Hope and Expanded Vision

READINGS:  ACTS 10: 34a; 37-43; COLOSSIANS 3: 1-4;   JOHN 20:1-9.

Peace and good!

Have you ever had a close relative or friend hospitalized? Do you remember that experience? When I have had friars or family in serious health situations the experience is always the same.

Time moves slowly, a day is consumed with dealing with medical experts, details, listening to reports of doctors speaking a language that seems incomprehensible. There is no way to experience life or time normally  (and I have heard from others who have the same experience); during times of such stress, we are carried by love or duty or fear or anxiety, or all four. Christ walks with us but normally we are seeing life as through a periscope. Reality is constricted as our focus is on the sick relative or friend.

Think about the Apostles after the death of Jesus- their life was turned upside down, their hope for the future dashed and their anxiety rose as to what they could do. They were very must walking in this state that we experience by the suffering of a loved one. Reality and the sight of God’s presence are dimmed as human emotion takes over.

In many ways, our daily life is also like that- even when not walking with a dying relative or friend. Our vision of reality and God’s presence is shaded by our day-to-day concerns.

Today with Easter we see a Risen Jesus who blows away reality so we cannot avoid who Jesus is and His power. He is the center of reality. He is the One who shows us that death has been defeated. He is the One who pulls away the veil of reality to show that Good is more powerful than evil destroying appearance of the opposite. The Resurrection gives us hope and allows us to expand our vision. Our God is with us- helping us to see and walking alongside us.

Please remember MDA and mission doctors today as they struggle to bring healing, defeating the evil of disease and sicknesses.

Happy Easter and God bless you all.

Br. John Kiesler, OFM