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Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday, April 20, 2014, by Fr. Kevin Anderson

I need some young volunteers [as kids come up, I start placing outlandish Easter Bonnets on their heads] I sing:  “In your Easter bonnet with all the thrills upon it, you’ll be the fairest person in the Easter parade”

 

My, don’t they look lovely.  Back a few years, wearing a new Easter bonnet was a big deal.  Of course that was the time when all women had to have their heads covered in Church.  So people would prepare a special bonnet (or hat) just for Easter . . . and usually go for a walk after Church on Easter morning which became known as [sing] “an Easter Parade.”  [Send kids back to pews]

 

Well, maybe the notion of having a bonnet isn’t practical anymore . . . but the idea of having something new at Easter is perfect way to represent what this feast is all about.  You see, this is a time of celebration . . . the old order has gone away, Lent has ended, newness is all around us! 

Christ has risen from the dead . . . and all of history is changed forever.

 

Of course this will be obvious to Laura Barnes (and her son Ethen) who will be baptized tonight (last night).  And also for Rick Olene and Lesley Koehler who are joining the Church tonight (last night).  They begin a new chapter in their faith journey and we get to celebrate with them. 

 

Pope Francis wrote a wonderful pastoral letter called the GOSPEL OF JOY.  In it he writes, “There are too many Christians whose lives seem like Lent without Easter.”  Come on people, this is the season to put on a new attitude.  Of course there are difficult times.  Francis even acknowledges that when he writes, “I realize that joy is not expressed the same way at all times in life, especially at moments of great difficulty.  Joy adapts and changes, but it always endures, even as a flicker of light born of our personal certainty that, when everything is said and done, we are infinitely loved.”  That’s what it is all about . . . God has loved us so much to send his son Jesus for the forgiveness of sins.  That means YOUR sins and mine.  God has called us to start over and believe in the resurrection of hope . . . of joy . . . of newness.

 

So my suggestion is that you become an Easter people.  Put on a new attitude this Easter season.

Be different.  Be better.   It is the season of resurrection, the season of new birth, the season of joy . . . so start making that newness come alive by what you say, how you act, what you do. 

 

Remember how in Lent, many of you gave up something?  Well now for the next 50 days (the Easter Season) I recommend doing something different . . . perhaps adding something in your life.

 

It’s as simple as making a resolution to play more, have more fun, laugh.  For example, try eating with our opposite hand.  So what, if you are bad at it or that you start flinging food around . . . maybe your home needs a good ole food fight so that you don’t take life so seriously.

                                   

 

Maybe it’s trying to affirm someone each day.  Try it.  

Maybe for you couples, it is to go on a date once a week. 

Maybe it as simple as not being so negative or grumpy.

 

Maybe it’s trying to “patch up some relationships.”  [Joke]  It’s like the story of the man who comes up to the priest and says, “I need your prayers, Father.  I just had another fight with my wife.”  “  Oh yeah?” said the priest, “And how did this one end?”  “When it was over,” the man replied, “She came to me on her hands and knees.”  “Really,” said the priest, “Now that's a switch!  What did she say?”  She said, “Come out from under the bed, you little chicken.”

 

Maybe this is the season that you laugh more.  Tell jokes.  Of course the best material is when you can laugh at your own mistakes.  If you don’t think that you do anything stupid just ask a family member.  

 

Put on a new attitude.  Smile more.  Give compliments . . . be of joy.  Pope Francis, also writes, “Sometimes we are tempted to find excuses and complain, acting as if we could only be happy if a thousand conditions were met.  I can say that the most beautiful and natural expressions of joy which I have seen in my life were in poor people who had little to hold onto.  All these instance of joy flow from the infinite love of God, who has revealed himself to us in Jesus Christ.” 

 

Spiritual pioneer and scientist Pierre de Chardin observed that

joy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God.  

Joy deepens our sense of “the basic wonder and goodness of life”

(in spite of its troubles and tragedies).

Joy can help us open ourselves to experiencing God’s smile

Joy can rescue our Christian faith from heavy religiosity as well as fruitless moralizing.

Joy refreshes us with the blessing of what is called “the music of God’s cosmic chuckle.”  

 

So put on your Easter bonnet.  Don’t wait until you are old to wear purple and a red hat (as the famous poem says).  Be of joy now!  Become that place where people notice that something is different.  Be the place where resurrection occurs!

 

[Joke] And don’t worry about eating those chocolate goodies after Mass today for chocolate is derived from cocoa BEANS.  And sugar is derived from either sugar cane or sugar BEETS, and we know that beans and beets are vegetables.  And chocolate also contains milk which is dairy . . . so don’t feel guilty about eating the chocolate bunny . . . for if it is made up of vegetables and dairy in it . . . it must be a HEALTH FOOD.  

 

So remember, start doing things differently this Easter Season.  The word “stressed” (which we all try to avoid) spelled backwards is “desserts.”

 

 

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