Happy Easter
Deacon Patrick Constantino
Our reflection is from the Gospels John 20: 1-9 and Luke 24: 13-35.
Happy Easter, everyone! Alleluia!
What a joy it is to be with all of you this day as we gather to celebrate and give thanks for and rejoice in our incredible God—a God who refused to turn His back on us, refused to leave us to our own devices, refused to wash His hands of the whole affair as Pilate did as if to say, “It’s not my problem.”
Rather, He took our problems upon Himself, our mistakes upon Himself, our disobedience upon Himself, our self-centeredness upon Himself—that is, all of our sins upon Himself—in the process, in that saving act, He changed absolutely everything. No longer would humanity have to embrace the attitude, “Well, that’s the way it’s always been.”
Instead, He gave us the opportunity to begin down a new path, with new eyes, new priorities, new hope. Not only would the world not have to remain what it had always been, but we would no longer have to be who we have always been. Put another way—He rose so we can rise with Him—that is, so we can experience an Easter for each Good Friday we are faced with.
Even the Good Friday we will experience at the end of our lives is not the end of the story. Something more beautiful awaits. The empty tomb assures us of that. In one sense this incredible loving act came to us completely from the outside, from the utter graciousness of God.
God redeems. God saves. God destroyed death forever. And we will forever be unable to be thankful enough for it. And in no way will we ever be able to repay it. That’s simply impossible. What a God we have!
But make no mistake about it, although salvation came from without, from “beyond” so-to-speak, it was won from within—won by Jesus—our God who entered our world in a profound and humble and concrete way. And that should tell us something. You see, God didn’t just “wave his hand” figuratively and make things better, although He certainly could have. No, this was an “inside” job. And that’s partly because God had to make sure we know just how much we are loved, make sure we know how precious we are in His eyes, make sure we know we are not forgotten, and make sure we know we don’t have to make this journey alone.
Our God will always be making this journey with us. Our God will always be by our side and within our hearts—guiding us and comforting us. And our God will always give us chance after chance after chance—forgiving us and picking us up and drying our tears and pointing us in the right direction again and again and again.
Put simply—Jesus’ saving act might have been a once-in-history moment. That is true. He reconciled us to the Father in a way we could never do on our own. But the power of that act is not a singular kind of thing. Rather, it’s meant to be a day-after-day, year-after-year, generation-after-generation transformation of each and every human person open to the power of it, the transformation of each and every human heart.
In a real sense, Jesus died to make each of us different—truly different—more alive, more loving, more connected—that is, bring us into true communion with our loving God.
Are We?
That’s really the challenge of this Holy Day. Yes, today is a day to rejoice. Absolutely. Yes, today is a day to give our deepest and most sincere thanks. Yes, today is a day to be filled with hope and optimism. Yes, today is a day to gather with family and friends and eat great food and hunt for Easter eggs and eat a year’s worth of candy in one day.
But it’s also a day to reflect—reflect on the ways we will choose to respond or not respond to what we believe in faith, choose to respond or not respond in love to our God who has loved us first and loved us best. Will we reach out to others the way God reaches out to us? Will we find ways to “lay down our lives,” as Jesus did? Will we love continually and unconditionally or will we only love when it’s easy? Will we forgive the things that seem unforgivable? Will we refuse to pursue revenge, refuse to try to get even, refuse to “make people pay,” refuse to answer violence with violence? Will we be truly generous or will we simply give from our leftovers? Will we put the well-being of others ahead of our own? Put simply—will we love?
Jesus did all of that. For us. And He also did it to show us how to live. My friends, will we just say thanks today and go back to doing things the way we’ve always done them, go back to being the person we’ve always been? Will we somehow make the death and resurrection of Jesus not mean very much? Or will we give thanks the only way that truly matters—by being more than we were yesterday; by being the loving person God wants us to be, knows we can be, and died and rose so we could be.
Alleluia! He is risen! Let’s rise with Him and make ourselves and the world a whole lot better than we were before!
Next week is Divine Mercy Sunday, let us be the person Jesus changed and continue to celebrate Easter through the year! Jesus I trust in You, Amen!
Deacon Patrick Constantino retired from active Ministry on July 1, 2022. He is still a Deacon in good standing with full faculties to perform all sacraments in the Diocesan of Honolulu Hawai‘i. Constantino has been ordained for thirty-seven years. He is the first Filipino Deacon in the Diocesan of Honolulu. Prior to his ordination, Constantino was in government—first appointed in 1966 as Assistant Sergeant of Arms by the Speaker of the House Elmer F. Cravalho. When Cravalho became Maui’s first Mayor, Constantino became his Executive Assistant—the first of Filipino ancestry. Later, Constantino became the first County Treasurer of Filipino ancestry and the first County Grants Administrator and Risk Manager of Filipino ancestry. Constantino is married to his lovely wife Corazon for sixty-four years. They are blessed with four children, eleven grandchildren, and fifteen great grandchildren.