From Pastor’s Column: Fr. Justus Alaeto
We are Witnesses of Christ’s Paschal Mystery to us

The meaning of life diminishes when there is no love, self-denial, and sacrifice. Jesus’ love was seen clearly from His suffering. Jesus allowed Himself to go through trials and difficulties in order to change false understanding about life.  Jesus’ resurrection brought new meaning and new direction to life. Easter is calling us to resurrect to new life in Christ.  Baptism first initiates us into that new life in Christ, and through renewal of our baptismal promises as we are going to do today. We are all witnesses of Christ’s Resurrection by living the new life of Christ our Baptism is asking us to do.  Our life should be the evidence that Christ is alive. A witness is someone who was present at an event, saw what happened and listened to what was said. For example, the Apostles were witnesses because they had been with Jesus after His resurrection, had eaten with Him, heard His teaching, and seen His Miracles.

But how can we be witnesses from this Easter? To be true witnesses of Christ, we need to undergo the experience of the resurrection. With our spiritual decision to start living like Christ’s witnesses, we need to first of all renew our Baptismal calling starting from  our hearts and start afresh with Jesus today. Whenever we are celebrating Easter, we are celebrating the fact that nothing from our old life will remain in us again by the Grace of God.

At Easter, we are celebrating the fact that the action of Christ’s resurrection has changed us to new life in Christ. We are celebrating the fact that we are making effort to rely on Jesus the Savior. We are celebrating the fact that we are making effort to leave sin behind and follow Christ. We are making effort to accept God’s direction every day of our lives. At Easter, we arecelebrating the fact that we are making effort to change our hearts to the Heart and Mind of the Risen Lord, Jesus Christ.

We are making effort to no longer harbor in our heart deceit, grudges, misunderstanding,
drunkenness, addiction, impatience, lies, gossiping and other things that kept us away from the life of Jesus Christ. The Easter celebration means we are to spiritually die to those lifestyles that contradict the life of Christ, and resurrect to new life and good works that bear witness to the life of Christ. Easter people follow with Christ’s attitude towards everyone around us.  Living out Christ’s attitude from our lives is a concrete way to show non-believers that Christ is alive in us and in the world!

 Let us pray that this Easter brought new meaning and transformation to our life, our families, and our world!