Paschal Planting

Sermon reached at Our Lady of Walsingham and St Francis on the Feast of the Resurrection

On Friday, fear reigns. We are presented with the very things that can frighten us the most. We are presented with the ways in which Society can not only fail us, but go out of its way actively to destroy us. In that Society we can find the wayside, the rocks, the thorns all determined to kill in us the word of God. On Friday, they succeeded.

Yet the Word of God also said, "unless a seed die it cannot bear fruit". The soil of our hearts may not be perfect for growing, but as long as it receives that seed deep within and lets it die within us, then it will grow and make us more ready to bear fruit.

And this Lent, we too have tried to die so that we do not become the wayside, the rocks or among thorns. We have tried to die to the things that separate us from God. We may not have been wholly successful, but that we have honestly tried is enough: it is a beginning.

It is in us that Our Lord's Resurrection is broadcast to the world in the best news Creation has ever heard. It is in us that Society can begin to be reborn as a community in which Love can flourish and produce fruit that will gladden the hearts of men.

It is not Friday any more. Why should we fear what me can do to us? Whatever they can do must end, must give way to what is truly Eternal: Faith, Hope, Love - all tied up in the Eternal Trinity. This is the Day that has no end where no fear can be, for fear disappears in the Kingdom of Light, Truth and Love.

It is in us that God will bring this Kingdom to shine. This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.