Difficult “Yeses” and the Hope of Easter
“All those who experience a painful trial in body or spirit can find refuge in [the wounds of Jesus] and, through them, receive the grace of the hope that does not disappoint” (Pope Francis, Easter Mass at the Vatican 2021).
Isn’t it exciting to be an Easter people? After 40 days of preparation for Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection, we celebrate for 50 days the season of Eastertide. During this time, we feast until the celebration of Pentecost, the descending of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles to share the glory of Jesus Christ to the world.
There is a hope that comes with the Easter season, a reminder of our united life in Christ and His defeat over death, and a submission of our own will to the will of the Father’s.
Our Mission: An Easter People
As an Easter people, we walk out into the world with our hope that “God never ceases to draw man to Himself, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church states. By uniting ourselves with Jesus, we fulfill the mission to aid in this unification of the Father’s adopted sons and daughters.
On paper, this mission sounds beautiful and medicinal. It empowers us as Catholic Christians to continue giving ourselves to others in bold compassion and to ever more radically love our neighbor as ourselves. Yet in the daily monotony, it can be hard to put into practice.
When Jesus visited the apostles in the Upper Room (John 20:19-23), He was fully alive in body and spirit. After the resurrection, He could have raised Himself in perfection with no evidence of suffering, yet He didn’t. As He stood before His apostles in the Gospel of John, He still bore the holes in His hands from the nails on the cross and the hole in His side from the piercing of the sword. Jesus physically bore these wounds as a memorial of His passion. Without Good Friday, there could be no Easter Sunday.
The Difficult “Yes”
We are called to enter into Christ’s suffering, to mold us in heavenly hope, bold compassion and radical love. We, too, will be asked by our Father to submit our will to His, to give ourselves and our whole lives over to Him. Because of our poverty, our original sinfulness, this submission can be the “painful trials in body and spirit” that Pope Francis mentioned in his Easter homily this year.
Remember that “God never ceases to draw man to Himself.” Our obedience to the Father’s will and our relationship with Jesus, our knowing and loving him, is a gift. It is radical to willingly practice holiness and to grow in virtue. It is grace that enables us to say “yes” to even the heaviest of crosses and bear the wounds from our fallen world out of love for God and our neighbor.
Sometimes, it may feel like the nails hammered through our hands may never stop, yet the hope of a life with God for eternity helps us to cry out but never come down from that cross. Your “yes” to each strike or blow, to each surprise or disappointment, or even to an impossible door that has opened, is a heavenly sound that only brings you closer to our Savior, who led us by example.
We all have our difficult “yeses,” and each of them is as heroic as the next.
The wounds of Jesus proclaim the hope that we, too, can practice throughout our day. It is a gift to hope and a gift to have enough strength to say, “Yes, God, I will do this for Your glory.” We cannot waste these daily gifts. We cannot lose our hope in the hard times.
We are an Easter people.
Mindy Edgington is a fiery, Midwestern Catholic convert from St. Louis, Missouri. She currently lives in Omaha, NE with her husband and their hound dog while he pursues law school at Creighton University. By day, Mindy works as a senior security engineer in third party risk management for a Fortune 300 health care system. She also regularly volunteers with the Catholic Charities Immigration Office in town. Her hobbies include: "strong drinks and hard conversations,” writing, hiking, and reading in her local coffee shops and bars (in typical extrovert fashion). You can follow her on Instagram @mindy.edgington.