Angelus News | April 9, 2021 Vol 6 No 7

NEW WORLD OF FAITH
ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ
heir
s,
Easter people
Our God is the God of all
creation, the God of life, the
maker of all things in the
heavens and on earth.
We feel that especially at this time of
year, when we see so many little signs
of new life and growth everywhere.
Flowers and plants are beginning to
bloom; we hear the songs of the birds
outside our windows.
We should reflect more on the
meaning of creation and the theology
of creation — on the beauty and
wonders of the world around us, on
how God’s glory and intentions are
revealed in the things that he has
made for us.
The earth is the Lord’s and all that is
in it, the psalmist tells us.
When the psalmist surveys all of
the Lord’s works, from the moon
and stars above to the earth and seas
below, he is amazed at God’s greatest
achievement — the human person,
man and woman created out of love
in God’s image: “What is man that
you are mindful of him. … You
have made him little less than God,
crowned him with glory and honor.”
The Bible is the book of life. It is also
a book about life, telling the world’s
story from its creation, which we read
about on the first pages, to the new
creation, the new heavens, and new
earth, which we read about on its final
pages.
At the heart of the story is the living
relationship of God with the human
person he created.
The ones who put Jesus to death
could not understand this. They
accused Jesus of being a man who was
trying to make himself God.
They could not imagine that God
would have the humility, the daring,
or the love to enter into this world that
he created and to share in the life of
the creature he made in his image.
St. Paul calls Jesus the “firstborn of
all creation” and the “firstborn from
the dead.”
“In him was life,” St. John tells us
at the start of his Gospel. And the
promise that Jesus makes to us is the
promise of life. “I came that they may
have life, and have it abundantly,” he
said.
That is why Jesus was born. This is
why he lived and why he suffered and
died. And that is why he was “born”
from the dead three days later.
He rose from the dead to give us life.
Not physical life or biological life.
He had already given us that, in our
birth to our human parents. What
he comes to share is spiritual life and
divine life. Life like he has life. Life as
a child of God. Life that is eternal.
Our God is the God of the living,
not the dead. He makes us, each and
every one of us, to be with him. Not
only for a little while, for the span of
our mortal lives. No. God makes us to
be with him for all eternity.
The joy of Easter is the joy of
knowing that a great battle — the
great struggle between life and death
— has been won.
Easter is the triumph of the Lord, it
is the victory of divine love and life
over human sin and death.
Our Lord’s victory should fill us
with hope, because his victory is your
victory and mine.
Easter tells us that creation has a
destination, a purpose. What is born
is not born to die, but to live. Easter
tells us that God’s love is stronger than
death.
If we remain in his love, if we live
by his teachings and walk in the path
he sets before us, no matter what
might happen to us — even affliction,
sickness, persecution, violence —
with Jesus we will conquer, we will
have life.
His resurrection is a promise and an
invitation to believe, to trust, to build
our lives on this foundation. Whatever
The power of the resurrection is the power that we
have now to live as “Easter people,” a people alive in
the risen Christ, a people on the way to heaven.
struggles we face, we can meet them
with this certainty that we are destined
for eternity.
Jesus tells us, “I am the resurrection
and the life; whoever believes in me,
even if he dies, will live, and everyone
who lives and believes in me will
never die.”
And then Our Lord asks us, “Do you
believe this?”
This Easter let us say yes again to
Our Lord’s invitation.
The power of the resurrection is the
power that we have now to live as
“Easter people,” a people alive in the
risen Christ, a people who know we
are on the way to heaven, and the way
to heaven is the way of love.
Pray for me and I will pray for you.
And let us entrust ourselves to Mary,
our Blessed Mother and the mother
of the living. May she help all of us to
live with the joy of the Resurrection.
April 9, 2021 • ANGELUS • 3