You may or may not have heard the phrase the Easter People. Who are the Easter People?
“We are the Easter People and hallelujah is our song.” Pope John Paul II.
If Lent is a time to give things up, Easter ought to be a time to take things up. If Calvary means putting to death things in your life that need killing off if you are to flourish as a Christian and as a person, then Easter should mean planting, watering, and training up things in your life that ought to be blossoming, filling the garden with colour and perfume and in due course bearing fruit.
Here are five ways to live out the hope of the resurrection, even when our cross seems too much to bear.
Cling to the people who love you. When times get tough, we tend to withdraw into ourselves. We think we should stand alone when we really need someone to lean on. When we have come through the darkness then we realize that others were there urging us on.
Remember who you are. There are precious things about us that are beautiful and unique because we are created in the image of God. This should be a source of joy and redemption for anyone walking a difficult road.
Do not wait for the other shoe to drop. When things are good, celebrate them. When life is blissfully boring, celebrate it. When trouble finds you again, at least you are not treating it as though it had never left.
Bring joy to the world. Convert our happiness into joy for others. Share hope outwardly and lift up those around us who need it.
Breathe in the Holy Spirit. After Jesus’ resurrection, he returns to his disciples, and their mission (and ours) takes on another dimension: evangelization.
That is what being an Easter People is all about. Living in the example of Jesus, every day for everyone.
This blog was written by Marriage Encounter who are part of the Alliance of Catholic Marriage Organisations. For more information on the alliance please
visit: www.allianceofcatholicmarriageorganisations.org.uk
