
CONGREGAZIONE
SUORE DELLA PROVVIDENZA ROSMINIANE
Via Aurelia, 773
ROMA
My dear Sisters,
After the Resurrection of Jesus, Peter is filled with the Holy Spirit and we find ourselves among the crowd, listening to him for the first time. (see Acts 10: 36-42) He speaks in a familiar way as one who knows Jesus personally and who knows about Jesus, summarizing what it means to be a Christian: Christianity is about a relationship with the Person of Jesus.
Peter says to us: “You know…
ü the message God sent … announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all;
ü what happened … how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power;
ü he went around doing good and healing all … because God was with him;
ü they killed him by hanging him on a cross;
ü God raised him on the third day and caused him to be seen by those witnesses already chosen by God”.
And then Peter makes a most amazing statement, which if we really believe it, our lives too would be changed forever; he explains that Jesus was seen ‘by us who ate and drank with him’ – the most ordinary of actions side by side with the most extraordinary – ‘after he rose from the dead’.
Peter and the disciples are transformed from their old ways, bearing witness to all that they had experienced in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. This is the message of the new-born church and it is ours today.
Jesus says to each of us: “Who are you looking for?” If we believe this claim of Peter to be true and it is also backed up by John when he says:“we proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may share our life … with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ” (1 Jn 1:3), then we cannot remain indifferent listeners to this Easter message. Our hearts too are on fire, transforming our lives radically to become disciples of Jesus, to be true witnesses in word and deed. We are given new breath of life: we are also commissioned to go and make a new creation happen in the world.
Let us look again as what we committed to at the beginning this Year of Vocation: “to meet the Risen Lord wherever we are, in taking up the challenge of living life to the full as joyful women of the resurrection” (Easter Letter 2014) Are we able to share this joy of the resurrection in nurturing the other members of ‘our Family’, whatever their age: elderly, young or not-so-old, for whom we are the first witnesses? “The Church (and Community) must be a place of mercy freely given, where everyone can feel welcomed, loved, forgiven and encouraged to live the good life of the Gospel.” (The Joy of the Gospel, 114) This is the first expression of knowing the Risen Lord.
The Easter Triduum celebrates the heart of our faith, unfolding for us the unity of Paschal Mystery of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It begins with the celebration of Last Supper where Jesus shows loving service in washing the disciples’ feet and offers his life’s blood for each of us and for the salvation of the world. Can we respond to this invitation of mutual service and of renewing the ‘offering our blood’ in union with him, after the example Bl Antonio Rosmini? If so, our Easter will be profoundly joyful which no one can take from us!
Happy Easter Triduum! Alleluia…
Love,
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