“Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen” (Luke 24:5). With these words from the Gospel of St. Luke, the angels proclaim great and glorious news to the women of Galilee: “He is not here, but has risen.” Jesus Christ was no longer to be found among the corpses of the dead, but had risen to new and everlasting life. Life that is definitive and eternal, “For we know that Christ, being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him” (Romans 6:9). 
This great and glorious news is the very crux of the Gospel: that Jesus of Nazareth, crucified for our sins, is risen from the dead and will never die again. But this Gospel is not just Good News for Jesus, not just Good News for the women of Galilee who had followed Him, or just for the eleven frightened apostles in the upper room. It is, and must be, Good News for all of us, all of us who have ever lived or who will ever live. Because of His death and resurrection, we too have hope of a life that is definitive and eternal. “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit dwelling in you” (Romans 8:11). 
This is the promise! On the Cross, Christ won for us the forgiveness of our sins, and now that the Father has raised Him from the grave, He has won eternal life for you and for me, through His gift of the Holy Spirit which we will celebrate at the end of this beautiful season on Pentecost. Sin and death are no longer the final word, as we sing in the Mass: dying you destroyed our death, rising you restored our life, Lord Jesus come in glory! 

The saintly writers of the early Church have nothing but joy and optimism in their Easter messages.
Sixteen hundred years ago, St. Gregory Nazianzen said: "The Pasch of the Lord! This is for us the Feast of Feasts, the Festival of Festivals. It is as far above all the rest as the sun above the stars. Christ is risen from the dead. Rise with him! Death is defeated, the old Adam discarded, the new has come. If anyone lives in Christ, they are new. Be renewed in the Risen Lord."

In the same Fourth Century, St. Gregory of Nyssa said in his Easter homily: "The reign of life has begun. The tyranny of death is ended. A new birth has taken place; a new life has come; a new order of existence has appeared; our very nature has been transformed. This birth is not brought about by human generation, by the will of man, or the desire of flesh, but by God who raised Jesus from the dead."
Pope St. Gregory the Great gave this homily in St. Peter Basilica in Rome: "There are two lives: one we knew, the other we did not know. One is mortal, the other immortal. One is linked with human weakness, the other to incorruption. One is marked for death, the other for resurrection. The Mediator between God and Man, Jesus Christ came and took on himself the one and revealed to us the other. The one he endured by dying; the other he revealed when he rose from the dead."

While we wait for these promises to come to fulfillment at the end of time, when we are given forever this new and definitive life; what are we to do? How are we to live? Are we simply to follow His example of patient suffering? Are we simply to listen to His teachings the way we might read the thought of great philosophers? Are we to admire Him as we do the heroes of history? 

We must hear that question of the angels again: “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” We cannot look for Christ among the relics of the past. He is alive, and so our search for Him must be in the present, in our daily living. If we try to relegate our faith to a small corner of our existence, or equate our faith solely with the traditions of the past, we are seeking the Living One among the dead. Rather, through our active participation in the life of the Church, in the Easter sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist, we come into living, vibrant contact with Christ. Through hearing His word proclaimed in the Church, we hear Him speak to us again His words of life. Through constant prayer we come to know Him as an intimate friend, who is alive to us today, not a figure of the distant past. 

This is the relationship that He longs to have with each one of us, and His living presence proclaimed in His Word and celebrated in His sacraments makes it possible. This kind of life is the Gospel, the quintessential Good News. My prayer for all the faithful of Divine Mercy Parish is this – that we seek Christ living in His Church, that we might share life with Him forever! May God bless you all with a holy and happy Easter season.   


Fr. Robert T. Cooper, Pastor

The Easter Vigil is the "Mother of All Vigils."Easter Sunday, then, is the greatest of all Sundays, and Easter Time is the most important of all liturgical times. Easter is the celebration of the Lord's resurrection from the dead, culminating in his Ascension to the Father and sending of the Holy Spirit upon the Church. There are 50 days of Easter from the first Sunday to Pentecost.It is characterized, above all, by the joy of glorified life and the victory over death, expressed most fully in the great resounding cry of the Christian:  Alleluia! All faith flows from faith in the resurrection:"If Christ has not been raised, then empty is our preaching; empty, too, is your faith." (1 Cor 15:14)

Read the Exsultet, the Proclamation of Easter,  and a commentary on its origins and meaning.

The octave of Easter comprises the eight days which stretch from the first to the second Sunday. It is a way of prolonging the joy of the initial day.In a sense, every day of the Octave is like a little Sunday.

The word "Easter" comes from Old English, meaning simply the "East." The sun which rises in the East, bringing light, warmth and hope, is a symbol for the Christian of the rising Christ, who is the true Light of the world. The Paschal Candle is a central symbol of this divine light, which is Christ.It is kept near the ambo throughout Easter Time, and lit for all liturgical celebrations. 

Source:

https://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/liturgical-year-and-calendar/easter