Dear People of God,
We associate those words, Ecce Homo, as the words spoken by Pontius Pilate on Good Friday, when he presented the scourged and bloodied Savior crowned with thorns. The Latin words literally mean “Behold the Man!” Jesus was difficult to look at, “so marred was his look beyond human semblance” (Is 52:14).
On this Easter Sunday, however, we behold the same, but different man! Ecce Homo! So different was Jesus’ appearance that St. Mary Magdalene and the Apostles did not recognize him at first! The one whom they had seen die on the cross was now risen from the dead! To convince his disciples that Jesus was not a ghost, he once again ate and drank with them. Jesus broke bread with them, as he did before his death. Jesus showed them plainly that even death had no power over him, but that he had conquered death from within its own lair!
And now having risen, Jesus invites us to share in the same transformation! God the Son, the Second Person of the Trinity, took on our humanity precisely so that he could transform it for us as the new Adam. We who are baptized into him have died to the old Adam and have been united to the new Adam!
Beholding the now Risen Jesus encourages us to live our earthly life in the same pattern he did, sharing in the same earthly mission of laying down our lives for our brothers and sisters and making disciples of all the nations (specifically Jackson!), sharing in the glory of the Cross before we experience our own resurrection from the dead! We nonetheless can experience the new life of Jesus’ Resurrection even now, as he revives and gladdens the soul! Faithfully living in the life of the Holy Spirit, we can experience the fruits of the Holy Spirit here and now: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal 5:22-23).
These fruits are evident in the lives of our neophytes (what we call the catechumens and candidates after they have received the sacraments of initiation). In this Sunday’s homily and in future bulletins featuring their testimonies, you will hear how they were scourged and bloodied in the spiritual battle of life, but they turned to the One who had suffered with and for them, and He showed them and continues to show them the path of healing and salvation!
We celebrate the fact that Jesus lives in them! Ecce Homo! We continue to “behold the man,” Christ Jesus, in and through the members of His body! We have over 20 neophytes once again this year! They can echo with St. Paul that, having died to their old self, they now truly live…no longer them, but Christ who lives in them (Gal 5:22-23)! See their photos in the bulletin and in our vestibule, and please join me in congratulating our neophytes!
Have a blessed and joyous Easter!
Father Chas