Easter Message

Easter Sunday reflection by Very Reverend Stephen E. Salocks, Rector of Saint John's Seminary - April 4, 2021

On behalf of the seminarians, faculty, and staff of Saint John’s Seminary, I wish you and your families a blessed and joyful Easter!  

Reflecting on the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the Dead with Pope Saint John Paul II, we understand that “the celebration of Easter is at once a reminder of Christ’s passion and an invitation to pass beyond the darkness of the Passion in order to gaze upon Christ’s glory in the Resurrection. Contemplating the Risen One, we rediscover the reasons for our faith and relive the joy of all of the early disciples to whom Christ appeared in the Gospels.” [Cf. Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae, 23]   

Like the earliest disciples, we appreciate the ways our Easter faith continues to grow, the ways Christ is present in our lives, and the ways Christ calls us to participate in his risen life. Easter means that physical death is not the end of us. Easter means that through Christ, life has conquered death. We have died and been raised with Christ in baptism, and so, Easter means that we now enjoy a new creation inaugurated by His resurrection and hence a new way of looking at life.  

At Easter, we traditionally hear the Scriptures exhort us to live out the consequences of the resurrection. Christ’s resurrection was not an isolated event but one that inaugurated a new order in which believers have become participants. Having been raised up in company with Christ by virtue of our baptism, we now strive to set our hearts on the higher realms rather than on things of earth and proclaim the Good News of the Resurrection with our very lives.  

Christ is risen! This is the day the Lord has made, and we rejoice and are glad! With our life now hidden in Christ, may we continue to probe the mystery of his resurrection and one day appear with Him in glory.   

A Happy and Blessed Easter to you all!