One of the things I never even thought about or expected to do was to be involved in constructing a new church building.  In my last parish I was present from the very beginning of the concept and planning.  When I came here to St. Patrick’s in June 2003, we were five months away from completing the building of the new church.  After a new church is built we are given a set of "as built" plans.  That way we know where everything is and what to look for if we have a problem.  After we are in the new church for a while there is a "punch list" of things that need to be completed or revised.  Fortunately here at St. Patrick’s and in my last parish we had good construction companies that did an excellent job and stood behind their work That thought came to mind as we began our Easter celebration. Lent was our time to look at the "as built" of ourselves.  Who are we as people of faith?  Where do we know we need to change and grow in our faith?  That is our "punch list." Now that Easter has come we see where our true strength lies - in the Risen Christ.  Jesus was put to death by people who did not understand him and saw him as a threat to the Jewish religion. He was betrayed, denied and abandoned by his close friends, the very ones he took into his confidence at the Last Supper. Yet when he rose he returned to them.  He knew their goodness and love as well as their faults, failures and weaknesses.  The resurrection is about overcoming and conquering sin.  Jesus did that by facing sin head on.  He did not deny the reality of evil and sin in the world.  When confronted he did not give up or give in.  He continued to live and speak the truth with love.  That is the power of the resurrection.  That is the power we celebrate for these next fifty days and so sorely need in our lives.  Jesus came back and appeared to the very ones who lacked the courage to speak up for him before Pilate, the chief priests and the angry crowd.  We are believers today because they went out filled with the Holy Spirit of the Risen Christ, and faced what Jesus himself faced - acceptance and rejection.  Like Jesus they lived and spoke the truth with love.  Most of the apostles paid for their faithfulness by suffering death for their faith.  The power of the resurrection gave them the courage to trust that God’s life is stronger and more vibrant than death.  Death has been defeated.  Death could not defeat Jesus or them as his followers.

We also live in a world where sin is a reality.  It is all too easy to be caught up in all that is not good and all that is wrong.  A negative frame of mind drains life out of us.  We share in the new life of the resurrection through baptism.  That means we have the power, vision, desire and courage to face sin head on as Jesus did and to rise above it.  It is because of the presence of sin and evil that the resurrection happened.  If evil did not have its way there would have been no need to rise above it.  During the forty days of Lent we looked into our hearts and sought to answer the call given to us when the blessed ashes were placed on our foreheads - "Turn away from sin and be faithful to the gospel." During the fifty days of Easter we rejoice that the power to change and rise have been given to us in baptism.  It is all too easy to go back to "ordinary routines" now that Lent and Easter are over. But we are given these fifty days so that we might be renewed and encouraged to rise above all that is not good in our words, actions and attitudes.  We all want peace and hope in our lives. The more we allow the power of the Risen Christ to be the center of who we are, the more we see the challenge that is before us. Death, destruction, and division are part of our world.  The path to peace and hope has been illumined by Jesus who has risen. To walk that path brings great inner peace, but also inflames the desire to continue what Jesus and the first people he appeared to after his resurrection did.  That means not just proclaiming the Good News with our thoughts, words, actions, and deeds, it means actually being the Good News.  As Jesus saw the goodness of his apostles and came back to them after he rose, so Jesus sees the goodness in us.  Our "as built plans" have come from God.  In Jesus we see what we were created to be.  This includes looking for the good God sees in everyone else we encounter in our lives. The resurrection enables us to rise above disappointment and ignorance to the total picture to see how the goodness and love of the resurrected Christ lead to the compassion, patience, understanding and mercy that transform us and the people and world God has entrusted to us

Father Walden