The light of that Day continues to fill these days and the days to come. This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. This is the Day that fills all days, all history, all of creation.
Jesus Christ is Risen today, Alleluia!
Through His death and resurrection, Jesus defines and gives measure to every moment of our lives, directly, personally, by the power of His love for each one of us.
But it's hard to "rejoice" in the midst of tribulations and sorrows. I don't want to even pretend that I can "do it," or that I know how it corresponds to my present psychological state. It seems like a kind of miracle whenever I encounter a person who is filled with an authentic and even palpable joy in the midst of affliction. Indeed, it is a beautiful and encouraging witness. And these persons are always full of compassion and understanding. They open up new "spaces of hope" within us.
The truth is that every step, even the tiniest step, toward Easter joy is a miracle. But it happens. We can take these steps.
The Risen Jesus is Lord of our real life: the aspirations and successes, the compassion and courage and works of love we do, and the disappointment, the suffering, the sins, the failures, the weakness, the most appalling afflictions and all the incomprehensible, banal, repetitive, small, and apparently meaningless moments we endure and live day after day.
Christ is Risen! Rejoice.
And maybe sometimes that "joy" feels like nothing but the bare grip by which we hold on to Him in the dark with wild hope and refuse to let go of Him even when everything seems crazy or lost.
