My brothers and sisters,

We can tell very clearly from the Scriptures that Holy Mother Church administers to us this weekend the very underlined authority that Christ has over the grave. In these times where our mortality and frailty are under a microscope, we can become overwhelmed by the power of the grave. We hear very clearly from St Paul this weekend that we a are people not assigned to the flesh and its ultimate corruption, but a people of the spirit that can perceive the impotence of death. Because of this, there is no power on earth or under the earth that should arouse fear within us. Therefore, let us look to Christ who loves us intimately in the spirit, in the same manner He shows love to Lazarus, even in death. The sublime dignity of the human person from conception to natural death and even in the grave begs us to see how the Son of God meets us in each of these states of life and death itself to lift our perspective to the very promise of eternal life written in the Covenant of His Blood. Now is the time, my brothers and sisters, to realize the need that each of us presents before an all-righteous God, to recognize our sins and come to fulfill the Responsorial Psalm this weekend “ With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.” So, I say it again, under the authority of Holy Mother Church and what She teaches us this weekend, “What do you have to fear?” “BE NOT AFRAID” (Saint John Paul II, our patron).

– Father Pagano