Dear Sisters and Brothers in the Risen Christ,
The Light of Christ has once again shattered our darkness to heal our brokenness and raise our consciousness to the calling that is our heritage as Christians: to love God with our whole heart, soul, strength and mind, and our neighbor as ourselves.
Too often, we make judgments as to whom we will love by using the externals of behavior or appearance. We truly need the radiance of the Lumen Christi (the light of the Risen Christ) to help us move past the obvious, into the deeper heart, so that we can see the precious value of each and every person that we encounter in our lives.
When the Risen Christ first greeted Mary Magdalene and later walked with His friends, their eyes were clouded with a kind of blindness lifted only by remembered words and gentle voice. This blindness was removed only when each one was enlightened to look deeper into the true reality of His presence.
As we walk together in faith, claiming Christ as our Light, may we be watchful, alert to His presence in the experiences and encounters of our daily living:
* The Lumen Christi shines in the eyes of the poor and unloved, waiting to be recognized and acknowledged.
* The Lumen Christi peers from the windows of the lonely housebound or from the pain of the last surviving member of a family who is hungering to be remembered and touched by the concern and company of another.
* The Lumen Christi stumbles in the feet of the street person, groping for support, dignity and a place to call home.
* The Lumen Christi struggles in the uncertainty and bewilderment of runaways and of our youth, searching for direction and meaning in their young lives.
* The Lumen Christi glows in the most unlikely persons and places: in unwed mothers, in victims of AIDS, in the beaten and abused, in those whose sexual orientation deviates from the norm, in the anger and frustration of those who suffer from injustice and any form of discrimination.
Having been refreshed and renewed by our Lenten practices, may we allow the light of the Resurrected Christ to rend asunder the curtains of darkness which shrouded our vision and to enlighten us by the fire of His Paraclete, igniting our good intentions into flaming action -- into the universal tongue of love -- knowing that what we do for the least, we do for Christ Himself.
May this sacred season of Eastertime ring with the alleluias of a new awareness of God's presence in the nooks and crannies our lives. May the joy, love and peace of the Risen Christ fill our hearts and spill over as a balm anointing our troubled and wounded world with the fruits of His Paschal sacrifice.
Bishop of Albany