EASTER MESSAGE 2026 from Fr John

Dear St. James Community,

Easter 2026

I wonder if I looked rather peculiar as we sang our final hymn at All Saints’ Church on Palm Sunday.  Once I reached the back of the Church and turned back towards the Altar, I felt as if someone entered the Church.  I turned around but the front doors were closed and there was no one there.  I continued to feel a presence however.  So I took my hymnal and held it quite far out to my left so whomever it was whom entered, could sing the final verses of the hymn with us.  I felt it might be my father, or perhaps a dearly departed member of All Saints,’ perhaps it was Christ Himself.  By the time the hymn ended, the presence was gone, but I was sure, for a time, the congregation had been joined.

 On Palm Sunday we heard St. Matthew’s Passion account.   A unique aspect to his account are some of the events that happen right after Jesus breathed His last and the curtain of the Temple is torn in two from top to bottom.  St. Matthew writes, “The earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.  After His resurrection they came out of the tombs and entered the holy city and appeared to many.”  The tearing of the curtain in the Temple and these subsequent events in Matthew’s Gospel, signify that through Jesus’ sacrifice, the separation between God and humanity was no more and how through His sacrifice and Resurrection, we too will rise to new life.

 At times we may have vivid, tangible experiences of the Resurrection, like with what happened at All Saints’ this past Sunday.  If this occurs in our life, share it with others.  Through our sharing of our encounters with the Resurrection, we can bring others, peace and comfort and hope.  Through sharing the Good News, we invite others to experience Jesus’ ministry in the same way the evangelists did.  Through telling of moments of Jesus’ ministry; the beatitudes from Jesus’ Sermon on the mount, the healing of the blind man, the road on which Mary Magdalene and the other Mary fled the tomb and there were greeted by the Risen Christ, the evangelists lead us to encounter Jesus.  Through telling of moments of Jesus’ ministry in our lives, we can bring others to encounter Jesus.

 Our Psalm on Easter Day, Psalm 118 concludes, “on this day the Lord has acted, we will rejoice and be glad in it.”   We rejoice today in Jesus’ Resurrection, we rejoice that sin and death no longer have dominion over us, and we rejoice for His Resurrection is our great comfort in life today, bringing hope into all of life’s possibilities and perils, its ups and downs, its tragedies and joys.  And it is our great promise, that like the Saints of long ago, like our loved ones, we too, will be raised to new life.  

 Safe travels to all those leaving town and coming to visit.  Please know you and your loved ones remain always in my thoughts and prayers.  A Blessed Eastertide to all.