Monday in the Octave of Easter

“You will show me the path to life”

If only all those who make daily Mass a practice during Lent could be persuaded to include the Easter week as well!!! The scripture readings for this Great Week of the Octave of Easter are full of the deep-down freshness of that awesomely ordinary morning of the Lord’s Resurrection.

To triumph over death summarizes perhaps most completely the deepest hopes of the human heart. So much of life is spent in overcoming illness, disappointments, heartbreaks and bereavements. But to overcome death – that is the final and most wondrous victory beside which all these short-term successes fade. In his Pentecost address, Peter voices our profound desire to overcome death by quoting the words of the psalmist and finding their fulfillment in the Risen Christ: “My body, too, abides in confidence; because you will not abandon my soul to the nether world, nor will you allow your faithful one to undergo corruption……you will show me the path of life, the fullness of joy in your presence” (Psalm 16).

Good friends, in the freshness and joy of Easter, we celebrate the realization of these great hopes in Christ and, through him, for all those who place their trust in him. During these days of Easter we can let our souls breathe deeply of the expansive joy and hope that are ours in the Risen Christ. The narrow confines of this life have been surpassed.

As we celebrate this Risen Life year after year, we can expect that our sense of overcoming sin, suffering and death grows and becomes more deeply rooted in us. We cannot simply wish this peace and joy into existence within ourselves. It is God’s gift and comes to us to the extent that we put our trust in God’s power over all of life’s hardships and pains. Making our own the words of the psalmist can help strengthen this hope and joy: “With the Lord at my right hand I shall not be disturbed……my body, too, abides in confidence……You will show me the path to life, the fullness of joy in Your presence.”