Happy Easter! Jesus has risen as he said! Rejoice!
My friends, I hope you will experience some of the wonder and joy of that amazing good news on this
Easter day. In the midst of hunting for eggs, sampling some chocolate Easter bunnies and carving up the Easter
ham, may you pause for a moment and thank God for the gift of life eternal.
Of course, due to printing schedules, I am writing this in the midst of preparations for the Triduum so I am
still thinking about what precedes the resurrection and that is Jesus’ death on the cross. However, they are always
connected, even on Easter – no resurrection without the dying! Let me briefly reflect then on two things that
Mother Teresa would often say.
The first is a line from Jesus while he hung upon the cross. “I thirst” he says shortly before he dies. Mother
Teresa would have those words put on crosses in the convents where her sisters lived. For she taught that Jesus
was not uttering a mere physical need he was experiencing at the moment. Rather, he thirsts for us, for our love.
That is what he truly desires and that is what he was missing on the cross. He thirsts for you. Jesus desires you. He
wants a deep and intimate relationship with you.
The second, Mother Teresa used to say that the Gospel can be summed up on five fingers. She would
point to each finger and recite the five words of Jesus: “You did it to me.” She, of course, was referring to the
famous passage in the Gospel of Matthew about how those who provide for the hungry, welcome the stranger,
clothe the naked, and visit the sick perform these charitable acts ultimately for Christ. When we give to the poor, it
is as if we are giving to Christ, who is especially present in the poor. “As often as you did it to one of these least
ones, you did it to me.”
Most of us know that there is a command for us to love our neighbor, but throughout our lives we lose our
zeal for helping others. Pope Francis has often said that this is dangerous, “how harmful this is, for it makes us lose
our amazement, our excitement, and our zeal for living the Gospel of fraternity and justice.” Our brothers and
sisters are the presence of Christ for us. We can encounter the risen Jesus in those we meet each day.
Mother Teresa said the greatest poverty in the world was found in the prosperous West. It is not material
poverty, but a deeper one – a poverty of friendship, love and care. She once described this after visiting a nursing
home: “I saw in that home that they had everything, beautiful things, but everybody was looking towards the
door. And I did not see a single one with a smile on their face. And I turned to the Sister and I asked: ‘How is that?
How is it that the people they have everything here, why are they all looking towards the door, why are they not
smiling?’ And she said: ‘This is nearly every day, they are expecting, they are hoping that a son or daughter will
come to visit them. They are hurt because they are forgotten.’” Mother Teresa would encourage her sisters to
make sure that everyone they encountered knew that they were special, that they were truly seen by them.
May the promise of new life with Jesus move you today to hear his desire for you, his thirst for you. May
you be moved to look deeply into the eyes of those you meet this day and see the Christ, not a stranger, but the
Christ who comes to us today in the people we meet. May you have a true encounter with the risen one as did
those early disciples. May you know his deep desire for you and may you share that joy with all whom you
encounter.
On this Easter day, look at the joy in the face of a young child when they find a colorful egg hidden in the
grass. That same joy is on the face of Jesus when he finds you. And, that is the joy that should be on our faces
when we see the Christ in all the people we encounter today. Jesus speaks from the cross and from the tomb.
“I thirst.”
“You did it to me.”
Peace,
Fr. Damian