Jesus is Alive!

by Fr. John Granato  |  04/20/2025  |  Words from Fr. John

My Dear Friends,

The Lord is Risen! Alleluia! Today we commemorate the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead and His final defeat of Satan. Sacrificing Himself as the Paschal Lamb as He celebrated Passover with His Apostles, preparing Himself for the act of sacrifice on Good Friday on Calvary, Jesus offered Himself as both priest and victim. And because the Old Testament sacrifices were not complete until the act of eating the flesh of the sacrificed animal, Jesus’ sacrifice is also completed when we come to feast on the Body and Blood of the Paschal Lamb.

People are always asking, “Why do we have to go to Mass?” We go to Mass in order to participate in the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross, whereby our act of thanksgiving to God for the gifts that He has given us is completed when we receive Holy Communion—the gift par excellence—which is God Himself under the form of bread but is really and truly the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ. Since the Divinity of Jesus cannot ever be separated from the other Persons of the Trinity, we come to receive as well, in a concomitant way, the very Divine source of the Holy Trinity.

If we receive the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit at every Mass and every time we receive Holy Communion, the reason we go to Mass is so that we can offer thanks and praise to our Almighty God and come to be like Him. As He said in the Garden of Eden, “’Let us make man in our image.’ In His image He created man. Male and female He created them.” He desires for us to be like Him, and so He offers to us His very divine life present in the Eucharist.

The question, then, becomes not “Why do we have to go to Mass?” Rather, it is, “Why are we not making ourselves present for the great celebration of our Lord’s Resurrection and coming to Mass to receive God’s very life, His grace, His very substance?”

Today is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad!

Have a most Blessed Easter!!!