Easter Duty

Acts 5:17-26; PS 34 The Lord hears the cry of the poor; John 3:16-21


What is the Easter duty?

The church asks that all the faithful receive communion at least once a year. That prescribed time to receive Communion is designated during the Easter Season.

Now, one should receive communion worthily, therefore, associated with the Easter Duty of receiving communion is also celebrating the sacrament of Reconciliation.

I find this one of the most intriguing realities of the life of the church.

Easter Duty.

What does this Easter Duty have to do with living our Catholic faith daily.

Jesus is the one who says unless we eat his body and drink his blood we will not have life within us.
For obvious reason, Easter is the season in which we are meant to stop an examine our lives and see where we have been and where we are headed.

The stark reality of Good Friday, the suffering and death of our Lord, is meant to bring us back to our senses.

The God of unbounded freedom wills to be bound by love for us. This is a harsh and dreadful love.

The line between good and evil runs through every human heart.. But all the trespasses of all the people of all time gravitate to the killing grounds of Calvary.

Here in that place the perfect surrender of the cross is at the heart of what it means to say that God is love.

It is precisely in this reality that the church hopes our memory will be jarred and our hearts will be cut to the quick and thus we will stop long enough to be moved to turn back and run toward the altar and receive fully the gift that flows from the wounded side of Christ.

The Eucharist is the fruit of Christ's Passion. Should we not receive while the gift is fresh on our minds and hearts?

It is then we are awaken to the joy of Christ's presence coursing through our veins.

Then the words of today's gospel ring true, "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but have eternal life."

Pope Benedict's message during the Easter Season

"After this greeting, Jesus shows His disciples the wounds in His hands and His side (John 20:20), the signs of what had gone before and what shall never be erased: His glorious humanity will be forever “wounded”.

This act is intended to confirm the new reality of Christ’s Resurrection: the Christ who now stands in the midst of His disciples is a real person, the same Jesus who just three days prior was nailed to the Cross.

Thus it is that, in the brilliant light of the Resurrection, in the encounter with the Risen One, the disciples grasp the salvific meaning of His passion and death. Then do they pass from sadness and fear to the fullness of joy. Sadness and the wounds themselves become sources of joy.

The joy born in their hearts comes from “seeing the Lord” (John 20:20). He again says to them: “Peace be with you” (verse 21).


At this point, it is evident that it is not only a greeting. It is a gift, the gift that the Risen One wills to make to His friends, and at the same time it is a handing on: this peace, which Christ obtained by His blood, is for them but it is also for everyone, and the disciples will have to carry it throughout the world. In fact, He adds: “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you."

Easter Duty is also to spread the joy. We take Jesus with us. The joy of his presence coursing through out veins is meant to change how we relate, speak, think, love.

We are called to become the gift we celebrate during the Easter Season and beyond.