This is the day which the Lord hath made; let us be glad and rejoice therein.’ (RB) This is the most excellent day, the
happiest day in the whole year, because it is the day when ‘Christ, our Pasch, has been sacrificed.’ Christmas,
too, is a joyous feast, but whereas Christmas vibrates with a characteristic note of sweetness, the paschal solemnity
resounds with an unmistakable note of triumph; it is joy for the triumph of Christ, for his victory. The liturgy of the Mass shows us this Paschal joy under two aspects: joy in truth (Ep: 1Cor 5,7.8) and joy in charity (Postcommunion).
Joy in truth: According to the vibrant admonition of St Paul ‘Let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven… but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.’ In this world there are many ephemeral joys, based on fragile, insecure foundations; but the Paschal joy is solidly grounded on the knowledge that we are in the truth, the truth which Christ brought to the world and which he confirmed by his Resurrection. The Resurrection tells us that our faith is not in vain, that our hope is not founded on a dead man, but on a living one, the Living One par excellence, whose life is so strong that it vivifies, in time as in eternity, all those who believe in him. ‘I am the Resurrection and the Life; he that believeth in me, although he be dead, shall live.’ (Jn 11,25) Joy in truth: for only sincere and upright souls who seek the truth lovingly and, still more, ‘do the truth’ can fully rejoice in the Resurrection. We are sincere when we recognize ourselves for what we are, with all our faults, deficiencies, and need for conversion. From this knowledge of our miseries springs the sincere resolve to purify ourselves of the old leaven of the passions in order to be renewed completely in the risen Christ. Truth, however, must be accomplished in charity –veritatem facientes in caritatem, doing the truth in charity (Eph 4,15); therefore the Postcommunion prayer that is placed on our lips is more timely than ever: ‘Pour forth upon us, O Lord, the spirit of your love, to make us of one heart.’ Without unity and mutual charity there can be no real Paschal joy.
Divine Intimacy Fr Gabriel OCD
happiest day in the whole year, because it is the day when ‘Christ, our Pasch, has been sacrificed.’ Christmas,
too, is a joyous feast, but whereas Christmas vibrates with a characteristic note of sweetness, the paschal solemnity
resounds with an unmistakable note of triumph; it is joy for the triumph of Christ, for his victory. The liturgy of the Mass shows us this Paschal joy under two aspects: joy in truth (Ep: 1Cor 5,7.8) and joy in charity (Postcommunion).
Joy in truth: According to the vibrant admonition of St Paul ‘Let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven… but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.’ In this world there are many ephemeral joys, based on fragile, insecure foundations; but the Paschal joy is solidly grounded on the knowledge that we are in the truth, the truth which Christ brought to the world and which he confirmed by his Resurrection. The Resurrection tells us that our faith is not in vain, that our hope is not founded on a dead man, but on a living one, the Living One par excellence, whose life is so strong that it vivifies, in time as in eternity, all those who believe in him. ‘I am the Resurrection and the Life; he that believeth in me, although he be dead, shall live.’ (Jn 11,25) Joy in truth: for only sincere and upright souls who seek the truth lovingly and, still more, ‘do the truth’ can fully rejoice in the Resurrection. We are sincere when we recognize ourselves for what we are, with all our faults, deficiencies, and need for conversion. From this knowledge of our miseries springs the sincere resolve to purify ourselves of the old leaven of the passions in order to be renewed completely in the risen Christ. Truth, however, must be accomplished in charity –veritatem facientes in caritatem, doing the truth in charity (Eph 4,15); therefore the Postcommunion prayer that is placed on our lips is more timely than ever: ‘Pour forth upon us, O Lord, the spirit of your love, to make us of one heart.’ Without unity and mutual charity there can be no real Paschal joy.
Divine Intimacy Fr Gabriel OCD
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