+ Anyone who has been to at least three of the Masses of which I am the celebrant knows that I always end the Mass the same way: by invoking a blessing of joy, hope and peace, before the final blessing and dismissal: to love and serve the Lord, as we love and serve one another (which is always the same at all of my Masses). You can count on this ritual every time – even today, although there is a special Solemn Blessing before the dismissal because it is Easter. And of course the usual response to my short prayer of blessing is: AMEN! – but I don't always hear it as loudly or enthusiastically at it might be heard. Maybe if I explain where it comes from, a more resounding response can be made from now on.
The source of the Joy, Hope and Peace that I talk about is EASTER! For surely and truly if there were no Easter: if Christ did not rise from the dead in a newness of life, then joy, hope and peace would have been impossible for everyone, forever. This needs to be understood! NO EASTER: NO JOY, NO HOPE, NO PEACE AT ALL! This applies not only to "religious people" – but it also applies to all people everywhere – those with and without religion - everybody. There is only one source of newness of life, there is only one source of the optimistic desire to go on, in spite of everything (and this applies both to the church and to the world), there is only one source of peace that is far more reaching than anyone could possibly get on their own, but which everyone on the face of the earth craves. The source is the Resurrected Jesus. His Risen Presence is available for anyone at all to experience: all it takes is the suspension of the earthly way of perceiving and verifying: the way we know the Risen Jesus is by the SUPERNATURAL EXPERIENCE OF FAITH, which itself is a gift from God, so that we can even begin to believe in the resurrection of his Son. This gift of faith – freely given to all who ask for it - allows us to venture forth in hope – following behind Jesus who loved us so much as to die for us on a Cross. And it is when we do as he tells us and imitate Jesus and carry our own cross out of love for him and his Father, that we experience the power of the resurrection: the power of Joy, the power of Hope, the power of Peace – deep abiding peace – the kind that the world cannot give or take away!
My dear people of God – we are invited today to bask in the radiant light of Easter Glory that shone round the Risen One. There is no need for there to be darkness in the world! There is no need for there to be darkness in your world. His radiance is ours by our baptism into his death and resurrection; and by it we are mandated to carry that glow of hope, and joy and peace into every part of the world that we go. Like the leaven in the second reading today: we, as Catholic Christians, are called to permeate the entire dough of society with right vision, right sense and right decisions, all emanating from the very source of our Christian lives: the Risen Lord Jesus – who will never leave us, or let us down!
It is because of all of this that I invoke an Easter Blessing of Joy, Hope and Peace at the end of every Mass I celebrate. And this is why I ask your heartfelt and convincing AMEN!
This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad. Alleluia!
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