Our Lord Jesus Christ, who emptied himself and took the form of a slave in his  iIncarnation, descended to the very depths of the human condition. Innocent though he was, he suffered the full weight of sin in his passion and death in order to swallow up sin and death in the infinite sea of God’s Divine Mercy. 

His perfect self-sacrifice on the cross is the antidote to everything that is wrong with us and the world. We see this clearly in his glorious resurrection on Easter Sunday. He is the conqueror of sin and death! Something new has happened! The crucified one is risen! 

The enormity of the resurrection will be the theme of the 50 days of the Easter Season.  The Lord Jesus did not just come back from the dead. That would not have saved us.  No, he swallowed up sin and death and fashioned human nature anew.   

When we come to know the Lord and are baptized we die and rise with him and become a new creation in the power of the Holy Spirit. In Christ’s resurrection we are given a truly new life. Now we live in him and he lives in us.  The more we cooperate with his divine grace, the more we are transformed and share in his victory over sin and death. 

As we celebrate another Easter my prayer is that we open our hearts more completely to Christ so that he can more fully transform us and we can more effectively be his witnesses in western South Dakota. 

The Lord is risen!  Alleluia!