OAPCE
Easter message from the Liaison Bishop
✠ Yvan Mathieu, SM
In a few days, at the end of the forty days of Lent, we will celebrate the mystery that is at the center of our catholic faith: the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul reminds his readers that “if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.” (v. 17) “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.” (v. 20)
No wonder the Good News of the Resurrection is at the heart of Christian Faith. That also explains why we celebrate this mystery in the course of three days, the Easter “Triduum.” In fact, if we prepare our celebration of Christ’s Passover by forty days of fasting, we celebrate the mystery of his Resurrection for fifty days, between Easter Sunday and Pentecost.
The Resurrection of Christ is the mystery that gathers us in the Catholic faith. It gives us hope that, at the end of our journey on earth, we shall be united to Christ in eternal life. Once again, let us listen to Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians: “since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. […] Therefore encourage one another with these words.” (4:14,18).
This new life already started for us on the day of baptism. “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” (Rom. 6:3-4) This is the life we asked for our children when we asked the Church to baptize them.
This gift of life comes with a mission for parents. Remember the words of the risen Lord to the disciples: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” (Matt. 28:19-20a).
As members of the Ontario Association of Parents in Catholic Education, we are the first witnesses of our Catholic faith for our Children who are baptized in the Death and the Resurrection of Christ. I pray that we take that responsibility seriously. May this Easter celebration make us grow in Love, Faith and Hope, relying on the risen Lord’s promise to the whole church: “remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matt. 28:20b).