The Promise and Peace of Jesus This Easter

Happy Easter!

At the beginning of Mass, we were invited to turn to someone new and wish them a Happy Easter. Maybe now, you can turn to someone familiar—and perhaps that’s the new friend you just met—and wish them a Happy Easter once again.

Today, we proclaim the greatest news ever told: Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. He is alive.

And for all who believe and place their trust in Him, He offers something we all long for: His peace, His presence, His plan, and His purpose for our lives.

In a world filled with busyness, noise, and uncertainty, who among us doesn’t desire more peace? Peace in our hearts, our families, and even in our world. As Christians, we make a bold claim: the solution to that longing has a name—Jesus.

In this episode, you’re invited into a moment of reflection and guided meditation. Wherever you are—whether filled with joy, feeling “just okay,” or carrying heavy burdens—you are invited to encounter the risen Jesus personally.

Place yourself at the empty tomb. Bring your hopes, your struggles, your questions. And allow yourself to hear His words:
 “Do not be afraid. I am with you. Peace I leave you; My peace I give to you.”

Take this time to receive His presence. His peace. His love.

If your heart is open—even just a little—this moment is for you.

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:01

Good morning once again and happy Easter. At the beginning of the Mass, I invited us to turn to somebody new to wish them a happy Easter. Maybe at this time we can turn to someone familiar, a family member or a friend, to also, maybe, and maybe that's the person you just met at the beginning of Mass, to wish them a happy Easter, give them a hug or a kiss, but only with your family, at least, the hug or a kiss. All right, let's turn to someone familiar, friend, family, and wish them a happy Easter. Today we join our voices with the church around the whole world in proclaiming the greatest news ever told. That Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. And he promises that for all who place their trust and their confidence in him, he gives us his peace, his presence, his plan and his purpose for our lives. Did you see what I did there with the four P's? Do you see that? His peace, his presence, his plan, and his purpose for our lives. Now I don't know about you, but I could use more peace in my life. How many people here would you say you could use more peace in your life? How many people would love more peace in your life? And the rest of you, you want more war or what I mean. All right. Amidst all of the busyness and the distraction and the full schedules and the noise, sometimes we just yearn for more peace in our lives and more peace in our heart. Okay. How many people here would you love more peace in your family? In your family. More peace in your family. And how many, uh how many of you here today in your families? Uh uh, some of you are at peace and others are at war. Don't end you don't have to raise your hand for that. Sometimes, even in our own families, we could use more peace and healing and reconciliation amongst one another, unity amongst one another. How about this one? Do you think that we could use more peace in our country and in our world? What do you think? You bet, right? You turn on the news, you just have to turn on the news, and you see we need more peace in our country and in our world. And as Christians and Catholics, we make a very bold claim. This is this is the claim that we make as Christians and Catholics. That we have a solution for peace in our time. And not only do we have a solution for peace in our time, we claim to have the solution for peace in our time, for in our hearts and in our families, and in our country, in our world. And that peace is not a plan, not just a plan. That peace has a name. His name is Jesus. That is our claim. That with Jesus we can have peace in our hearts, in our families, our country, in our world. But here's the thing we have to open our hearts to receive him, don't we? We got to receive Jesus into our hearts to receive his peace. So if you're coming to Mass today and you would love to receive Jesus into your heart, you would love to receive more peace into your life, into your family, I'm gonna give you an opportunity to that right now. Do that right now. I'm not gonna ask you to do anything crazy like come forward here and raise your hand. I'm not gonna ask you to do that, you know. But I'm gonna give you an opportunity to receive Jesus into your heart right now, to receive his peace, his presence, his plan, and his purpose for your life. So if you would like to do that, I'm gonna lead you in uh what I do is I do this guided meditation, this time of prayer. And I'm gonna invite you to receive Jesus into your heart today. So if you would like to do that, um, I invite you to join with me. And what we're just gonna do, first off, uh, if you feel comfortable, we're just gonna take a deep breath together, okay? Let's take a deep breath together. Let's take another deep breath. Let's do one more deep breath. I don't know if you needed that, but I needed that. Just breathe deeply. And if you feel comfortable, um, I'm gonna invite you right now, even to just close your eyes. I'm gonna do the same thing. And don't worry about, you know, who what the person next to you is doing. Just let this moment be for you. Let this moment be for you. This time of meditation. I like you to bring to your mind right now, um, what are some of your thoughts? What are some of your feelings, your desires, maybe even what you feel in your body right now? I also like to invite you to bring to your mind uh how you're coming to Mass today. Uh maybe some of you are coming today and it's it's a great joy. Uh you're so happy to be here with your family members, with your friends. Uh maybe you invited someone to church today and they came. Maybe you're looking forward to uh brunch or lunch after this. And today's just it's just a great day for you. Maybe that's you today. Maybe for some others. Um today's not an amazing day, but it's a good day. It's it's it's an okay day. Um, another Sunday? Maybe feeling a little bit like I'm I'm kind of going through the motions. And maybe for still others. Uh you're coming to Mass today and um you're not sure how you're gonna make it through tomorrow. Maybe you're you have a sickness that nobody else sees, but you know you feel it in your body, and you deal with this every day. This pain in your your body. May for others you uh just lost a family member and you're coming to mass today and you you're a little bit sad. May for others you're um struggling, struggling with your work, your marriage, your family, your finances. You're just taking it one day at a time and you're not sure how you're gonna make it through tomorrow. However, you're coming to Mass today, I just invite you to bring that to your mind. And just to feel those emotions, those thoughts deeply. Now I'm going to invite us to enter into the story of the gospel today. I'd like to invite you to imagine that you are maybe Mary Magdalene or another Mary. Maybe you're like Peter or John who came to the empty tomb on that resurrection morning. Can you imagine that scene as you're there? As you step into the empty tomb. Maybe there's different emotions that come up, maybe confusion. Oh, what's happening today? And just like that tomb is empty, maybe for some of us today, our hearts feel a little bit empty. Empty tomb, empty heart. And that's just where we are, and that's okay. And as we leave the tomb, Mary Magdalene, Peter, John the beloved disciple, we're heard in the gospel that Jesus the resurrected meets them along the way. I invite you to imagine that moment. You're there, you meet the resurrected Jesus along the way as you're headed back. You see him. And just a few days ago, he had suffered and died on the cross, and you were an eyewitness to that. You saw how the agony of Jesus on the cross, how he suffered and died for us out of love for us, for our salvation. And yet here he is. You could even still see his wounds. The wounds on his hands, the wounds on his feet, the wound in his side, the wound from the crown of thorns. You see the wounds, but they're different. He's luminous, he's glorious, he's resurrected. I'm gonna invite you now to just imagine the gaze of Jesus, the eyes of Jesus looking at you. Do you know how much he loves you? He loves you so much. More than you or I could ever imagine and ever know. That's how much he loves you. His look towards you. And Jesus, as he appeared, his disciples said to them, Do not be afraid. I'm with you. Peace I leave you, my peace I give to you. I invite you to receive those words into your heart right now. Do not be afraid. I'm with you. Peace I leave you, my peace I give to you. And finally, I know maybe for some of us today, um, our love language, uh some of us is words of affirmation, uh, others it's it's a look, but maybe for some of us it's a it's a physical touch, you know. Uh we love receiving a hug or an embrace or a kiss or a handshake, or our love language is physical touch. And if you feel comfortable, just in your mind's eye, if especially if that's your love language, would you allow Jesus, the resurrected Jesus, to give you an embrace, to give you a hug. As we bring this time of meditation to a close, um Jesus isn't leaving us. He's with us because I'll be with you always to the end of the age. So as we bring this time of meditation to a close, take this last moment to just receive Jesus into your heart, allow him to enter and to give our lives back to him. Thank you, Jesus, for what you did for us. You died on the cross for our sins out of love for us for our salvation, and you rose from the dead so that one day we could share with you and your life in heaven. Thank you. We praise you, we love and you, we honor you today. And Jesus, we pray all of this in your most holy name. Amen. Amen. So today, if you um, this moment of prayer and meditation, if you um receive Jesus peace into your heart, and you receive Jesus into your life, and you want to give your life back to him, I'm gonna invite us now to uh sing a song together. This song is called Um Lord I Need You. Um the author's name or is uh Matt Marr. It's an easy song. If you don't know the song, it's it's pretty easy to catch on. And advice is sing this uh song together on this resurrection Sunday.

SPEAKER_07 15:01

Lord I come, I confess though in here, I find my best, and without you I fall. When temptation comes my way, where I cannot stand off on you.

SPEAKER_06 18:37

Oh god how I did I want defence I did by to sing that last refrain a cappella one more time Lord I one defense my righteousness oh God how I need Today you came for the first time uh to Mass or you're visiting, or it's been a while since you've come back, and today the Lord has touched your heart and you received Jesus into your life.

SPEAKER_04 19:46

I'm gonna invite you to take uh your next step in faith. Um this Tuesday we're starting a new program called Alpha. This program is an 11-week course exploring the big questions of life. Who's Jesus? What's the Bible? How can I have more faith? Why is there suffering in this life? Is there more to life than what I'm living? And if you've made the decision to receive Jesus into your heart today, I'm gonna invite you to take that next step. And uh we're gonna show right now a very short video promo of uh what we're launching this Tuesday so you have a sense of of what this is about and love for you guys to take part in this. So let's uh show our alpha promo.

SPEAKER_05 20:33

Every day we ask so many questions. What should I wear? What's the weather gonna be like? How am I gonna fit everything in? But then there are those bigger questions. Like, why am I here? Where am I heading?

SPEAKER_02 21:36

I think many mistakes I find. Never mind.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

I think for so many years, you know, I always just strived to be stronger myself. All I needed was me and my buddies, and you know, we'd be like invincible. But the truth is none of us are.

SPEAKER_01 22:18

That's our purpose, that's how meaning, that's alcohol. God took something so broken. And made it a new part.

SPEAKER_09 22:28

Alpha is a place where you can be yourself. You can say what you think and challenge everything. That's no question it's too complex, too simple. And what from your point of view is is as important as anyone else. We are going to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_04 23:19

At 6 30 is when it begins, you're going to be greeted by some of uh these friendly faces here. Some of you guys may know them. And as you arrive, there's gonna be a great dinner, and it's free. You don't have to pay anything. Um we've had at our last course we had pasta, we had uh pozole, we had tamales, we had all kinds of stuff. We had a Thanksgiving dinner at our last session. So these are some pictures of our dinner from our last alpha that we did in January. We just kind of scroll through really quickly. Uh there's another picture of uh people having dinner, and then you'll watch uh a movie, a short film on something about the faith, and then there's time for discussion uh at tables, at a small group table. So we'll just keep scrolling through uh the images there um of what happens at the tables. We have people of different ages, people that are are young, people uh that are more mature, I should say, um, different different ages that come to Alpha. And the videos show what uh the Catholic or Christian faith believes, and at the table you can share what you believe. You can disagree with everything that you hear. You can you can disagree about Jesus, you can just you say what you believe at the table. There's time for reflection, time for laughter. Um and this is uh one of our tables here with some of our young adults. Uh let's go to the next one. Uh table that's very happy there. Okay. We have Spanish-speaking tables, so if you're a Spanish speaker, we have tables just in Spanish, just for you, so you can dialogue in Spanish. Um, and I think it's the last picture. So at our last course in January, we had over 300 people attend our alpha course. And so uh, if you didn't get a chance to attend that course, I would love for you to be part of our next one beginning this Tuesday. 6 30 to 8 30 runs for eleven weeks every Tuesday. Take the next step in your faith. Don't let this just be one day. Jesus has more for you, and we would love to welcome you here at St. Joseph Church.