Is He risen?
Who saw the Lord? How did they know? How do we know?
We must ask the question,
Our hearts burn to know the answer,
Our lives are dependent on the truth.
We want to be Resurrection People.
The women traveling in haste and question
Wanting to do their last act of compassion, coping with the question of the stone.
They find emptiness, and a word of encouragement,
“He is not here. He will meet you in Galilee.”
They run and He appears to them.
She stays behind, the Changed Woman, His intimate friend
Not really encouraged by the message,
Still caught in the emptiness and burden of circumstances,
Through her tears she sees the gardener, “He might know!”
“MARY,”--His voice, her name, her Friend.
She is His Faithful, rejoicing.
Two men journey home, heavy in the turmoil of loss and speculation,
One comes to walk with them, listening to their burdened hearts.
The conversation leads them as they move along.
They arrive and share their evening meal--
He breaks and blesses the bread--they know it is He!
They hurry back, the Faithful, rejoicing.
He missed the first chance to “See the Lord.”
Now he chooses to disbelieve, needs tangible proof.
Behind closed doors, the Lord appears again.
“Come, Thomas, touch, be sure, be comforted, believe.
“Your are blessed by what you see.”
He becomes a Faithful, rejoicing.
They are fishing—the old, familiar, comfortable act of the past,
He comes, reentering their lives matter-of –factly;
They dare to believe, caught up in a moment of casual awe,
He reaches them through common means: food and presence.
They are challenged to “feed His sheep.
They grow as the Faithful, rejoicing.
But is He risen for us? We see Him risen, in the face of the poor and the beautiful,
We hear His voice in the silence of our hearts and in the thunderous pounding of the sea,
We touch His flesh in the hands of all humanity;
We are comforted by His presence in Word and Sacrament as we walks beside us.
He is risen for us! We do believe !
We are Hi Faithful, rejoicing and a Resurrection People!
Dcs. Bonita L. Fredel