Tell the others

Easter is the principal feast of the year, festum festorum or the greatest feast (Catholic Encyclopedia) during which we celebrate the great event of the Resurrection, the crowning truth of our faith in Christ (Catechism of the Catholic Church [CCC], 638). By his death, Christ liberates us from sin; by his Resurrection, he opens for us the way to a new life that reinstates us in God's grace, "so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life" (CCC, 654).

Jesus humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name (Phil 2:8-9). "I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die” (Jn 11:25-26). By rising from the dead, Jesus Christ confirmed his divinity.

Jesus Christ resurrected points to us a new way of conducting our life. St. John in his account of the events of the resurrection tells of Mary Magdalene to whom Jesus showed himself. He dissuaded her from touching him as he had not yet ascended to the Father. “But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and then reported what he had told her” (Jn 20:11-18).

Tell them, Jesus Christ said to Mary. Tell them,Jesus Christ is saying to us too. Tell them about me.

“Our love for God,” St. Josemaria wrote, “must lead us to offer our day for his glory, to do his work, to divinize all our activities – to fill with God every interstice of the daily canvass of our life. Fill everything with the spirit of Christ, St. Paul tells the Ephesians (Eph 1:10). That is why a Christian should live as Christ lived, making the affections of Christ his own, so that he can exclaim with St. Paul: It is now no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me (Gal. 2:20)” (Christ is Passing By, 103). Make Christ present among men. Act in such a way that those who know you sense the bonus odor Christi, the sweet fragrance of Christ (Ibid, 105; 2 Col 2:15). The secret to holiness is to follow Christ (Friends of God, 299). We need to let his life show forth in ours in such a way that each Christian is not simply alter Christus another Christ but ipse Christus Christ himself (Ibid., 104)

Make Jesus Christ “as one of your best friends, even more, the best. Then you will see that friendship with Him leads you to open yourselves to others, whom you consider your brothers and sisters, establishing with each one a relation of sincere love, because Jesus Christ is precisely the ‘love of God incarnate’ (Deus caritas est, 12),” Pope Benedict XVI recently told a gathering of university students, faculty and their families (UNIV 2006, 10 April 2006).

Having found Christ, let us communicate the happiness of finding Christ to the others. “Whoever discovers Christ,” continued the Pope, “ends up leading others to Him because no one keeps such a great joy to himself, but rather communicates it. This is the task to which the Lord calls you and this has to be your apostolate of friendship."