Joyful Gospel Living - Easter Sunday (April 5, 2026)

JOYFUL GOSPEL LIVING

April 5, 2026 – The Resurrection of the Lord

“This is the day the Lord has made…”

At the Easter Vigil, my parish welcomed four catechumens into the Church through baptism.  During this long liturgy, all of the faithful experienced the awe and wonder of Christ’s Resurrection through powerful symbols (fire, light, water, and oil), the chanting of the glorious Exsultet, special Scripture readings, and the rite of Christian initiation with water, candles, and chrism, followed by the reception of the Eucharist.  This ritual is observed all over the world with the same reverence and glory that our faith has preserved by tradition for centuries.

For the catechumens and all of us, the celebration of Easter helps us to appreciate what Christ has promised to all of us who believe in Him and to share with Him the eternal life that He offers.  Over three weekends in March, the catechumens participated in the weekend scrutinies of their faith.  The symbols of Easter are profoundly present in our communal celebration:

• First Scrutiny: “I am the Living Water.”
• Second Scrutiny: “I am the Light of the World.”
• Third Scrutiny: “I am the Resurrection and the Life.”

Once a year, we renew our baptismal promises on Easter Sunday and then we are sprinkled with holy water to symbolize the new life that we share in Christ.  As we are welcomed into God’s family as His sons and daughters at baptism, we also begin our journey of discipleship.  For those of us who were baptized as infants, we relied on the examples of our parents, godparents, and other faith-filled people to shape our lives.  When we are sprinkled with holy water, we should experience the incredible joy that Psalm 118 describes:

“This is the day the Lord has made.”

On the feast of Saint Joseph (March 19th), my husband Jeff and I were at Sacred Heart Church (Mount Holly, NJ) for the Confirmation service for our twin grandchildren (Zofia and Nathan), who were among the 50 students to receive the sacrament this year.  For their 8th grade year, Jeff (a.k.a. Grandpa) was their catechist!  On their own, they chose Clare and Francis as their Confirmation names.  As their sponsors, we received a special gift from the parish catechetical team—a beautiful commemorative card with the title “The Role of the Sponsor.”

Before the service, I opened and read my card, which included an inscription of our granddaughter’s name and the date that she was sealed with the Holy Spirit—on the feast of Saint Joseph– the patron saint of my paternal grandfather, home parish, grammar and high schools, and university!  It was a day that the Lord had made for us.  Although the words inside the card highlighted the role of the sponsor, I thought that everyone who lives the faith with joy and conviction shares in this kind of witness for Christ:

“You have the honor of being chosen as witness to the confirmand’s initiation into full Christian life.  Through this sacrament, the confirmand is strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit, made a true witness of Christ in word and deed, and invited more deeply into the life of the Church.  Your most significant role in relation to him/her is to be a role model of such witness and unifying love.

Some ways in which you can nurture this spiritual relationship all through life are:

• Celebrate the anniversary of this holy day of Confirmation with a visit, call, or card.
• Listen to and share in the confirmand’s maturing struggles and triumphs in living a Christian life and keep yourself informed on Christian doctrine and values to be able to answer questions when they arise.
• Encourage a maturing life of faith through special cards, letters, or gifts which celebrate holy events…Christmas, Easter…and personal growth events…graduations, first job, engagement. (Gift suggestions: a Bible, rosary, spiritual book, religious jewelry, retreat opportunity).
• Most importantly, become a model of Christian living for the person you have sponsored, through daily prayer, virtue, and active participation in parish life and liturgy.”

During the Confirmation service, I felt especially close to my own late sponsor (my Dad’s youngest sister), Cioci (Aunt) Irene, who passed away at age 95.  Not only was she a great influence on my spiritual life, but she also played a large role in the lives of my four children even into their adult lives and with my twin grandchildren, who accompanied me on many visit to her assisted living facility.

When Cioci Irene passed away in July 2022, her son asked me to offer the words of remembrance at her Mass of Christian Burial.  I had to smile inwardly when I spoke with the parish staff on the phone about the instructions: make sure that the words have spiritual content to them.  Besides my grandparents and parents, my aunt was the greatest spiritual companion in my life for another 10 years after all of them had passed away.

I reread what I had written about Cioci Irene after I received that card at the Confirmation service.  In my special memories of the “saint” that God had chosen to be my sponsor, I treasured how she: took away my fear of the bishop when I was confirmed; was the first to send me Polish wafer bread (opⱡatek) when I went away on active duty in the USAF; used her butter mold to make lambs for our family for the blessing of Easter food on Holy Saturday (and gave me her mold to continue the tradition); brought holy water to the parish cemetery for all of us to sprinkle as we bid farewell to her husband (my uncle); gave her treasured sodality rosary to my granddaughter with the instruction to pray it often; and always gave us a blessing on our foreheads when we left our visits with her, even if we were in the dining room and everyone could see it.

As we remember our Baptism during the Easter season, let us delight in the awe and wonder of God’s glory in new life that we experience in Christ.  Let us remember those who have been witnesses of faith for us:

“…let us rejoice and be glad.”

Teresa S. Redder, OFS

Saint Katharine Drexel Regional Minister