Happy Easter from The Hickeys! A Message from My Priest -Cardinal George!

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The stone is rolled back; the tomb is empty! Death is defeated; Christ is Risen!

Every year, this miracle gives new life to me. I beat myself up pretty good - listen, I play the St. Peter Betrayal scene seven days a week and a matinee on Sunday - and Easter reminds me that God's Son sacrificed Himself to free me of sin.

This Feast day is our reason to be. Happy Easter! Joyous Passover - remember we dovetail with Passover. I love Passover! To Joe Epstein, Reuben Vernof, Ron Gidwitz, Bob Rosenthal, Bert Odelson,Hackey Reitman, Gary Saul Morson, Si Blitzstein, Jeff Tessler, Bunny Cohen, the late great Danny Levi Mosel Tov! Passover that Leg of Lamb. Just kidding. No I'm not. I respect the sanctity of that night, but I do love roasted Lamb!

Here is what Easter is all about from my favorite priest in this Archdiocese - Francis Cardinal George:

Easter Sunday

Christ’s resurrection brings him and promises us new life. Not just eternal life, although that’s part of it, but genuinely new life. Change is hard, as so many people tell me and as I know myself. Left to our own devices, we’d probably just settle for an improved version of our present life. But risen life, life lived in radical freedom and perfect unity with God, comes when death is suffered and conquered, which is the kind of radical change our imaginations can’t handle. Even science fiction is mostly ringing changes on what we know or re-arranging things we can imagine. No wonder Jesus’ closest friends and disciples were surprised.

St. Ignatius of Loyola, in his Spiritual Exercises, draws on an old belief that Jesus first appeared to his mother, Mary, when he rose from the dead. In inviting us to imagine the scene, St. Ignatius leads us to believe she wasn’t surprised. Every mother knows her son, and Mary probably thought: “Isn’t this just what Jesus would do?” As we get to know Jesus more intimately, we come to see that rising from the dead to give us new life is just the thing he would do. It’s called seeing with the eyes of faith.

Jesus Christ gave all of us the chance to dust our selves off and get back in the game! Let's see with the eyes of Faith, like the Man from Holy Name says! Happy Easter!