dimensions. Let us allow this wonderful feast to take over our lives as we enter more deeply into this New Creation.

In the Risen Christ, Father Albert, O.S.B.