He is Risen He is Risen!!!

As a lifelong Catholic I wanted to take today, being Easter, to write about the importance of family, faith, and renewal.

Easter for me has always been a time to gather with friends and family to share food and fellowship and celebrate the idea that our God, Jesus Christ, has risen. Now, when it comes to religion, I'm very introverted. In fact, I was contemplating evening blogging about it. I am blogging about Easter and how it can relate to our lives because I think this is a great opportunity to take a day and think about the renewal of a season, and how we can renew a part of our life. Today, thinking of how Christ has risen, we can take steps to rise with him to greater heights. With this I mean we can be greater husbands, wives, sisters, brothers, sons, daughters, uncles, and aunts. We can strive to rise to new heights for the benefit of our community and more specifically the ones we love.

Two days ago, on Good Friday, Catholics around the world remembered the death of Jesus Christ. Growing up, I was always taught in school that Christ died for our sins and for the sins of all humanity. Today my experiences with traveling and studying other cultures has renewed my idea of why Christ died. I believe Christ was a rogue. I believe his actions were wildly unpopular. I believe he died because he conducted work within his community that benefited countless numbers of people while angering a few, very powerful people. I urge you to think of Christ's death as a sacrifice for working towards the health and well being of people all over the world. We too can continue Christ's work of helping others, hopefully with risks other than death. We should strive to overcome the taboos, stereotypes, and political backlash that can prevent us from doing Christ's work- helping others in times of need. Are gay rights popular in the Catholic Church? Women's rights? They may not be. But the Christ I worship would rise above the politics and taboo of society and help those who are marginalized and persecuted.

And so today, my loyal readers, I wish for you an opportunity to spend time with family, friends, and loved ones. I hope this post gives you a different idea of what Christ's death and resurrection are all about. We can renew our lives and act as Christ did- for the benefit of beings everywhere.

Peace.