excerpt from Father Farfaglia’s Homily …
With Jesus, we know that we are journeying, not to the sunset, but to the sunrise. We enter into a new relationship with God when we really believe that God is as Jesus told us that he is. We become absolutely sure of his love. We become absolutely convinced that he is above all else a redeeming God. The fear of suffering and death vanishes, for suffering and death means going to the one God who is the awesome God of love. In reality, our life long journey is a journey to the eternal Easter in Heaven.
When we truly believe, we enter into a new relationship with life itself. When we make Jesus our way of life, life becomes new. Life is clad with a new loveliness, a new light and a new strength. When we embrace Jesus as our Lord and Savior, when we develop a personal relationship with him, we realize that life does not end, it changes and it goes from incompletion to completion, from imperfection to perfection, from time to eternity.
When we truly believe in Jesus, we are resurrected in this life because we are freed from the fear that is characteristic of a godless life; we are freed from the unhappiness of a life filled with sin; we are freed from the loneliness of a life without meaning. When we walk with Jesus and follow his way, life becomes so powerful that it cannot die but must find in death the transition to a higher life.
This is why we must never fear failure. At the beginning of every day, Jesus gives us a blank piece of paper to write out the history of another day. Nevertheless, we must always keep in mind that this life was never meant to be easy. Jesus gives meaning to our suffering and gives us the ability to carry our difficulties with patience, love, and joy. When we think that Jesus is far from us, it is then that he is always the closest. Let us recall that because of his deep love, the Lord wept at the tomb of Lazarus. Every time we suffer, he is able to understand our suffering and console us with his loving presence.