Angelus News | April 21, 2023 | Vol. 8 No

NEW WORLD OF FAITH
ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ
One great Sunday
I
pray that you had a beautiful Easter
with your family and loved ones.
Easter is the feast of our joy. The
victory over death has been won.
As Jesus was raised from the dead, we
walk with confidence, in what St. Paul
called “newness of life,” following
in Jesus’ footsteps, our lives now an
adventure destined for heaven and the
love that never ends.
These next 50 days, from Resurrection
Sunday to Pentecost Sunday, are
meant to be lived as one long feast, a
“great Sunday,” as the Church Father
St. Athanasius put it.
In these days, the Church invites
us to live with the joy and zeal of the
early Church and his first disciples.
Nobody saw the Resurrection. His
tomb was sealed up tight with a boulder
and guarded by Roman soldiers.
He must have risen sometime in the
night or just before dawn, but there
were no witnesses.
What “evidence” we have comes
from his disciples, who reported that
they came to his tomb that Sunday
and found it empty, and that later that
day and in the days that followed, the
risen Christ appeared to them.
Jesus could have shown himself risen
from the dead, he could have returned
to Jerusalem triumphant with a legion
of angels, if he had wanted to.
But he chose to stay hidden, to reveal
himself only to those who loved him.
In those 40 days, he spoke to them of
the kingdom of God, and opened their
minds to understand the Scriptures;
he ate with them and made himself
known to them in the breaking of the
bread, the Eucharist.
Before ascending into heaven, he
gave them a mission. “You will be my
witnesses,” he said, “to the ends of the
earth.”
We are the children of those first
witnesses, every one of us, whether we
were baptized as infants many years
ago, or whether we just entered the
Church this Easter.
None of us has seen Jesus raised
from the dead. We trust the testimony
of those who did. Their encounters
remain at the heart of the mystery of
faith, as the Catechism tells us.
During the Last Supper, his apostles
had asked him, “Lord, how is it that
you will manifest yourself to us, and
not to the world?”
It is interesting how Jesus responded.
“Whoever loves me will keep my
word,” he said, “and my Father will
love him, and we will come to him
and make our dwelling with him.”
For Jesus, salvation is personal.
He came to “save the world,” to give
his flesh and blood on the cross “for
the life of the world.”
But he saves the world one soul at a
time. He gives his life out of love, as
living bread from heaven, to you and
to me, and to everyone who loves him
and keeps his commandments.
During this season, I like to re-read
the Gospel accounts of those days after
the Resurrection. Two notes stand
out for me in these stories — joy and
witness.
In these stories, we hear the disciples
delighting in the Lord’s presence, with
the joy of those who have found the
treasure they had been searching for
their whole lives.
And almost every story ends with one
or more rushing off in excitement to
tell others of this treasure they have
found. As St. Mary Magdalene said, “I
have seen the Lord!”
The Church is born in the joy of these
witnesses, and the Church’s mission
continues in you and me.
As he announced his salvation
through his first witnesses, he announces
his salvation in this generation,
through our witness.
It is a beautiful mystery of God’s
plan of salvation that he involves each
of us, inviting us to play our part in
As Christ announced his salvation through his
first witnesses, he announces his salvation in
this generation, through our witness.
sharing the joy that we have found in
Jesus.
Let us live these next 50 days —
and our whole lives — as one “great
Sunday.”
Joy grows through witness. The more
we speak to others about Jesus and the
more good works we do in his name,
the more our joy will increase.
Jesus is alive! He is not some historical
figure whose memory will one
day fade away. He is real and his love
is real. He really died for us, and it is
worth everything for us now to live for
him.
We know it will not always be easy;
we will experience sadness and suffering,
and the ugliness of sin. But we
know that Jesus will wipe away every
tear because he has conquered death.
Pray for me and I will pray for you.
And let us ask our mother Mary, the
mother of joy, to keep us always close
to her risen Son, that we might always
know this joy and share it with all the
world.
April 21, 2023 • ANGELUS • 3