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God is God of the unexpected, even when things are bleak and dark. The disciples, Mary Magdalene, and other followers of Jesus have just witnessed his horrific death and crucifixion on Good Friday. For the past three days, they have been hiding out from the authorities, scared and confused about what to do next. Jesus was supposed to have been their leader, the one who talked about God the Father like no one else. And now, he had been executed on the cross. Who was to say that his followers would not meet the same fate?

Keeping with the Jewish tradition, the women went out after the Sabbath to anoint the body of Jesus, and now find this final humiliation: the body is not there, and the grave clothes are folded neatly on the side. In reflecting upon John 20: 1-9, I had to keep myself from jumping to what we know to be the resolution of the story: Jesus is alive and lives forever! However in these Gospel verses, no angel is waiting to tell the disciples that He is alive. From all viewpoints, the disciples have no reason to hope that the body was not stolen. Yet, they do not turn away-they have their sliver of faith to sustain them. Peter rushes into the tomb to look inside, the other disciple looks in after him. (John 20: 6-8)

Sometimes, life’s challenges make us want to turn away and not look (ie. Job loss, relationship changes, medical difficulties.) Cynicism, pessimism, and despair tempt us to turn away, to not help, to not care. And yet, God’s grace urges on to continue to communicate, to aide, to feel. Even though we do not know how difficult situations will end in this life, Easter proclaims that through the bodily resurrection of Jesus, God has the final triumph over death, illness, cynicism, and despair. Christ is the Light, a Light no darkness can overcome. (John 1:5) We are called to be witnesses to the Good News of the Resurrection and the Kingdom of God-Alleluia!

Bio: Leanne Pavel has been involved with Young Adult Ministry events since 2006. She currently works full-time at a library in the western suburbs, and is a part-time Master’s of Library and Information Science student at Dominican University in River Forest, IL.

For most of our lives it can seem like we are very much “in the dark”. Things tend to happen all around us that we don’t immediately understand and grasp completely. Not one of us can look into the future and see how God will be interacting and working in our lives. We can make our plans, and set our goals, but something unexpected can always creep in and transform us in some significant way. Whenever that does happen—like in today’s Gospel reading—we often find ourselves in a position of awe, shock, and surprise at those various stages and moments of our life.

When we were very young children, everything was new. Our entire existence seemed to be about emergence from darkness. One day we might be learning a new word, eating something for the very first time, or gaining a major new insight from our daily experiences. Later, as Young Adults, we still find ourselves experiencing an emerging awareness of the world around us. During these years we could experience new educational and career achievements, major success, and also failures. Perhaps we might experience the gift of love and joy found in marriage, or the miracle of having children and becoming a parent. Some of us might move away to far off and unknown places—removed from our family and childhood friends—in a struggle to find our own place in the world where we can make a meaningful impact in the lives of others around us…

My overall point here being, that there are many places and experiences left to discover even as we get older, and our desire to do so is still very-very strong. And, while we are certainly still in the dark about many things, the experiences of life we are getting daily are hopefully making us wiser. Still, even if we don’t feel any wiser from our experiences— they are certainly shaping and changing us in many ways as we continue to become ourselves in the world.

Progressively, one might therefore be inclined to think that the darkness we have experienced since birth becomes less frequent as we age. By all appearances this seems true. But yet, at least from my perspective, I find that there are always new opportunities to be brought into the “light” out of “darkness”. Those opportunities might become fewer in number, but they are no less significant. In fact, I’d like to believe that some of our most life altering and transformation experiences occur as we get further along in life. Perhaps, this is because they are more and more unexpected. –Right when we think we have it all figured out, bam! Something major hits us that we didn’t see coming.

All in all, my opinion is that this is a good thing! I am very content to not know it all, and to be discovering new things all the time. Life would be dull and meaningless if we knew everything there was to know about life. Being in darkness allows us to appreciate the moments of light all the more! God brings new light into our lives daily. It comes in many forms—our loved ones, our community in faith, our daily activities, etc. We too bring light into the lives of others daily through interactions that might—at first glance—seem random and otherwise insignificant. We might never know the total impact we can have and have had on others.

For Peter, the rest of the apostles, and for us, Jesus is a shining light that continually brings us out of darkness. His very existence and teachings transform us daily—even today some 2000+ years later. Like then, we don’t immediately understand the meaning of what is occurring in our lives. We just know that something significant has occurred that we cannot ignore. And, even once we think we have figured out the meaning of it all—the likelihood is that at some point in the future we will grasp a new understanding and meaning from our experiences. To put it another way, God hits us on the head and reminds us that there is still more to learn!

And so, today on Easter Sunday, take some time and reflect on your own life’s journey. Who has been significant and instrumental in shaping you into the person you have become and that you are still becoming? Likewise, can you recognize how you have had a meaningful impact in the lives of others? Finally, how have you felt “in the dark” in your life? What has emerging from darkness meant to you?

Bio: Nathan D. Hernandez is the part-time Director of Online Ministry for the Young Adult Ministry Office of the Archdiocese of Chicago. He holds a BBA in Information Systems from the University of Texas at San Antonio, a MA in Pastoral Studies from Loyola University Chicago, and will complete a MS in Information Technology from Loyola this December. Nathan is originally from San Antonio, TX and moved to Chicago in 2007 to pursue graduate studies.

The Resurrection accounts vary in their detail. Mary Magdalene and other women encounter heavenly messengers. Mary Magdalene has a direct encounter with the Risen Lord. The Risen Jesus appears to other disciples on the road to Emmaus. If we take all of the accounts together, several factors are common in all of the stories. There was much grief and confusion among the disciples over the death of Jesus. In His appearances, He sometimes was recognized and sometimes was not recognized. His was a fleeting presence. He would appear and then He would vanish. He was no longer subject to the laws of time and space. His identity was intact. He was the same Jesus, but he was transformed. His was now a spirit body. He had risen from the dead. He would go on to be glorified with Abba in heaven.

I see the Resurrection of Jesus as the completion of his revelation of the Reign of God. He had taught much about the Reign of God in his three years of teaching, preaching, and healing. There was one final piece that he had to reveal and that was the truth about suffering, death, and Resurrection. That is why he so intentionally moved toward Jerusalem. He had to complete His mission in revealing the truth of Resurrection. The theologian Paul Tillich speaks of the Risen Jesus as the New Being. Tillich went on to say that those of who believe in the Risen Jesus become New Beings in the Risen Christ.

I do not want us to look on the Resurrection of Christ or the paschal mystery as a past event. The mystery of living, dying, and rising is going on in each of our lives. We are living, dying, and rising with the Lord. This last year for me has been like a 365 day Good Friday. I left a parish that I loved after seventeen years. I have had the feeling, over the months since I left, that I have lost most of what had been of significance to me, most of what brought me joy and fulfillment. But I can see now, after the passage of time, that this difficult process of loss and grief has indeed been a process of death and resurrection. I know now that I am being transformed and rising to new life. I am learning new skills, forming new relationships, facing new challenges, learning and growing.

William Bridges has done a lot of work on life transitions. He says in transitions, there are always painful endings. And then we go through an equally painful moratorium period that he calls the neutral zone, in which we might have taken on new jobs and new roles; but we certainly do not feel at home in the world. The neutral zone gives way to new beginnings. I think Bridges’ work uses secular language, but really describes the paschal mystery in each of our lives. Life is just filled with endings, neutral zones, and new beginnings. The life, death, and resurrection process is going on in each of our lives over and over again. Bridges maintains that often new beginnings have already started in the moratorium or the neutral zone. But it can take a while for us to perceive these new beginnings. May these fifty days of Easter be a time in which you experience yourselves as New Beings in the Risen Jesus. May you hold on in hope, trust, and surrender in the midst of all the transitions and many manifestations of the paschal mystery in your lives.

Bio: Fr. Patrick Brennan is a practicing psychotherapist and author of numerous books on spirituality, psychology and church renewal. He is currently Director of Mission Integration and Pastoral Care for The Clare at Water Tower Place in Chicago. Fr. Brennan also serves as President of the National Center for Evangelization and Parish Renewal, and a consultant and Sacramental Minister at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Naperville, Ill. He travels extensively as a consultant to parishes and church organizations.