Sometimes priests receive unsolicited letters just because we are men of the Church and our addresses, at least at the parishes, are public information.  They come from all over the country.  After receiving several of these letters, you begin to get a feel for them and have them spotted with the first few lines of the letter.  This week I received what at first I thought was one of THOSE letters.  But instead of dropping it in the nearest trashcan I let it sit and later I gave it a second look.  It wasn't a letter from someone wanting me to jump on the bandwagon of their favorite vision or visionary.  It wasn't someone wanting me to join a crusade against a bishop or cardinal who they believe wasn't Catholic enough.  It wasn't even a letter from someone wanting money.

This was a letter from a mother pouring out her anguished heart at the death of her son who had taken his own life a few months ago.   He was a college-age young man, born in December, like me.  As I read the story I felt a connection to this young man and this grieving mother.  I knew I had to respond with whatever words of comfort, understanding and love that I could to help bring even a small measure of peace to this anguished family.  I believe it was the heart of Jesus who called me to do this.

This story is what we celebrate today.  Not suicide or anguish, but death and resurrection.  Before there can be a rising to new life, there must first be a death.  Without this frightening and painful truth, there is no meaning in today's celebration.  The disciples had to endure Good Friday before the mystery of the Resurrection can begin to unfold and bring new meaning to their lives.   All the Gospels attest to this.  Before Easter morning, the disciples are very much who they were before Jesus came.  Just common Joe's and Jane's stuck in their personal fears and sins.  Encountering the Risen Lord begins the truly profound transformations.

Those transformations happen as they allow the selfish, petty and sinful parts of themselves die with Christ so that the new and more God-like self can rise from that death.  There must be deaths before resurrections, new and better lives can arise.  Sometimes those deaths are real deaths of people we love that shake us to our core and strip us of all our illusions about what really matters in life and about life.  The mother who wrote me needs a resurrection, a resurrection of a unique kind, as may some of you.   In Jesus that resurrection is possible.

Genesis tells us we are made in the image and likeness of God.  Over the centuries, many wise and learned people have argued it is this or that characteristic of our humanity which most reflects God.  I think it's a package deal.  God is intelligent, so are we.  God is loving and caring, so are we.  At least we can and should be each of these things.  God also looks out for his people and gives of himself for their good.  He even makes the ultimate sacrifice that others might be saved and rise to not just more days of life, but a far better quality of life.  Life that is more like God's own in this life, and actually God's own in the life to come.  Created in His divine image, we must do the same, as best we can.  We must put aside our own desires, ambitions and very selves and help others rise to new and better life.  And we must trust that whatever it may cost us, God the Father sees and he will repay in abundance.  If we go so far as to give of ourselves, forgetting ourselves and not giving a thought to the cost, we will be acting as a Son of God.  God wants to see us do this.  Jesus will help us.  He will send us power in the Holy Spirit to accomplish what we cannot accomplish on our own.

It is a package deal.  When we allow the Service underscored on Holy Thursday, and the Sacrifice of Good Friday to become our own, then the Life of the Son becomes our own as well.  That's when we really rise with Jesus. And His promise is we will rise not only beyond our sins but also beyond the grave, not because I say it is so.  Not because we've earned it as a prize or reward.  But because the Father will not abandon His Son to death.  Mary Magdalene and the other Mary witnessed that first hand on that first Easter morning.  We are an Easter people, and we pray not just because of what we celebrate, but because of who we are and what we do.

- Fr. Paul Gebhardt