Sunday Inbox Inspiration: April 9, 2023: Easter Sunday, April 9, Cycle A

 Sunday Inbox Inspirations 

Easter Sunday 

 Cycle A

April 9, 2023

Why Are We Here?

 

As I prepared for this Easter Mass, I found myself asking a question. 

 

Why are we here? In other words, what is it that brings us here on Easter Sunday?  

 

I am seeing three possibilities. 

 

For Relationship and More

 

First, on one level, we may be here because of relationships. Coming to Mass is part of what we do with family and friends on Easter.  

 

Maybe it goes along with sharing jellybeans and butter cream eggs and getting together. Maybe coming to Mass is a good part of these good relationships. 

 

I also wonder, on a deeper level, if we may be here because of our need for relationship beyond family and friends. Because of our need for an extended and spiritual community.

 

We may be here because we want the belonging and inclusion that this brings. Because deep down, through and in God, we know that we are part of something bigger. 

 

For Making Sense and More

 

My second idea: on one level we may be here to make some sense of our lives. For some of us, there has been sickness, a death, maybe the loss of a job or a marriage.

 

For others, there is the enjoyment that comes from getting a new SUV or the latest iPhone or whatever. We need to make some sense of our struggles and, oddly enough, even of our satisfactions because they just don’t seem to last.

 

I also wonder, on a deeper level, if we may be here because of what we see in Jesus. Love, faithfulness, caring for the needy, finding yourself by giving of yourself – these messages of Jesus seem to make sense even in 2023.  

 

And maybe this is especially why we are drawn here to the Eucharist. A thin wafer of bread – nothing compared to the delicious brunch or ham dinner later on, and yet much more than that! 

 

In some way, this is Jesus himself and we need him and this food to hold life together. So, on a deeper level, we are here for what is something like fusion food – it brings about a fusion of us with Jesus and this helps us to make fuller sense of life. 

 

For Life and More 

 

And then my third idea: on one level we may be here because Jesus seems to respond to my intuition. We have this intuition that there is more to life.

 

Maybe we would call it a longing. A longing is something we have experienced and now we want more of, and we have this longing for more of life.

 

I also wonder, on a deeper level, if we may be here because the gospel declares that our longing has been satisfied. The gospel is about the mystery of dying that leads to new life, fuller life, risen life. 

 

Even in everyday living, we can see that if I die to my ego and say “I’m sorry” for something I have done, we so often come to a fuller relationship with another person, to fuller life. Easter declares that the same mystery happens when we die to our physical bodies.

 

Jesus wants us to get into the lifestyle of dying and rising right now because this will prepare us for that final experience of dying and rising. So, on a deeper level, we are here because that longing for more life has found some answer in Christ. 

 

Conclusion

 

They are the reasons I see for our being here this morning.

 

1) For relationships and more, 2) for making sense of things and more, 3) for life itself and more. So, please reflect a bit and see if one or all of these reasons are why you are here this Easter morning.

 

Fr. Michael Schleupner