How good it is to be back today, celebrating Mass together in church once more!

For Christ is risen – he is risen indeed!  And while the parish may not be fully resurrected today, but will only become so over the coming weeks and months, today marks such a significant and sacramental new beginning for us, as we celebrate together the New Life of Easter, the eternal life in which we hope and for which we long, the true life that will never end.

In his famous vision of the Valley of the Dry Bones the prophet Ezekiel was asked by the Lord, “Son of man, can these dry bones live?”  (Ezk. 37).  Ezekiel replied, “You know, O Lord.”  And before his eyes there was a stirring, a rattling, and a great commotion as the dry bones began to come together once more, were progressively covered with sinews and tissue and skin, and finally stood on their feet, a mighty host.

The Lord of the resurrection is also Lord of the Church.  He is the head, we are the body.  He is risen – and we are risen in him!

The task of regeneration has begun.  We’ve done our best online in recent months – and I would like to express my sincerest thanks to Niels and Jannice, to my son David and wife Margaret, and before that to Marilyn Fernandes, who assisted me with them and those of you who participated as readers and musicians – but online liturgies and Zoom Masses could never be the complete answer.  They weren’t the real deal, though they tided us over.

But today we rejoice that “we have been brought back to true life with Christ” and will be “revealed in all our glory with him”.  We praise and thank Christ our Lord that he has conquered death and sin.  And we ask him to conquer them in us too, strengthening our faith, overcoming our doubts and all hesitancy, that henceforth, as his disciples, we may live for him, sharing with others the Good News of his Rising, that we may live – in and with him – the unconquerable New Life of Easter.

MICHAEL KIRKHAM