We Are A People of Easter Hope

It was a dreary Friday in April when we traveled north on the NJ Turnpike. Along with my classmate Stephen Robbins, we drove up to our seminary, St. Joseph’s in Yonkers, New York, to get some of the stuff we would need for the summer time. We had pretty much figured out that the rest of our school year would be completed using remote technology, and we better get what we needed. It was an eerie sight seeing the NJ Turnpike on a Friday afternoon be very vacant with little traffic in New Jersey, and a little more in New York. It was a very surreal sight, walking into a mostly empty seminary on a cool Friday afternoon. It was sort of like the day we were sent home from the seminary back in March. Driving home sort of in a daze about everything that has gone on and been happening with regards to the Pandemic.

I’m sure we’ve all found ourselves in that same position. Wondering what is going on, how it is possible that in the Spring, when we usually want to leave our homes after being inside all winter, we are now hesitant to do so. In a way, it reminds me of that first Easter. The disciples were locked inside, afraid to come out, because Jesus had been put to death. A dark cloud descended on Jerusalem, as it seems it has here in our own time. Jesus was unjustly put to death and the disciples fled from him and hid in fear.

But what ended up happening? Jesus rose from the dead. He came back to the disciples and they came out of hiding. He sent them out into the world to spread the gospel. He didn’t leave them alone. Nor does he leave us alone. He knows our worries and anxieties. He wants to help left us out of them. We remember that we always have that Easter moment. Our Lord conquers all, even death. And the disciples who fled are put in charge of starting his Church.

It isn’t easy, but its important to remember that in the end, Jesus will be the victor. Reading Scripture, praying, listening to a family member or friend vent their frustration as Jesus listens to us vent ours to him, can be one way that we can grow closer to him in these trying times. Even more so, the dreariness of these weeks and months will be replaced by the same hope we see on Easter morning. We are a people of Easter hope. A hope like the hope in Our Lord’s resurrection and the reminder that he is the one who leads us and never abandons us and that when he seems to be farthest from us, then that is when he is closest.