Our Risen Christ shall never grow old!!!
Father Tim Kelly
Scripture. I have come that you may have life and have it to the full.” John 10: 10
Poetic inspiration “Do not be afraid that your lives will end, but rather be afraid that it might never really have begun.” Thoreau
Jesus Christ is risen!!! Alleluia Alleluia!
There are times when I feel every day of 50, actually almost 51, when I know that the odometer reads higher than I want. I have cousins who refuse to discuss their age. I think they have deluded themselves into believing that if they don’t celebrate being 55, they will stay at 29.
Christ tells us that he has come that we may have life to the full. Poets and writers of all cultures have written that life’s springtime, the days of early summer are our golden days, the days of youth. Christ comes so that all our days can be golden, so that we may be forever young, forever filled with the honey of sweet youth. Christianity that does not bring youth is a false religion, Christianity that is burdensome is no more that a man-made heresy. Christ came that we might live life to the full and be filled with joy.
Being truly young is about being spirited and ready to laugh at the ridiculous and the pompous in others and in ourselves. Being young is to be kept fresh and clean from the cold cynicism of the world. Young people can be of any age and their trademark is hope. Oscar Wilde once quipped that youth is wasted on young people.
I have known friends whose joy and laughter has lifted me and saved me from the terrors of the proverbial night. I have known teenagers of all ages whose spirit was as invincible as my own used to be. When I was 19, I was indestructible and invincible. Trouble only happened to others. My mother once said that I defied all laws as a driver, especially the law of gravity. I suppose that all the other Saint Monicas of this world have echoed her exclamation. But youth gives no hostage to fear, and to political reality. Youth does not count the pennies and stack the gold. Those things belong to greybeards and conspirators. The people of gallant youth do not add the halfpence to the pence, nor the prayer to shivering prayer, till they have dried the marrow from the bone.
But we all admire such recklessness and we all wish we had the courage to be truly gallantly young. I know 18 year olds who are as boringly settled as their grandfathers. Oscar Wilde is certainly right in those cases, where youth is wasted on the over-cautious and over serious. For caution and seriousness can lead to the hardening of the heart, and obedience to the laws of logic. The magic of Love and the fire of Passion are found only in humans and in the young these magnificent graces are swirling about and making earthquakes for parents and families who love them. To be truly young is to be alive to love, to be courageous and gallant, - faint heart never did win the lady. To be young is to be restless, never accepting the present but seeking a better day. To be truly young is to love without greed or regret, to let the song of the heart sweep up and out and not to be afraid to follow it. To be truly young is generosity beyond reason, to be willing to share your whole life with another and to ask nothing in return. To be truly young is to give everything for the one you love and to weep with bitter tears when that generosity is not returned. To be truly young is to care too much and to be nakedly full of truth.
Our hero Christ cared enough to suffer and die that men and women might be able to hope for mercy. Christ died so that sinners and fools might not have to suffer the just punishment for their folly and their sin. His generosity is beyond reason; he gave wine in abundance to the marriage crowd at Cana. Imagine God’s Son bothering to ensure that people had wine to gladden their hearts!! He gave sight to the blind and strength to the fainthearted. Jesus Christ was all that youth boasts of, gallant and good, brave and generous. The ancient hymn says that he came springing from the spiced tomb. He springs out of death and evil like a hero. And he is our hero, the only one who died so that strangers might live. In many medieval poems Christ is a hero and a knight, saving the lady from the dragon or saving the poor from a wicked king.
Song to Mary Magdalene
Patrick H. Pearse
O woman of the snowy side,
Many a lover hath lain with thee,
Yet left thee sad at the morning tide,
But thy lover Christ shall comfort thee.
O woman with the wild thing's heart,
Old sin hath set a snare for thee:
In the forest ways forspent thou art
But the hunter Christ shall pity thee.
O woman that no lover's kiss
Though many a kiss was given thee
Could slake thy thirst, is it not for this
The hero Christ shall die for thee?
Christ is Risen!!! Alleluia Alleluia.
Christ is Risen!!! Alleluia Alleluia.
Our ever young hero is risen from the grave. He is forever strong; he is forever brave. Our hero is always young and always gallant. He is Knight, hero, poet and brother. Our young hero is lover and hunter and model for all the human race. He overflows with Passion for the sinner, with compassion for the poor and with bravery when facing death.
Tell me, was there ever a hero like this.
Was ever a young hero so noble as our Christ?
People of the Resurrection are never old – they are forever young in their hearts. Resurrection people are full of faith and hope and charity. Resurrection people share Christ’s youth, that gallant and foolish love of life and freedom. Christ did not remain chained by death and by the torture and the betrayal. None of us need be afraid, for even when our mortal bodies lie in the grave, our lives, like that of Christ the hero, will be full of a gallant and reckless joy. Resurrection people are never afraid of dying, never feel cheated when old age comes and does its thing. Resurrection people don’t really need wrinkle cream, - (perhaps a little “Just for Men now and then, but never wrinkle cream.) Resurrection people echo the words of the poet Thoreau “Do not be afraid that your lives will end, but rather be afraid that it might never really have begun.”
Rejoice and be young in your hearts
Christ is truly risen !!!!!
Alleluia!! Alleluia !!!!