WELCOME TO THE FIFTY DAYS OF EASTER

Welcome to the Fifty Days of Easter - a journal of reflections written

by the staff and parishioners of

Sacred Heart Church.

The first day is written by

Rev. Joseph J. Kerrigan, our Pastor.

"You're going to die the way you live." The idea that dying well is as important as living well picked up a lot of popularity over the past year with the example of the so-called "Last Lecture" professor, Randy Pausch, from Carnegie-Mellon, who, while dying from pancreatic cancer, gave an inspiring lecture that millions have seen on the Internet. It was a talk all about achieving your dreams and going on living while you're dying, a message he embodied until dying last summer at age 47.

Over the days of Holy Week, we Christians have focused intensely in our Gospels on the last days of Jesus: the conspiratorial swirl of activity against him, his persecution, crucifixion, and burial. Other Scriptures, from both the Old and New Testament, have either anticipated or reflected on these events. Taken together, they tell us a thing or two about how to live our lives. More than two thousand years of experience, publicized through art, theology or other means, have confirmed a basic belief we have about how believers are to live, a way of life characterized by self-emptying, compassion and orientation toward God. We believe that, in and of itself, this way not only constitutes good discipleship, but also a path of wholeness and integrated living.

But that just accounts for life on this side of the grave. What about Easter? Where does the Resurrection come in? The Salvadoran Jesuit theologian Jon Sobrino says it well, "When one's own death is not just the product of physical limitations or the wear and tear of looking after oneself, but when it is the outcome of loving dedication to others and to the weakness, poverty or defenselessness of these others as a result of injustice, then there's a likeness between one's own life and death, and Jesus' life and death. Then -- and from a Christian point of view, only then -- can one share in the hope of resurrection."

As we celebrate Easter, may our life of dedication to God and others be a continuing sign of hope of resurrection for ourselves and those we meet, so that we reflect the Resurrection in the way we live.