We are well into the Easter Season and for some it might seem like we are "stretching out" the Easter theme? but in reality the theme of Easter?the Resurrection of Christ and all that it means for you and me is Everlasting! And so the Season and its message is one that deserves a great deal, as well as depth, of our attention.

The other day I received an email that was of a sculpture created in 2000 and named "Come unto Me" and resides in a Utah mortuary entrance way. The life-size artwork depicts an elderly and frail woman knocking on a door ? presumably the door or gateway to Heaven ? and on the other side of the door is a young woman walking into the arms of Christ. As the elderly woman knocks on the door she is looking back at the life she is leaving. The sculpture portrays the spiritual journey from mortality to immortality: an aged woman's body, returning to its prime, and back into the arms of our Savior. Death is not the end. We all have an eternal destiny, as "Come Unto Me" illustrates well.

This weekend our Gospel reading (John 14:1-12) is often heard at funeral Masses and is one that speaks to the above mentioned sculpture. In John 14, the Lord tells His apostles that if they have faith in God, then have faith also in Me. This faith is based on the promise of God to make all things anew in the Kingdom?from our bodies and souls to the relationships we will enjoy for all eternity. It is a gospel message of Hope?hope in that no matter what the world sends our way?from illness and broken relationships to jealousy and seemingly everlasting anger to long-term unemployment or personal disappointment? those will be wiped away and every tear from our eyes shall be removed and replaced with "life abundantly," as the Lord said in last weekend?s gospel.

In the end of this weekend?s Gospel, the Lord tells His followers who asked to be shown the Father?as a form of proof?that the Father dwells within Him and "whoever has seen me has seen the Father." In fact the Lord goes further to state the Father, who dwells within Him, is doing His work. Today, as we listen to this message of the Father and the Son being "Consubstantial" we must take this message "a little further" and make it, through faith, applicable to our lives. If we are made in the image and likeness of God, and if we are baptized into our faith and receive the Sacraments (the grace of God) to be strengthened and conformed to be more like Him, then the Father?through the gift of the Holy Spirit?is also present in us. And it is He, His Spirit that motivates us to be righteous (doing His Will) in His name. So when we Feed the Hungry or visit St. Elizabeth House with ready-made meals or handout boxes of food stuffs at Pantry Partners; when we golf on May 30 at the Men?s Club charity outing and raise money for food or for medical care or for helping a neighbor in need; when we knit a shawl, visit a sick person at Saint Francis Hospital with Holy Communion, when our Youth Ministry spends the day at McLean Home or the rosary is said for a person in need, when we bring our resources and our troubles to the altar at Mass and lay our sacrifices along with the bread and wine for Consecration at the table of the Lord?then we are believing in the Lord and doing His work. "As the Father has sent me, so I send you." (John 20).

As we travel the long Easter road let us recommit ourselves to the image and likeness of God, our Creator, and spend our lives living out the imagery which we share because of His great Love and Kindness. It is a Love that empowers us to be even more like Him by the gift of the Holy Spirit sent upon us at Pentecost, and a Love that is sustained in the Sacraments of the Church, particu-larly in the Sacrament of the Eucharist (Unity and Charity), and a Love that is sustained by YOUR actions?which speak louder, much louder than words.

Yours In Christ,

Father Michael