Easter is the Culmination of Suffering and Love!

Even though the celebration of the Resurrection has passed, the essence of this reality will never cease. As often as we enter Church and bless ourselves by the sign of the cross we remind ourselves of the Trinity through which each of us has freedom from everlasting death.

Go back a few weeks when the ashes reminded us of the impending trek that Jesus took to keep you and me from succumbing into the darkness that would touch us all without this journey to Calvary. Perhaps we might put our thoughts to work in calculating the 4.5 - 6 quarts of blood the human body has. Each drop of blood contains approximately 5 million red blood cells. It is estimated that two to three drops of blood can contain about one billion red blood cells

It appears that these calculations begin to parallel how many planets revolve around the billions of stars throughout the universe. There is no manner in which to understand how enormous the loss of blood represents the souls Jesus died for as he shed the very treasure of life in the countless flow of sinners he saved.

Now, as doubters begin to ask, why could God not have used another way to redeem mankind in lieu of such a cruel example of the cross? Try to put into perspective the task of explaining this to neophytes entering the Church for the first time. It usually becomes a mountain of loose stones that become fragile as we climb through the struggle of reaching a perfect answer.

Let’s compare the answer that only God can reveal with baking a cake. Each ingredient we place in a bowl adds to the taste of a finished product, the texture of the finished product, and the final approval as recipients down the last forkful of a lot of work. But, with the crucifixion of our Savior has no pattern of adding one thought onto another, man will never comprehend the deeper understanding of this sacrifice.

Take the Holy Mass when the priest elevates the risen Christ after the consecration and here we see the result of the real presence of Christ before our eyes, and the invitation to partake of the Bread of Life which occurred on Calvary 2,000 years ago.

Do we even question why our crosses keep the corpus mounted for ll to view? If we could have been there when they crucified our Lord, there would never be a question as to why Catholics hold dear to their hearts an image to remind us of this Eternal Sacrifice.

If God would have deemed a lesser manner to forgive us for our sins, most, if any, would have passed the reason as just a foul ball in a ballgame and waited for the next pitch to be knocked out of the stadium. It would require a home run of belief that only the Crucifixion on Calvary would be a constant reminder of God’s Love for us.

Each drop of his precious blood would be for the millions upon millions of souls that were destined for eternal death would now be enough to welcome them home with God’s welcome for eternity.

Ralph B. Hathaway