What an incredible day --- a day on which we are filled with the kind of joy only God can give.  And what a God we have!  A God who loves us beyond measure.  A God who has done (and will do) everything possible to fill every corner of our lives with peace and hope and meaning.  A God who isn’t some place far away, but is closer to us than we can imagine.  A God who actually walked our journey --- and therefore knows exactly what it feels like to be us --- the struggles and triumphs, the ups and down.  A God who willingly showed us who God is and just as importantly, who we are called to be as faithful disciples of Jesus.  And a God who gave absolutely everything, for one reason only --- to save us --- from sin, from selfishness, from fear, from ourselves, even from death itself.  This is the power of Baptism! And if being sons and daughters of God can’t bring us joy, then I’m not sure anything can.

Many of us try to impart to our children the idea of being “good sports” --- that is, we try to teach them to be gracious in both winning and losing.  There is something worthwhile in that endeavor.  Of course, we hope that this idea of good sportsmanship follows us into adulthood, and that we never get too down on ourselves nor too full of ourselves, that we lose with dignity and win with a certain amount of modesty and decorum.

Well, today’s “win” is the exception --- a day on which we get to celebrate “winning” without a bit of shame, and without feeling sorry for what is on the losing end of our victory.  Of course, we can’t take credit for this victory.  We did nothing to bring it about.  Well, that’s not exactly true.  Our failings are what made it necessary in the first place, our sin the cause of the brokenness Jesus mended for all time.  But the victory is our God’s, and we are called to faithfully celebrate this victory every Sunday of the year.

A victory in which hope wins.  A victory in which forgiveness and mercy and compassion win.  A victory in which gentleness and peace and nonviolence win.  Put simply --- a victory in which love wins --- the love of our God that triumphs every single time.  And God allows us to share in that victory, gifts us with the power of that victory in the Sacrament of Confirmation.  Imagine that.

And what loses today does not deserve our sympathy, but it does deserve our attention --- because what God has triumphed over are the very things we struggle with, the very things that weigh us down and hold us back, the very things that break our spirits and wound our souls.  In other words --- what has lost today is our old self.  The self who is a little too caught up in the things and lies of this world.  The self who wanders from the path way too often. 

The self who holds grudges and refuses to forgive.  The self who gives only from their surplus and not from their want.  The self who judges and criticizes and mocks. 

The self who has stopped trying to do what God wants and just pursues their own desires making ourselves into god.  The self who causes discord and not peace, division and not reconciliation.  The self who fills the world with cynicism and hopelessness and negativity.  And the self who lives as if what we see is all there is.

Death has always been the greatest fear of humankind.  We still wonder about it.  We dread it in a certain sense.  We do all we can to postpone it as long as we can.  Sometimes we even push it far back in our minds so the thought of it doesn’t drive us crazy.  And all of that is completely understandable, makes perfect sense.  Faith doesn’t guarantee the absence of those feelings.  Yet, Easter is the ultimate difference-maker, the real game-changer in all of this.  Death has lost today.  For all time.  It has been rendered powerless by the infinite love of our incredible God.  And while the end of our earthly lives can still sometimes unsettle our souls, our living faith, our following Jesus, can bring a kind of lasting hope, a deep kind of trust that everything will work out, that we’ll be ok, that there is more to reality than what we can see and touch - the realm of the invisible, the Divine, the sacramental. 

And this reality changes everything --- for it means that the new life won for us doesn’t begin at some point far in the future.  

Rather, it begins this day, in this moment --- begins when we personally respond and live in the power of the Resurrection, a power that destroys death in all its forms.  It’s the power that will allow each of us to cast aside our old selves and begin a new way of seeing, thinking, and acting --- that is, begin embracing a new way of being, not trapped by the lies and temptations of Satan.

If that doesn’t sound easy, it’s not.  It takes deep faith and trust and hope.  It takes a willingness to admit our faults, our failings, our sin.  It takes an open heart and mind and soul.  It takes dying to every single thing (large or small) that ties us down with misplaced earthly priorities and prevents us from living a God-centered life.  Takes allowing each of these Good Fridays within us to be transformed into Easters that have the power to change absolutely everything.

He is risen!  The victory has been won!

And so, let’s truly rejoice in that victory --- rejoice in the love of our incredible God and the eternal life he offers.  And let’s be eternally grateful for the selfless act of Jesus --- the laying down of his life so that we could have the most meaningful life possible as we allow him to live in us through the Sacrament of the Eucharist.  What a gift!  What Joy. 

May we proclaim this true eternal reality to others each day!