April 10, 2009
The Bishop's Forum
Easter 2009
by Bishop Gerald A. Gettelfinger
Dear Brothers and Sisters in the Risen Lord,
You may be reading this letter on the day that Jesus died on the cross for each of us. His dying words from the cross continue to reverberate down through the centuries: “. . . It is finished!”
The Church insists that we never forget those awful human moments. We need to walk in the shoes of those present that day.
The apostles and disciples were devastated. The one they had loved had just been crucified — executed by crucifixion according to Roman Law at the insistence of those for whom he had come, his beloved.
They were petrified. The shock of it all left them terribly alone even before they were able to grieve. Everything that Jesus had told them about his upcoming death, not once but many times over, still had not registered. It was all beyond their comprehension. The empty hours ahead of them gave them little comfort. Indeed, great confusion and self doubt began to fill the vacuum of those empty hours.
Equally the Church insists that we never forget those wonderful moments surrounding Jesus’ Resurrection from the dead — just as he had promised.
This is the day the Lord has made! Let us rejoice and be glad!
This Good Friday takes on a very personal character for me and my siblings. Today, April 10, 1988, our beloved mother died. It was exactly one year and one day before I was ordained bishop of Evansville. We knew her death was imminent yet there was the shock that it indeed had happened.
The story of suffering and death is told and retold every day. You and your families have those stories. Some were of sudden and tragic deaths; some were expected, yet the shock is real. Many of us in ministry become witnesses to and sharers in those painful familial — but most sacred moments.
How can that be?
There is but one reason. Neither personal loss nor terrible grief can erase our faith — our trust — in Jesus. He did what he promised. He arose from the dead. He promises the same to us.
Lest you worry, the Church asks us to walk in the shoes of Mary, Jesus’ Mother, his apostles and disciples during these empty hours following Good Friday. These hours are followed by the joy-filled exclamation: “He is risen!”
Have a most blessed Easter! Worry not for we belong to a kingdom not of this world!
Faithfully yours in Christ,
+ Bishop Gerald