Bishop: spread God’s peace, hope through Acts of Mercy

Christ is Risen. He is truly Risen! Easter greetings and blessings to everyone in our beautiful diocese!

Easter is the high point of the entire Church year. Holy Week and the Sacred Triduum: Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the Great Easter Vigil, is a time of great hope for us as we remember these sacred events of our salvation. Easter is truly the Solemnity of Hope! Of course, our great Christian hope is directed to eternal life for those who believe. Hope is given to us by God as a grace, a supernatural virtue, and it helps to get us through everything. Hope helps us to remember and believe that God is at work to redeem all things, regardless of how things happen to be turning out for me or us today.

This is an important message for us this year as we have struggled through these past two pandemic years which have caused us to question many things. The situation in Ukraine does the same. Likewise, perhaps we are confronted with challenging things in our own life and we certainly have challenges in our beloved Church. Hope is a graceful character trait that assists us in such times. St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the greatest theologians of the Church, says that hope allows us to believe even when it does not seem possible.

Gratefully, the night before He died, Jesus gathered His disciples to celebrate the Last Supper. At that meal, we see communion and also what destroys communion: deception, betrayal, violence, cowardice. Jesus freely embraced all those things. His resurrection is a triumph over them and all evil. On that awful yet wonderful Thursday night, Jesus gave us the Eucharist, the extravagant sacrament of hope for abundant life. At the time when everything looked hopeless, Jesus gave us Himself.   

How we need the Eucharist and we need to be people of hope, to live always with the hope the Eucharist and Resurrection give us. At times we may wonder where we are heading. The future may seem unsure and at times confusing, even threatening. That is particularly when we need hope. Our belief is not superstition, naivete nor irrational nonsense. Rather it is the decision to accept in trust what God has spoken about Himself. This decision is not irrational but rather goes beyond reason, above reason. It represents the opening of our heart to another, to God, who reveals Himself through Jesus Christ.   

It is interesting that our Church in her sacred liturgy on Easter Sunday does not present us with the Risen Christ in our Gospel.  No, we are faced on Easter Sunday morning with the Gospel account from St. John and we are brought to the empty tomb. We are asked to be like the Apostles who run to the tomb, and discovering it empty, choose to see and believe. There must have been plenty of other people who saw the same empty tomb, but did not believe. They made excuses and rationalized the event, even suggesting that His body must have been stolen. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the definitive event that has changed the world, forever, but if we do not believe, if we choose not to respond to this great event, then we do not change. We are not really renewed by the Easter mystery. This is the challenge for us in our day, a day when many choose not to believe, or do not let it change them into missionary disciples who have to share the good news with others.

In these coming days of the Easter season, I pray that we all would re-double our efforts to be people truly on fire with God’s love. We have to be like the Apostles, who after the resurrection and Pentecost, are on fire and share the Good News with everyone. The challenges we have faced in our world and country over these past two years are signs that all is not well with our world. Perhaps you know of other challenges or losses, even within your own life or with family and friends. Many people, and especially our young, are searching, confused, unsettled and hungry. Many are really yearning for a relationship, whether they know it or not, with Jesus and to experience the peace and hope that only His love can bring.   

As we continue with our fortieth anniversary year celebration, I encourage you to continue to deepen your friendship with Jesus throughout this Easter Season.  Make extra time to spend with Jesus in prayer, with the Scriptures or in the Eucharist. He is our Hope!  May your friendship with Him help you to continue to spread His peace and hope through our Forty Acts of Mercy campaign throughout the Easter Season. It is only through prayer that hearts are truly changed and transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit, first our own hearts, then others through our prayer and acts of mercy. Let’s choose to believe and be agents of hope in a time that so needs it. 

Know of my love and prayers for you, and I count on your prayers for me. This Easter, I once again entrust you and our diocese to the joyful heart of the Virgin Mary, who is the Queen that rejoices, that her Son, who once was dead, is now alive and reigns!

Easter Peace and Joy,

Most Reverend James F. Checchio, JCD, MBA
Bishop of Metuchen