Good Friday leads to Easter joy, hope and new life

    I extend Easter greetings to all those in the Archdiocese of New Orleans. Please know that you, your loved ones and your special intentions will be remembered in my liturgical celebrations at St. Louis Cathedral at the Easter vigil and on Easter Sunday.
    Having celebrated the suffering and death of Jesus and having descended quietly into his tomb – where his body was lifeless – we now stand at the tomb and hear from the angel, God’s messenger, that he has been raised from the dead and is in the Father’s kingdom.
    Like the disciples of old, we cannot fully understand that mystery of the resurrection. Yet, in faith, we invite the Risen Christ to live in us and to use us as his witnesses in our world today.
    Easter is a time of hope in light of the Good Fridays that we personally experience. We, like Jesus, expect that the Lord God will raise us to new life.
    What are some of the Good Fridays that we experience on a personal level? Those circumstances and people who cause pain and make us feel alone. Those are the crosses we bear and the darkness that seems to surround us at times.
    Marianite Sister Judy Gomila once spoke about a lesson she learned in the novitiate that has stuck with her through many years of religious life: “Carry your cross – don’t drag it.” The cross is never easy, but if we are dragging our cross and kicking up a lot of dirt so that people notice it, that’s not what carrying our cross is all about. It is about being able to make sacrificial offerings and embracing the cross, not simply enduring it. It is about trusting in the new life of resurrection.
    Beyond our personal struggles in our family and work, we in the United States also are experiencing an increasing threat to our religious freedom. We believe that through this challenge, God will lead us beyond this “Good Friday.”
    On a more local level, the sufferings of Jesus on Good Friday are related to the New Battle of New Orleans that we continue to fight in order to win the victory against violence, murder and racism. The unnatural violence in our region must end, and we need divine inspiration to help each of us become instruments of peace and reconciliation.
    In these Good Fridays of our lives, we believe that God never abandons us but rather hears our prayer, calls us to hope and provides for us new life. With all that is going on in our personal lives and in the world, we easily could become discouraged and even hopeless, but because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we do not. We persevere, realizing that just as Jesus suffered, died and was raised to new life in the Father’s kingdom, so, too, will we.
    May you and your loved ones experience the joy and peace of the Risen Christ.
    Questions for Archbishop Aymond may be sent to clarionherald@clarionherald.org.