Dear Fellow Parishioners and visitors, Happy Easter Season to you all! We have fifty days to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ who promises us the same gift he has received, that we too will rise to everlasting life. Each time we enter into the Easter Season the words of St. Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa) come to mind and are embedded in my heart, “Never let anything sadden you so much that you forget the joy of the Resurrection!”
It is that Easter joy that carried her and her sisters through the ministry with the poor on the streets of Calcutta and throughout the world. They never became overwhelmed by the abject poverty that surrounded them. They never became paralyzed by the needs of so many, they simply moved forward in joy with the command of the Gospel to treat everyone with dignity and joy. During my years of ministry in Haiti, I recall a particular Holy Thursday which will forever be in my memory, reminding me that I never have anything happen in my life that could cause me to be overwhelmed. I was washing the feet of 12 people at Foyer Sen Etienne nursing home. Along the line of the group was a woman with elephantitus. I knew this lady, it was Madam Lele, she always walked barefoot because there were no shoes to fit her huge swollen, callused, bruised and worn feet. I carefully washed both her feet and then kissed each of them. I looked into her tear-filled eyes and she grabbed me and gave me a huge bear hug and whispered in my ear in Kreyol, “everyone is so afraid to look at me, but you were not afraid to touch me and kiss my feet.” It was then that I kissed both her cheeks. Madam Lele had changed my life, just as much as I had changed hers. Contemplate your relationship to the Risen Lord. Let that relationship and understanding deepen and grow during these fifty days of the Easter Season. I invite you to focus in on the opportunity to treat everyone with the dignity and joy of the resurrection found in the many people who come your way. A simple way to share that joy is by wishing people Happy Easter during these 50 days! Happy Easter to you all! Fr. Bill