Homily for Ascension Thursday - May 14, 2015

Homily for Ascension Thursday

May 14, 2015

Detachment

 

            There’s an intriguing scene in John’s Gospel right after the Resurrection. Mary Magdalene is at the empty tomb, overcome with grief, when Jesus visits her, disguised as the gardener. When she finally recognizes Him as Jesus, the Lord says something mysterious – “Don’t cling to Me.”

            My goodness, I would think we should want to cling to Jesus, right? Why would Jesus discourage her from holding on to Him? The reason is because He didn’t want her to rely upon physically seeing Jesus – she had to move from physically seeing Him to faith.

            There’s a virtue in the spiritual life called “detachment” which means enjoying the blessings of God, but not clinging to them. Today’s feast of the Ascension calls to mind detachment. The Apostles were very used to having Jesus with them – they had been with Him for three years, and now were delighted to see Him risen from the dead. But His physical presence was about to end. So they were left now only with faith – the only thing we can ever get attached to.

            And the same goes for us. God gives us many blessings in this life – family, friends, good food, a good reputation, wealth, physical health. We are meant to enjoy these blessings! But at a moment’s notice, it can all be taken away. We can get sick, our friends can move to another town, we could be falsely accused of something, we could have a misfortune and lose all of our money. What is the only thing that can never be taken away? Our faith in Jesus Christ. That alone is immoveable; that alone is our rock. The rest could disappear in a flash – only Jesus remains.

            I had the misfortune of going to four completely different schools by the time I was in eighth grade, and this is now my ninth parish assignment (counting my time as a seminarian, where we had assignments every summer!). And at each place, I would allow myself to get attached to the people, the places, the routines, the perks…only to have it torn away when I had to move again! God has been trying to teach me that the only thing I can really cling to is Him…but I’m a slow learner!

            Have you ever noticed how bees land so gently upon the flowers? They ease their way in, not prying open a closed flower, not trying to take the flower with them. They take the nectar, but then they move on, leaving the flower to continue to grow. Detachment is much like that – we go through our lives, receiving God’s blessings at every turn, but we don’t force them to stay with us; we can’t cling to them.

            We cling to God alone, to faith alone, because that’s all that we are truly able to possess on our own. It must’ve been bittersweet for the Apostles to be missing the Lord after His Ascension. He’s now no longer with them physically. But the one thing they could cling to is their faith.

            So don’t set your hearts on anything in this world. All passes. We must be detached enough to cling to the only thing that endures – faith, hope, and love.

Sixth Sunday of Easter - May 10, 2015

Easter 6

May 10, 2015

The Charity of Christ

 

            I heard that fans of Star Trek tried to translate the Bible into the fictional language of Klingon…but they couldn’t do it, because there was no Klingon word for “love”. And certainly love is in the Bible quite a bit – we hear that word exactly twenty times in today’s readings alone!

            A Christian’s love is different than a worldly person’s love, though, because a Christian’s love reflects God’s love. We can only truly love because He first loved us. We are able to love others because God first loved us. In fact, this supernatural ability to love like God loves is called charity. Charity is one of the “big three” theological virtues, along with faith and hope. In other words, these are virtues that direct us towards God. So let’s take a look at how God’s love is the source of our love.

            First, God’s love is sacrificial. Jesus tells His disciples, “I give you a new commandment – love one another as I have loved you.” When we hear that, we probably think, “Why is that a new commandment?” After all, the Old Testament tells us to love our neighbor as ourselves. But Jesus ups the ante – we shouldn’t just love our neighbor as ourselves – we must love them more than ourselves. God loved us so much that He sacrificed His entire life for us! So to love like God loves, we must be willing to sacrifice – and it starts in the little things: holding your tongue instead of saying a harsh word, letting someone merge into traffic in front of you, doing the dishes at home without being asked. These are sacrifices! And this forms charity within us.

            Closely related to sacrifice is the fact that God’s love expects nothing in return. God received no benefit from dying on the Cross – it didn’t increase His glory, because He was already worthy of all praise. He did it for us, without any sort of benefit – and that should be our love as well.

            Recently I met a delightful woman who took care of her severely retarded son for his entire life. She was telling me, “We were so blessed to have him for 26 years.” I thought to myself – “Blessed? Wow! Most people would consider that a burden, since she didn’t receive any of the typical joys of motherhood – she never heard her son speak a sentence, or go to school, or play sports…she never received a mother’s day card…he didn’t really even recognize who she was…but she considered his life a blessing!” That was disinterested, selfless love – love that looked for nothing in return.

            Another aspect of God’s love that we can imitate is that God’s love is universal. God loves every single human being he created. As the old saying goes, God doesn’t make junk! Every one of us, regardless of talents or looks or age, is delighted in by God…His love is for everyone! Likewise, we as Christians must love everyone – regardless of what country they come from or what language they speak. Obviously you don’t have to like everyone, but we must be willing to give everyone the dignity and respect that they are owed because they are a child of the Most High God. Love that “picks and chooses” isn’t real love.

            God’s love is also faithful – it never gives up. That’s hard, isn’t it? But God forgives us one more time…so we must choose to love once again. His love is endless – thus our love must never grow weary, either. When we were all children, our parents didn’t complain about one more diaper that needed changing, or yet another dinner that needed to be cooked…well, perhaps they complained a little…but love is faithful, day in and day out.

            Finally, God’s love accepts us for who we are, but then challenges us to become our best. Notice that after Jesus forgives sins and welcomes sinners, He doesn’t just leave them in their sin – He always tells them, “Go and sin no more”. He is constantly inviting them to repentance. In imitation of that, we must say, “I love you for who you are – and I want you to become all you can be.” Ultimately, that’s what love is – willing the good of the other, wanting the other person to be fulfilled and happy and overflowing with life and blessings. We accept our spouses, our coworkers, our neighbors, our siblings for who they are, with all of their faults and flaws – but then we encourage them to be saints!

            Of course, we can only love others as God loves them if we ourselves have experienced God’s love – not just intellectually, but actually having an experience of it. God delights in you. He rejoices in you. We must reject the view of God as a police-officer God who is only interested in catching you when you mess up. That is not God at all. Why would God create humanity if He were only interested in condemning it? Why would He die on the cross if He didn’t want us to be saved? His love for us is so intense that He hungers, He thirsts for you. God’s greatest desire is for you to spend eternity with Him – He would rather die on a cross than risk spending eternity without you – and He is orchestrating everything in your life: the good, the bad, and the ugly, to help make you a saint. The bad things in life are not signs that God doesn’t love you; rather, they are invitations to trust more deeply in the love of God that we see made real in Jesus.

            So, let us recap. We must strive to cultivate the virtue of charity – that is, loving like God loves. This includes loving in a sacrificial way, with no desire for personal gain. Our love must be for all people and faithful, never giving up on them but accepting others for who they are while calling them to become saints. And we can only do this if we first have the love of Jesus dwelling in our hearts. The world needs God’s love – and with Him in our hearts, let us bring Him to them.

Fifth Sunday of Easter - May 3, 2015

Homily for Fifth Sunday of Easter

May 3, 2015

Evangelization

 

            The great missionary St. Francis Xavier baptized over ten thousand people during his years in the Philippines, India, and Japan, but he wrote a letter back to his friends in his native Spain, telling them, “There are so many people who would be Christian, but there is no one to show them how!”

            I think that could be said of today’s world as well. There are many people who would make excellent Christians, but they’ve never been invited to have a relationship with God. In today’s first reading we hear about how the community of believers grew by leaps and bounds in the early Church – but this only happened because people were willing to go forth and invite others to become disciples.

            Sharing your faith is called evangelization. Evangelization is the duty of every single person in the church, not just priests and nuns. Most of the people I deal with on a daily basis are already churchgoers. But those people in your work, in your family, in your school – who rarely see a priest or nun – need to know about Jesus – and so it’s up to you to bring Him to them!

            A few years ago I was starting a youth program at my old church, and on our first night we had a great turnout of kids. Afterward, one high school freshman named Jonathan came up to me and said, “Excuse me, but is this a Catholic youth group?”

            I thought it was an odd question, since I was clearly a Catholic priest and we had just spent the last hour talking about the Sacraments, but I responded, “Yes, it is…is that what you’re looking for?”

            He shrugged. “I guess so,” he replied. There was a really long pause so I asked him, “And are you a Catholic?”

            He replied, “No, I don’t have any faith, but I just kinda figured that I need God in my life, so I want to become one.”

            I was rather taken aback, but I am happy to report that he was baptized that Easter, and now he’s a senior in high school and he still attends Mass every week. But people like Jonathan are rare – people don’t usually go knocking on the Church door saying, “Hey, I saw how beautiful your church is and I’d like to become a Catholic!” No, people only begin coming to church in two ways: by witnessing the radical love of Christians, and by our invitation.

            First, it should go without saying that our lives are the most important way we teach others about Jesus. One of the things that convinced people to join the early Christians – even though they could be martyred for their faith – is that they saw the Christian community living a life that was radically different from the culture around them. The culture around them was debaucherous, while Christians lived purely. The culture around them was filled with back-biting, gossip, selfishness; while Christians lived simply with humility and love. Considering that we now live in a post-Christian society much like that of the ancient Roman empire, we need to live counter-culturally as well. What does that mean? It means not watching those TV shows and movies that insult our faith. It means speaking up to defend traditional marriage or the pro-life cause. It means spending our time differently and making sure that Sunday is a day for God. It means not engaging in gossip with others, or complaining. It means remaining faithful to our marriage vows despite challenges. In a word, unless we live a radical life for God, we will just become indistinguishable from the pagan culture around us.

            But in addition to living a life that is obviously influenced by our relationship with Christ, we also must speak about it. I can’t tell you how many times some of our older parishioners reminisce about the days that this church was packed and Masses were overflowing. Well, let me ask you then: how many people have you invited to church? Do you expect people just to fill the pews without an invitation? Let’s be real – if we really love Jesus, if He has changed our life, and if we really believe that Jesus is the only way to Heaven, then we have a duty to tell others about it!

If someone discovered the cure for cancer but then never told anybody and kept it all to himself, we would all consider him to be selfish! Even if he was a shy person or was afraid of how others would react, he should still overcome all that because of the importance of the discovery! In the same way, what we do in this church every Sunday impacts the eternal destiny of souls. There are people going to hell because no one has taught them about Jesus! We will be guilty if we stand by idly when others need to hear the good news that Jesus saved them!

Of course, we can only bring Jesus to others if we have Jesus in our hearts. The Lord says so in the Gospel: only if we are united to Christ like branches on a vine can we bear any fruit for Him. So, let me ask you – do you believe in Him? Do you love Him? Do you seek to be united to Him in the Sacraments and in His Word? If so, then why do we not go out and bring Him to others? I think sometimes we don’t realize that people actually can and do go to Hell! If we were convinced of that fact, we would strive with all of our strength to bring as many people to Christ as we can, since only He can save us and forgive us of our sins!

My challenge for you is very simple. This week, have a conversation with one person (someone who’s not a fellow churchgoer!) about Jesus, and if possible, invite them to join you here next Sunday. Because there are many millions of people outside of these four walls who are thirsting to know about Jesus.

Fourth Sunday of Easter - April 26, 2015

Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Easter

April 26, 2015

Good Shepherd Sunday

 

            Eleven-year-old Brett Haubrich of St. Louis has cancer. He’s currently undergoing chemotherapy for brain cancer, but his suffering hasn’t shaken his faith. Recently, the Make-a-Wish Foundation approached him and asked what he would like for a wish, he demurely declined, but the organization persisted – is there any place you’d like to go? Anyone you want to meet? What would you like to do when you grow up?

            He answered that he’d like to be a priest when he grew up, so the organization contacted the Archdiocese of St. Louis. Bishop Carlson was thrilled with the idea. Last month, he invited young Brett to be a “priest for a day” – the boy served with the Bishop at Mass in the morning, had dinner with the seminarians in the evening, and had his feet washed at the Holy Thursday Mass at night.

            In all, Brett said it was one of the best experiences he’s ever had. He already has a great love for the Eucharist and for the Mass…and if, God willing, he is able to beat this cancer, he hopes to actually become a priest when he grows up.

            I thought that was a great story because it should be a natural part of every young Catholic man’s life to think about becoming a priest. Today is Good Shepherd Sunday, the day on which we consider how Jesus continues to shepherd His flock – through priests.

            All of us are in need of being led, protected, fed. How easy it is to wander away from the path to Heaven! How easy it is to fall into dangerous errors, how easy it is to fall into sin! We need shepherds to keep us on the right path, and Jesus knew that too – so He established shepherds after His own heart: priests.

            A priest is a man who is willing to lay down his life for the people, in imitation of Christ, Who did the same. A priest is a man totally sold-out for Jesus Christ – a priest doesn’t belong to himself, he belongs to God. Yes, being a priest is a life of sacrifice, it’s a tough life – it’s a life for real men who are madly in love with Jesus Christ.

            I first started thinking about the priesthood when I was pretty young. You know how some kids pretend to be doctors or teachers when they play? I used to “play priest” and have Masses in my living room using potato chips and grape juice. But then, of course, once I grew up and discovered girls, I thought maybe I should become a sports announcer or a professional rock musician so I could get married. But the idea never really went away – and I remember when I went to Rome on a pilgrimage when I was 14, I remember seeing the churches that people built for the glory of God, these beautiful and huge churches, and I thought, “What can I do with my life that glorifies God?” I began to think again that perhaps the Lord was calling me to become a priest.

            That summer, I still remember telling my best friend Billy that I was thinking about becoming a priest. We were talking about what we wanted to do for a living, and he told me he was thinking about becoming a doctor. I was really nervous to say it out loud, but I told him, “I’d like to become a priest.” There was a very long and awkward pause before he replied, “Joe, you’re not that ugly. I know you can get a girlfriend.”

            A lot of people focus on everything that a priest gives up. And yes, it is a sacrifice to give up a family and a career. But where there is love, sacrifice is easy. After all, priests are men in imitation of Christ, Who laid down His life – can we do any less?

            Besides, the joy of being a priest far outweighs any sacrifice. For only a priest can say those healing words, “I absolve you of your sins.” Only a priest can take ordinary bread and wine and change them into the Body and Blood of the Savior. When a person is dying, when a baby is born, when a couple wants to unite in marriage – they call the priest, who, in his very person, brings Christ into the moment. What a joy and a privilege it is to be a priest!

            A priest sacrifices much because he is a man who is only half in this world. Priests are men whose lives are half in Heaven, because we can bring Heaven to earth in the Sacraments, and bring earth to Heaven by teaching men and women how to be saints.

            [Dear younger brothers in the Lord, God is calling some of you to become priests – to give it all away to follow Him. Don’t be afraid to do so! If God calls you to do something, He will give you the grace to do it – and He will give you great happiness in following His will. How do you know if you are called to be a priest? First, if you have the desire. Perhaps you see what a priest does and think, “I’d like to do that”. Maybe you want to live a radical life of holiness. Second, if you have the desire for it, pray about it – and talk about it with a priest. I am convinced that God is calling a few of you young men to become priests – and I think you will be excellent priests if you have the generosity to say yes to God’s will!]

            What a great joy it is to be a priest! Pray often for your priests, that they may be good shepherds after the heart of Christ.

Third Sunday of Easter - April 19, 2015

Homily for the Third Sunday of Easter

April 19, 2015

Shroud of Turin

 

            Anyone who has ever worked with little kids knows that the best way to learn is through the five senses. If you want a little kid to learn about something, have a show-and-tell – let the kids pass it around, touch it, smell it, see it up-close-and-personal.

It’s a natural human tendency, I think, to want to see and touch before we believe. And God, Who created us, knows this. He established His religion, the Catholic Faith, with very physical signs to communicate His invisible grace. Water poured over our souls actually causes the dirt on our souls to be cleansed. Oil on our forehead strengthens, not our bodies, but our souls to become confirmed in the Faith. Bread and wine become the very Flesh and Blood of God.

So, in order to help the Apostles to believe, He demonstrates His Resurrection in very physical ways. In the Gospels, we read that Jesus invites the Twelve to touch Him, to feel His hands and feet, to prove that He truly has been risen. He even goes further – He eats a piece of fish in their presence, not because He was hungry, but to show them that He is physically raised from the dead, and not just a ghost. Ghosts don’t have hands and feet to touch; ghosts can’t eat a piece of fish.

            But what about us? Do we have any evidence of the Resurrection? In a sense, yes. I’d like to mention one interesting artifact that the Church possesses, which has always astounded scientists and helped to bolster faith: the Shroud of Turin.

            In the city of Turin, Italy, there is a long cloth, about fourteen feet long, which most people – including myself - believe to be the burial cloth of Jesus. On the cloth is an interesting image – there is an image of a human body…an image that was not made by human hands.

            The image depicts a man who had been crucified, and the image is unexplainable – no one knows how the image got there. It’s not paint, it’s not dye. Scientists have studied the Shroud of Turin, and it seems that the image was made when some intense radiation hit the cloth. The Italian national science organization just recently finished some tests on the cloth, and they found that the light would have to be thirty-four trillion watts bright to cause such an image. Consider – those light bulbs up top are only 150 watts – no human agent could have produced 34 trillion watts.

            The cloth is two thousand years old – no one knew about radiation back then to produce the image! Even more amazing, the image is actually a negative. When the first photograph of the Shroud was taken in 1898, it was discovered that the image on the cloth was actually a photographic negative – so when you look at the image, it’s actually a reverse of Jesus’ face. This was impossible to make using any technology from the ancient world.

            Science can’t explain the mysterious image on the Shroud of Turin. To those who believe, though, the image is of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen. I personally believe that the Shroud of Turin is the burial cloth of Jesus, and the image was made by the truly awesome Resurrection of the Son of God from the dead.

            Now, to be clear, our faith in the resurrection isn’t based on whether the Shroud of Turin is actually the burial cloth of Jesus, or whether it’s an expert hoax. But I think the science points to its legitimacy; and these sort of tangible reminders of the mysteries of our Faith help us to believe, since we human beings so often need to see before we believe!

Homily for the Second Sunday of Easter - April 12, 2015

Homily for Second Sunday of Easter

April 12, 2015

Real Resurrection

 

            A few months ago, I was popping into the fifth grade religious education class at St. Benedict’s, and we started talking about holidays and what their religious meaning is. The kids were able to tell me what Christmas was all about – the birth of Jesus – but most of them were stumped about Easter. So I re-told the story of the passion, death, and Resurrection of Jesus, telling the kids about how Easter is the celebration of Jesus rising from the dead.

            One kid looked incredulous and said, “Wait. You mean to tell me that Jesus actually rose from the dead?”

            I said, “Uh, yeah, He did.”

            He looked bewildered and said, “Really? I thought that was just one of those myths that our religion teacher made up!” Meanwhile his religion teacher was mortified and looked like he wanted to melt into the floor!

            Yes, Jesus really did rise from the dead. We know this must be true for several reasons.

            First of all, the tomb is empty. If the tomb wasn’t empty, then early first-century Jews or Romans who wanted to stop this rumor about a Risen Jesus could simply point to the tomb and say, “Look! He’s still dead!” But the fact that they couldn’t find His body lends credence to the reality of the Resurrection – the enemies of Christianity couldn’t find it, archeologists couldn’t find it, no one could. The body of the most famous Man in history doesn’t just disappear – unless He is truly risen!

            But not only does an empty tomb show the Resurrection, but also, consider the large number of people who actually saw Him! It says in Scripture that not only did the Apostles see Him alive, but St. Paul tells us that over 500 people saw the risen Christ. Five hundred people couldn’t all be hallucinating! Besides, did you know that eleven out of the twelve Apostles died as martyrs? Every single one (except John) died a horrific, torturous death – Bartholmew was skinned alive, Peter was crucified upside-down, James was beheaded – all for the crime of proclaiming that Jesus is risen. If this was some sort of hoax or myth, why would they be willing to die for it?

            Consider, too, how many people believe in it today. If the Resurrection were a myth, why would over two billion people believe it? Look at the incredible transformation that happens in peoples’ lives when they believe in the Risen Christ – the first reading talks about how the early Christian community “was of one heart and mind, not possessing anything but holding everything in common, without needy people at all.” Wow! Something obviously has changed these people – even the best religious teacher can’t inspire people to live such a radical life of charity. But an earth-shaking event – like the Resurrection – can change our lives like that.

            In many ways, we are those people that Jesus refers to in the Gospel – “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” We have not seen the Resurrection. But we believe precisely because of the testimony of those who have seen it. John writes in His Gospel today that his Gospel “is written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in His Name.” We believe in the Resurrection because we believe the people who told us – people like the Gospel writers, who wrote down the biography of Jesus (and the Gospels are accurate historical documents!).  We believe because of people like Thomas, whose disbelief gave us a greater proof of Jesus’ Resurrection, because Jesus invited Thomas to touch Him to prove that He really is risen. We believe because of the Apostles, who went to the ends of the earth to tell others that He is risen, and shed their blood in defense of this fact. And, it is my hope, that we believe because we ourselves have been personally transformed by our faith in Christ, who is alive.

Easter Homily - April 5, 2015

 

            When I was in college, I spent a summer doing mission work in Nebraska. I was with a group of other college students who would go around to different churches, doing summer camps for kids and evangelizing the youth. In one church, I was assigned to the first and second graders…which for me was quite a challenge. How could I occupy twenty little kids for a whole week? By the third day I had run out of ideas…and they were bouncing off the walls!

            So, finally, I decided that we would all write letters to Jesus, so we all took out our construction paper and crayons and wrote these letters to Jesus telling Him why we loved Him. Then we all went into the church and placed the letters in front of the tabernacle. I told the kids that if Jesus really liked your letter, He would hang it on His refrigerator in Heaven. So the kids prayed quietly for about 15 seconds, before they got antsy and we had to leave.

            That night all of those who were running the camp visited the church – and I realized I had forgotten to take those letters off of the altar! So I took them off the altar and we all looked at them – because they were pretty cute.

            The next day, all of my kids had completely forgotten about the letters to Jesus – all except one boy named Austin. From the moment he got to the church for the camp, he asked if he could check and see if Jesus had read his letter. I said, no, he couldn’t wander off into the church all by himself. Maybe later. But for the rest of the morning, he kept begging me every ten minutes – “Can I go now and check the church? Can I? Can I? Pleeeeease???”

            Finally, when all of the other kids were at recess, he asked me yet again, so I said, “Fine, Austin, go ahead, you can run down to the church and check and see if Jesus read your letter.” So he went…and all the while, I was praying that he wasn’t destroying hymnals or anything (he was a 7-year-old-boy, after all!). Finally, after about 10 minutes, I saw him running back to me, his face lit up, a bright smile, shouting, “Jesus took my letter!! He’s alive! Jesus is alive!”

            Now one day, Austin is going to realize what I did…but it is my hope that he also realizes the depth of what he was saying.

            This is a game-changer. He’s alive. If the tomb isn’t empty, then our sins were not forgiven, then death has not been conquered, then our life is utterly meaningless. But if the grave is empty, then Jesus is Who He says He is – the Son of God, Who can take away our sins.

            History rises and falls on this one event. Our very eternal destinies, the meaning of our lives, hinge upon whether or not the tomb is empty.

            You see, if Jesus was just a good man who taught us about love and then died a horrific death, then He would be remembered as a hero, but ultimately a failed hero who didn’t really change that much by His life. Yes, He inspired many people to do good deeds. But in the end, when we all die, all of our good deeds will be meaningless, and they will lie in the grave with us.

            But if He really rose, in the flesh, from the dead…what then? Then there’s hope that we too will live after our death. Then there’s a meaning for the life that we lead. Then there’s a purpose to this grand thing called the universe – that all of the messiness of daily life can and will be redeemed in Christ, making our crazy world a place where we can love God and someday come to live with Him for eternity.

            So what does this mean for us? If He is alive, this means that we can have a real relationship with Him. Even now He is calling, knocking at the door of your heart. Do you want to have a friendship with Christ? It is indeed possible, if you would simply, in your own words, offer your life to Christ in prayer.

            Of course, if He is alive, then He has every claim over our lives. Our lives do not belong to ourselves – we are His people, redeemed by His Blood, covered in His mercy. For this reason, we can no longer indulge in our former sins. We can no longer waste time pursuing those useless things like money or power or a comfortable life. Instead, all of our efforts and energies must be used to glorify Him. If He is alive, then He is our King, and the King of our lives. We need to seek to please Him in how we spend our time, what and who we love, how we react to the circumstances of our lives. For example, because Jesus rose from the dead, we must spend time in prayer and Mass, seeking His will in our lives. Because Jesus rose from the dead, we must break those addictions in our lives through the Sacrament of Confession. Because we are living for Christ, we must be faithful to our wedding vows and sacrificially love our families. Because we are living for Christ, our time, money, talents, relationships, our entire lives belong to Him.

            But we only live for Christ because Christ lives. He lives, not just in our hearts and memories, but really and actually – the tomb is empty. He has risen. And that changes everything.