April 14th, 2024 - Third Sunday of Easter

After Jesus was raised, Peter has a new voice, a new nerve, a new boldness in the face of the same forces that pinned Jesus to the cross.  Mary Magdalene goes from being a victim of many demons to an apostle to the apostles, the first person to bear the good news of Jesus’ rising from the grave to the leaders of the Church. Then there is Thomas, the self-styled skeptic who winds up confessing that the crucified Jesus was indeed his Lord and his God. How about the women of Jerusalem, who were weeping as they witnessed Jesus lugging that cross up Calvary hill? Their tears eventually gave way to their bold, joyful witness that Christ was alive and well, robed in heavenly glory. These are all extreme makeovers, powerful testimonies to what the Spirit of Christ can do for all those who believe.  Spiritual makeovers begin and end in our faith of the Risen Lord. It takes trust in Jesus to make necessary changes in our lives; it takes a humble yielding of control of our lives to Christ to bring about a graceful transformation.  We can figure out what God wants of us by thinking about the life of Christ, by praying as Christ taught us, by listening to the voice of Christ speaking in the noise of daily life, and above all by being an active member of the community of disciples in the Church.