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SUNDAY SCRIPTURES FOR April 17 | Becoming a visible Easter people to all around us

During this Easter season, find a way to develop your eyes of hope, instead of being disillusioned by the state of the world

Easter is a day of high expectations and Scripture readings and songs that are full of hope and joy. But when we think about the first Easter Sunday, it wasn’t all hope and joy. Throughout this Easter season, we will be given the opportunity to remember the post-resurrection encounters that people had with Jesus. Some were distraught, some were unbelieving, some were angry and felt abandoned and some had just given up hope. They all expected the crucifixion to end Jesus’ promise that He would give us everlasting life.

In looking around the communities in our world today, it seems we no longer have a belief in the gift of everlasting life and we are still within the grasps of hopelessness and despair. We know that the world, our families and our cities and countries are filled with great destruction, severe separation from one another and a constant choice to judge and condemn. Even though we have been told that we have only one judge, we continue out of hopelessness to judge and condemn others. Some of us have even come to the conclusion that we would be better off if some people would just go away and never come back again. It sounds to me like we don’t really believe in the power of the resurrection.

If we believed in the resurrection, we would be able to bring our disillusionment and disappointment to Jesus and let the power of His love give us courage and hope to move forward as His disciples. We have some examples of this hope among us, and it might be a good way to celebrate the Easter season by noticing those who live with hope even amidst difficult situations.

Notice in your communities the people who are constantly there feeding the poor. While some of us judge the hungry personas unworthy of our help, others continue to feed them. While some decide that a person is milking the system and isn’t worthy of us sheltering them, others are there providing housing and safety. When some of us see people who have been sentenced to prison and we judge them to be less than ourselves, there are others who visit the imprisoned to pray with them and continue to encourage them. These witnesses in our communities are Easter people. They are the ones who have hope and the heart and eyes to see the presence of Christ even when things look overcome by hatred or violence.

In the same way that we practiced voluntarily emptying ourselves during the Lenten season, it might be a good practice during the Easter season to find a place that looks hopeless and find a reason to hope. During this Easter season, find a way to develop your eyes of hope. Choose to give love and forgiveness and compassion, even when your intellect tells you the person doesn’t deserve it. Find someone to assist in life even though you think they have wasted their opportunities. Can you imagine how many people looked at the cross of Jesus or thought about His body in the grave and judged His life to be worthless and meaningless? Might we be doing that same thing to those around us?

I will be praying for you as I hope you will be praying for me as we attempt to live this Easter season just like the original disciples did. Let our hope be resurrected and our joy be brought to new life. Let our sense of disillusionment and disappointment with the state of the world today be illuminated by the faithfulness of God in the promises of Jesus Christ. As people of faith, let us carry that faith with us not just in words or ideas, but also in action and choice. May we be a visible Easter people to all around us!

Father Wester is pastor of All Saints Parish in St. Peters.

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