WEDNESDAY HOMILY: Wearing the Resurrection By Smiling

God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.God is calling bold and intrepid apostles of our age to be like those of old, to have apostolic joy amidst apostolic sufferings.

style="text-align: justify;">HYTHE, KENT, UK (Catholic Online) - Lent = Penance while Easter = Party  At least in the mind of most Catholics this is true.

However, have you ever tried living the grace of the Resurrection for one solid hour?  Have you ever tried to fill each moment to the brim with rejoicing in the fact that God is triumphant over the world, the flesh, the devil, sin and death?  For if you truly lived this grace it would mean that you would be perpetually smiling at God and at neighbor.

Smile?  Try it.  Try rejoicing in God without relenting - unceasing joy.  Easter is not without it's work, it's own penance. Easter is a time where we choose to rejoice.  We wear crosses around our necks.  This is good.  It reminds us and claims us for Christ and shows the world what we stand for.  But what about wearing the Resurrection?  What about smiling without end?

Don't get me wrong.  I do not mean to be silly or without the depth and gravity that the demands of discipleship for our times require.  I mean to remain unflinching in the joy that Christ purchased for us by his cross.  In fact, most likely our sweet Lord was gently smiling with serene courage all through his passion and most especially through his resurrection.

For God so loved the world - for God so loved me and you that he sacrificed his Only begotten.  If this is true, smile!  Rejoice!  Be alive!  Be risen in Christ on high.  Let your thoughts and heart be raised up with the Lord.

Nobody said this is easy.  Look at the apostles.  During Easter the Church reads through the entire Acts of the Apostles.  In it we find the mission of the twelve, especially Sts Peter and Paul, driving them to apostolic joy amidst apostolic sufferings and persecutions.  The apostles teach us that we live a joyful life, with our own sorrows and problems, nailed to the cross, discovering the victory of God in the midst of life's woes and burdens.

In today's first reading we find that the apostles ignored the foolishness of the authorities of their day, who forbade them to preach Christ.  They didn't just ignore the Saducees, who didn't believe in the resurrection from the dead, but they broke out of the prison and mightily claimed the authority of Jesus Christ's resurrection though public witness.

The stupid laws and governments of our time arrogantly try to oppose Jesus Christ by passing harmful laws contrary to the natural law: particularly the endorsement of same-sex unions called "marriage," or the systematic attack of family life through a series of legislations and juridical decisions that undermine the plan of God for marriage and family life. 

By the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, do not be discouraged, dismayed, or allow anyone to steal your joy.  Remain steadfastly focused on the historical fact of the resurrection and the fact that God continually and mercifully intervenes in human history at the very moment when it seems any awareness of him is dead or buried.  Be not afraid!

God is calling bold and intrepid apostles of our age to be like those of old, to have apostolic joy amidst apostolic sufferings.  By continuous prayer, fervent participation and contact with the Eucharistic and risen Savior, and by meditating on the resurrection, the power and victory of God, we must allow our inmost beings to be strengthened by divine grace that God may be seen once again in our day to send his only begotten Son to our times in the lives and witnesses of the saints of today.

May Our Lady, the cause of our joy, and the Mother of he, who is the resurrection and the life, intercede for us that we may joyfully proclaim with our lives and with our glad countenances, the glory of Christ, risen from the dead.  Alleluia!

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Father Samuel Medley, SOLT, is a priest of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity, and is based in Hythe, Kent, United Kingdom.  He speaks to groups around the world on Blessed Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body.  Visit his homily blog http://medleyminute.blogspot.com or his blog on sexual ethics http://loveandresponsibility.org

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