-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org
-check out this week's LinC Letter on the back of the parish bulletin or at www.saint-albert.org/lincletter
-I will be celebrating mass on at 7:30pm on Sat Vigil and 9:30 (up) and 11:00am (down) on Easter Sunday
Swapping Identity
The resurrection of Jesus and our faith in his death and resurrection that we celebrate this Easter is not so much a significant historical event or a hope full promise for the future but a real transformation Event in the heart of every believer.
French writer Henri Barbusse (1874-1935) tells of a conversation overheard in a foxhole full of wounded men during the First World War. One of them who knows he has only moments to live says to another man, “Listen, Dominic, you’ve led a bad life. Everywhere you are wanted by the police. But there are no convictions against me. My name is clear, so, here, take my wallet, take my papers, my identity, my good name, my life and quickly, hand me your papers that I may carry all your crimes away with me in death.”
Our scriptures st. Paul to the Corinthians reminds us that our life now is hidden with Christ in God.
We see this change in identity and therefore the change in life with many people surrounding Jesus. I’m especially thoughtful of his mother Mary and the disciple whom he loves. Jesus explicitly transforms them from bereft mother and abandoned friend into mother and son with a new mission. They’ve been transformed.
What the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, the conquering of the grave, triumph over death and sin is is the offer for a new identity for all those who believe. In the waters of baptism we have all gone down and died with Christ and now risen as a new person in Christ
Powerful thing about our Christian faith is that through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ God has not taken away the effects of sin and death from this life. What he has done is revealed and thus transformed their true meaning, identity. Therefore, Death still exists and enters every life however death no longer has victory, no longer has a sting. We now, as the transformed children of God, can enter into life without fear, full of hope, and celebrating with joy in spite of the grave. The tomb is no longer the destination and endpoint of our journey it is now a doorway on our path to life.
