Easter Message of Sr. Zeta continued.....

“We remember…” It is, indeed, a remembrance of the past that made our present memorable and significant.  The memory of God’s faithful love to His people is something all together a poignant affirmation of His Indwelling Presence, alive and dynamic in our History as His Beloved.  It is made manifest in the person of His Son, our Lord Jesus, who “took the form of a slave and was born in the likeness of man and gave himself up for us till death that all of us may be dead to sin and rise with Him in the new life.” (Phil.2:6ff) Thus, our Lord’s Resurrection signifies forgiveness – from the pains and neglects, desertion and betrayal and sorrows and hurts, the past has brought us.  It reminds us again of our Christian vocation – to be ambassadors of hope and joy to one another.  Easter, then, brings us to an experience of forgiveness and of the power of God’s hope magnified in us. “Put on then, as God’s chosen one’s, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience, forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.  And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” Col. 3:12  How have we become leaven of forgiveness and hope in our own communities?  “Each sister brings to community life the best that is in her and accepts her sisters as they are. The gradual building-up of the community presupposes realism and patience to accept one another; hope to believe in the potentials of each and all; courage to pardon and to love ever better in truth.” BL 38   Each of our community is called to be an image of the Trinitarian love.  Our Baptismal consecration introduces us to this Trinitarian life. “In the name of Jesus and through the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:11b) we are by nature a people of hope though “stamped with the paschal seal.”  In like manner, our own religious consecration is a sign of the presence of the Kingdom of God as “we live in the world, our hearts burning with love.” BL 12

 “We celebrate…” Jesus’ resurrection is not a passive event. In all aspects, it brings out the life in us, re-awakening the spirit of hope, joy, trust, friendship and love that laid dormant in us.  This is a time to celebrate the new life wrought for us by Christ. We participate in this new life.  Jesus’ entrance into the divine life marks the beginning of our own participation in the life of God. “If anyone is in Christ, He is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come.” 2 Cor. 5:17  Our celebration, then, takes its form in heeding the challenge of manifesting the presence of the Risen One in all dimensions of our life as consecrated women.  It is only in the Spirit that we are able to manifest the presence of the Risen Christ. Thus, we are continually called to enter into the life of the Spirit, as an individual and as a community, to steep ourselves with a well-formed Christocentric and Pneumatological spirituality. We remind ourselves then, that our “Life in the Spirit makes us seek to allow ourselves - in the light of our discernment - to be moved, disturbed and be converted like St. Paul, so as to take new orientations. We are to be more docile to the transforming action of the Spirit inviting us to be sensitive and responsive to the challenges and needs of the world in its religious, ecclesial, social economic and political dimensions.” CA 2007  The presence of the fruits of the Spirit in our communities: love, trust, spirit of service and joy, confirms the authenticity of our spiritual life.  The way we live our community, daring yet compassionate, through the Holy Spirit’s power, is the best way to announce the Gospel. Thus, our celebration is a celebration of Jesus’ presence in us in all eternity, through His Spirit dwelling in us.

 “We believe...”  I have been crucified with Christ;  It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I live now in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”  Gal. 2:20   The message of Easter is Love. The felt-experience of God’s tremendous love for us in Jesus elicits in us a faith deeply rooted in the Spirit.  Each of our actions and decisions, then, are anchored on our experience of the resurrection event. We cannot but profess with our own lips and proclaim with our own lives that death has no more power over us, so that we live with one another as a community of truth and of love.  We believe that as we give ourselves in our different ministries, we bear in our hands, hearts and in our very person the true power of the Risen Lord, as given to Him by the Father.  We are, then, empowered also to fully plunge ourselves in the mission confided to us as a Sister in formation, as a local community, as Congregation and as members of the Universal Church.

 Together with the Council, I wish you all a blessed and happy Easter. Let us celebrate – the Lord has Risen – Alleluia.