This is the day the LORD has made;
Psalm 118 24
let us be glad and rejoice in it.
May the peace of the risen Christ be with you. Happy second day of Easter. Just like Christmas, Easter is not a single Day event — it’s a season that is celebrated. We are within the octave of Easter right now. This octave begins on Easter Sunday and concludes one week later on Divine Mercy Sunday. We are also in the period known as Mystagogy, which runs for the fifty days from Easter, concluding on Pentecost.
Mystagogy really applies to those individuals who have been preparing to enter the faith and have received the Easter Sacraments, or Rites of Initiation, making them full members in the church. It is our belief that having received these sacraments, and the graces that come with the sacraments, these new members or neophytes now see the world in a different way. The neophytes are now called to examine how they encounter God and are being shaped by Him.
As a community of believers, we are called to help these new members grow in the faith and better understand what it means to live a Christian life. A key element in this process is reflecting upon how the sacraments, celebrated both individually and as a community, deepen our faith. As I said earlier, this process really applies to the newest members of our church, but this is also a very important exercise for all of us to do — not just in these 50 days following Easter, but each day. It’s important that we take time to think about how is God at work in my life? Where is God leading me? Am I listening? Am I cooperating? Am I struggling? Am I stumbling? Am I trying to this all on my own?
In my faith journey I can become so busy with people, places, and things that I stop asking these questions. But when I do ask them, the growth I experience is incredible. During this season of grace, may we be inspired to look more carefully at our lives, to see the mystery of God in them, and to ask for His assistance to live out His call. In the name of Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.