A Better Person This Easter

Am I better this Easter than I was on Easter Sunday a year ago? This is the question of St. Leo in one of his sermons on Easter Sunday according to Fr. Joseph A. Galdon in his reflection about Easter in his book “The Mustard Seed”. He further said that we should ask if we are a more loving person? Is there someone in our lives, our husband, our wife, our son or daughter, our friends — who is a little bit happier because of what we have done for them this past year? Is our wife smiling more this year? Have we spent more time with our son? Does our daughter like to sit and talk with us about what she is excited about?

Fr. Galdon said that when the priest makes the sign of the cross on our foreheads last Ash Wednesday, it symbolizes our commitment to love. The ashes are a reminder that we are human beings and that love is sometimes hard. We have to pay the price for love sometimes. We don’t always succeed in love as well as we would like to. We do get grouchy and hard to live with sometimes. The ashes and the cross remind us that we are very human and struggling people. That we spend only a very short time on this earth and that during that short time we have to fill the world with love.

The Holy Week is a good time according to Fr. Galdon to remind ourselves that our marriages and our families will be better because we do the hard thing that is right. Penance is good for us and is good for others. Prayer and penance are very good for loving. As St. Leo says we have to translate that love into action. We have to do something about it. We have to transform that love into a special concern for those who are poor among us. They can be poor in body, but they can also be poor in mind and in spirit. We have to share what we have — or our love becomes meaningless.

May the above insights remind us that as we celebrate Easter which is the triumph of good versus evil, sin and death — it is also a time to become a new individual, a better person who translates the Lord’s faithful love to us by showing kindness towards our family, friends and to those who are need.

On another note, let us ponder on this scripture from Ephesians 4:2-3 that says “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”

“Don’t brood. Get on with loving and living. You don’t have forever.” – Leo Buscaglia