{"id":2801,"date":"2017-04-21T17:07:02","date_gmt":"2017-04-21T06:07:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stbridgetsgreythorn.org.au\/?p=2801"},"modified":"2017-04-21T17:07:02","modified_gmt":"2017-04-21T06:07:02","slug":"easter-message","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/easter-message\/","title":{"rendered":"Easter Message"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Easter<\/a>THE Gospels have gathered the story of some admirable women who at the dawn after the Sabbath, have drawn near the tomb where Jesus had been buried. They can\u2019t forget him. They keep loving him more than anyone else.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, the men have fled and are still hidden perhaps. The message they hear when they get there is of exceptional importance. Matthew\u2019s Gospel tells it like this: \u201cAre you looking for Jesus of Nazareth, the one who was crucified? He isn\u2019t here. He has risen as he said. Come and see the place where he lay\u201d. It\u2019s wrong to look for Jesus in the world of death. He\u2019s alive forever. Never will we be able to find him where life has died.<\/p>\n

We mustn\u2019t forget it. If we want to find the Risen Christ, full of life and creative power, we mustn\u2019t look for him in a dead religion, one that is reduced to the external fulfilment of precepts and routine rituals, or in a faith that is extinguished, a faith that sustains itself in worn-out clich\u00e9s and formulas, empty of a loving love for Jesus.<\/p>\n

Therefore: where can we find him? The women receive this task: \u201cGo quickly and tell the disciples \u2013 he has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you to Galilee, that is where you will see him\u201d.<\/p>\n

Why do they need to return to Galilee in order to see the Risen One?. What deep meaning is contained in this invitation? What is this saying to us Christians today?<\/p>\n

It is in Galilee that they heard for the first time and in its full purity, God\u2019s Good News and the Father\u2019s humanising project. If we don\u2019t return to listen to these today with simple and open heart, we might feed on venerable doctrines, but we won\u2019t know that joy of Jesus\u2019 Gospel, capable of raising up our faith.<\/p>\n

It was on the banks of the Sea of Galilee that Jesus\u2019 first community was born. There his followers live unique experiences at his side. His presence fills everything. He is the centre. With him they learn to go about welcoming, forgiving, healing life and awakening a trust in God\u2019s unfathomable love. If we don\u2019t put Jesus at the center of our communities starting yesterday, we\u2019ll never experience his presence in our midst.<\/p>\n

If we return to Galilee, the invisible presence of the Risen Jesus will take on a human feature when we read the Gospel stories, and his silent presence will find its concrete voice when we hear his words of encouragement<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE Gospels have gathered the story of some admirable women who at the dawn after the Sabbath, have drawn near the tomb where Jesus had been buried. They can\u2019t forget […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pastoral-messages"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2801"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2803,"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2801\/revisions\/2803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}