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The Easter Cycle
resurrection from the dead occurs each time the sacrament of baptism or the sacrament of
penance is administered.
Today we rejoice over the restoration of the dead; that is, over the precious graces of baptism
and penance. It is a time of earnest petition for the catechumens and for the many unfortunate
sinners who are dead in their sins. May they receive the grace to come forth from the darkness
of sin, and henceforth to walk steadfastly in the light of faith. Our prayers and sacrifices can
obtain this grace for them.
This is also a day for firm resolutions. “Let us also go that we may die with Him,” we resolve
today with the apostle Thomas (Gospel). We shall have life if we die with Him. If we would
achieve union with Christ, if we wish to devote ourselves entirely to the Father, then we must
die to sin. The true Christian life and also the daily Mass demands that we die to sin. “So do you
also reckon that you are dead to sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 6:11).
Our program for Lent also demands that we die to sin.
Prayer
O God, who dost renew the world with ineffable sacraments, grant, we beseech Thee, that
Thy Church may profit by Thy eternal institutions and not be lacking in temporal assistance.
Grant, we beseech Thee, O almighty God, that being conscious of our own infirmity
and confiding in Thy power, we may ever rejoice under Thy tender care. Through Christ our
Lord. Amen.
Saturday
This is a day of holy exultation. The catechumens have assembled in the sanctuary of the
holy bishop St. Nicholas. Here they are to undergo their examination before baptism.
After this examination they hear the invitation: “All you that thirst, come to the waters
[of baptism]. . . . Come and drink with joy” (Introit). What will they obtain in baptism, in
Christianity, in the Church?
In the sacrament they will find the Lord, the shepherd of their soul. “Thus saith the Lord
[the Messias, the Christ]: . . . In the day of salvation I have helped thee, and I have preserved
thee and given thee to be a covenant of the people, that thou mightest raise up the earth, and
possess the inheritances that were destroyed” (Epistle). The Father has delivered humanity,
particularly the heathen world, to us and to His incarnate Son, not only that He may judge
the world, but that He may also save it ( Jn 3:16). The Savior thus sent by God calls all men
to salvation. “Say to them that are bound: Come forth; and to them that are in darkness:
Show yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be every plain. They
shall not hunger nor thirst, neither shall the heat nor the sun strike them; for He shall give
them drink. . . . Behold these shall come from afar, and behold these from the north and
from the sea, and these from the south country. . . . Because the Lord hath comforted His
people and will have mercy on His poor ones” (Epistle). All this He has done out of love.
“Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? And if she
should forget, yet will not I forget thee.” The Father, without any merit on our part, has
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