Happy Easter! Christ lives!

by Fr. Chris Axline  |  04/20/2025  |  Weekly Reflection

What joyous news for us as we celebrate the ultimate victory of God’s Love as sin and death are deprived of their sting and given hope by Christ’s own Death and Resurrection. Before Holy Week started, I found myself reflecting on Christ’s stalwart Will going into Jerusalem. He knew what was coming and still He went willingly, boldly, lovingly. Love sent Him to Jerusalem to die and Love motivated and emboldened Him during the events of the past week as He prays, is betrayed, suffers, dies, and finally rises from the grave!

In John 17 we see what’s referred to as Jesus’s priestly prayer where John masterfully illustrates Christ in a prayer that gazes through time and sees everyone who ever lived or ever will live.

I find that incredibly moving, Christ saw me in His prayer and He saw you, and He loved us and died for us. How awesome that we can appropriate these words personally and celebrate these realities not from some historically distant event, but as some perennial, ever ancient and ever new, something applicable to each of us individually. This is why in the reality of the empty tomb we find the fullness of our joy; a joy not just from an event long ago, but something that continues to ripple through time, space, and history to each of us personally. But, reflecting on the events that led up to today’s glorious celebration we find a God who never leaves us, a God who gives meaning to suffering and shows His power by even fashioning trials and tribulations into avenues of grace and mercy.

In his Easter homily from 2006 Pope Benedict XVI wrote about this personal connection that each of us continues to have with the Resurrection as he says, “The Resurrection is not a thing of the past, the Resurrection has reached us and seized us. We grasp hold of it, we grasp hold of the risen Lord, and we know that He holds us firmly even when our hands grow weak.” Christ never lets us go. He carries us with Him always through paths that He himself trod so that in His Resurrection we need not be afraid. Easter is so joyous because it’s the victory of Christ, the Word made flesh and on this Easter day we rejoice as He reminds us that He has the last word, “I live and you will live also” (John 14:19).

On a personal note, as this is the last Easter I will celebrate with you due to my new assignment, know that it has been my absolute joy to be able to walk with you these 12 years. Literally, I grew up here as a priest, showing up as a newly ordained priest to your pastor for the last seven years. Though we part physically, we continue to see each other in the Eucharist, the font of life and love. Thank you for letting me be a part of your family. Know that you are, and always will be, in my prayers. Happy Easter and God bless!