If you have had the opportunity to read or instead watch the film Dune (i.e., which if you haven’t yet, you should, considering it stars some incredible actors such as Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya) you might be familiar with these phrases: “I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain”.

Just from reading this, one can immediately sense that Frank Herbert, the author, had a very profound intuition into the fundamental realities of existence. Indeed, Herbert is here tapping into one of humanities lengthiest struggles since time in memorial.

Fearing Death

We have all in one way or another experienced fear and its detrimental effects. But I think one of the core fears that we must inevitably face is that of death. So much so that it has almost become taboo to even mention in today’s culture.

Yet without sometimes even being aware of it, we incessantly experience ‘little deaths’, as Herbert puts it. Whether it be discontent at the workplace, financial issues, illness, maybe you’re mocked/humiliated or you’re going through countless quarrels at home, or perhaps, even more severe, you might feel worthless and lost – you mention it – all of these can then trigger even more fears within us and the vicious cycle begins. In other words, like Jesus, it might just well be that right now you feel somewhat ‘crucified’ – defenceless, desperate, completely and utterly exhausted.

Jesus providentially spent three hours hanging on the cross, however, most victims would last there for days – potentially even weeks under excruciating (i.e., a word which means ‘from the cross’) torment. How long have you been hanging from your cross?

Remembering The Resurrection

It is at these moments when we recall an event that occurred around two centuries ago which completely revolutionised our reality – the Resurrection. It is through the Resurrection that Jesus conquers one of, if not the most inherent and inevitable fears within us all; in turn giving life to some of the deepest desires within our hearts.

Jesus affirms that the ‘little-deaths’ and eventually the ‘big-death’ is not something to fear but rather a process of attaining the best of ourselves. As Jesus himself allegorises, in order for a tree to grow, the seed must die. From a microscopic perspective, around three-hundred million cells in a human body die every minute in order for new ones to flourish. I also just recently discovered that the pearl of an oyster is in actual fact the result of a healed wound. This is consequentially and literally what Jesus accomplishes on the cross! He gathers up our pains, our sufferings, our loses, our ‘little-deaths’ and ultimately even our ‘big-death’ and, as Tim Odell beautifully sings in his song ‘Heal’, “like an empty sail that takes the wind”, Jesus transforms them into healing, triumph and ultimately life, all through His Resurrection.

As Dr Scott Hahn, in his ambiguously titled book ‘Hope to Die’ articulates, “we were made for life. We were made for joy…and in Christ that life and joy are already ours”. Further on, Dr Hahn remarks that, “we have nothing to fear from the terrors of the world…they cannot rob us of the hope that fills us – the hope of eternal life”. And this is exactly what we all ultimately desire, whether we are aware of it or not, “eternal life”. Therefore, if I could now rephrase Herbert’s quote, “[w]here the fear has gone there will be nothing [left in the tomb]. Only [Jesus] will remain”.

In light of all this, it doesn’t come to much of a surprise that one of the first things that Jesus utters to the women coming to the tomb post-Resurrection is, “[d]o not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me” (Matthew 28:10). Remembering the resurrection, therefore, is more than us recalling a past-event; it entails us immersing our self in the present in the events that Christ himself experienced.

Be Not Afraid

This is not, however, the first time that God has spoken to our subterranean desires, encouraging us to be free of fear. As a matter of fact, within the pages of Scripture, the phrase ‘fear not’ (or equivalent translations) appears only slightly over one-hundred times in the Old Testament, as well as about forty-four times in the New Testament.

This is, in essence, the life Jesus calls all of us to live. To live life knowing that no failure, no distress, no discontent and not even death itself has the final word. It is through this way of life that we can also boldly acclaim, “I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me”.

The post How Easter Speaks To Some Of The Most Essential Desires Within Us appeared first on Universe of Faith.

These Christian Easter messages for Facebook or any other place you deem fit have their text written under each image:

Christian Easter Message 1

“Every crack has the ability to let the light in. We sometimes speak of a crack in our lives, an area where we are struggling or would like to improve.  From God’s point of view we say that this light has the ability to penetrate our deepest darkness.

This is what Easter is all about. Even if we don’t fully understand the Resurrection we know it’s the hinge on which we rest everything. Darkness and evil can never win the battle.

This Easter invite God’s light into all the cracks in your life.”

Fr Paul Formosa sdb

Chrisitan Easter Message 2

“Rejoice! He died but now is risen. If we are not ready to die how can we experience new life?”

Fr Paul Chetcuti SJ

Christian Easter Message 3

Happy Easter. Life is God’s Mystery Cracked Open

Fr Paul Chetcuti SJ

Read more:
– Top Pope Francis’ Quotes On Easter
– Modern Easter Poem: One Solitary Word

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In this poem the poet describes how Mary Magdalene realised that the man she saw was Jesus the risen one when he called her name. She also hopes that at the end of her own life she will also hear Jesus call her name.

There’s only one sound
I aspire to hear,
one solitary sound,
just one word,
among all the audible words
that fill existence.

Only one sound,
harbinger of endless and perfect
love, joy and ecstasy.

Just this one sound
emitted by no one
but You.

I shall be ready
to surrender all
for that one sound,
that one word.

All, Lord, even life itself,
for the utterance of
my first name by You –
in the same way that
in the silent garden,
beside the empty tomb,
on that first Sunday morning,
you called Mary,
your famously faithful follower.

For it was the way
you called her name
she realised it was you ,
the Risen Christ!

And when I – oh hope of hopes! –
at the tolling of the bell,
shall hear that one sound,
that one word ,
my first name –
called out by You –
then I shall know
beyond any doubt,
that I have risen too.

Published: April 2019

Read more:
– Top Pope Francis’ Easter Quotes
– When Cancer Hits Your Brother

The post Modern Easter Poem: One Solitary Word appeared first on Universe of Faith.

1. Easter is the feast of hope

“Dear sister, dear brother, even if in your heart you have buried hope, do not give up: God is greater. Darkness and death do not have the last word. Be strong, for with God nothing is lost!”
Pope Francis, Homily, April 2020

2. Easter celebrates the glory of love not of applause and audiences

“At Easter, God finally reveals His glory: He takes away the last veil and astonishes us as never before.  We discover, in fact, that God’s glory is all love: pure love, mad and unthinkable, beyond every limit and measure…True glory is the glory of love, because it is the only one that gives life to the world. Certainly this glory is the opposite of worldly glory, which comes when one is admired, praised, acclaimed. The glory of God, on the other hand, is paradoxical: no applause, no audience. At the center there is not the ego, but the other.
Pope Francis, Angelus, April 2019

3. Easter is the feast of tombstones rolled away

“Why do you think that everything is hopeless, that no one can take away your own tombstones? Why do you give in to resignation and failure? Easter is the feast of tombstones taken away, rocks rolled aside. God takes away even the hardest stones against which our hopes and expectations crash: death, sin, fear, worldliness.”
Pope Francis, Homily, April 2019

4. Easter is the exodus to love and goodness

“This is what Easter is: it is the exodus, the passage of human beings from slavery to sin and evil to the freedom of love and goodness.  Because God is life, life alone, and we are his glory: the living man.”
Pope Francis, Easter Sunday message, 31^st March 2013

5. Easter brought radical news for all the world

“Easter is the event that brought radical news for every human being, for history and for the world: the triumph of life over death; it is the feast of reawakening and of rebirth. Let us allow our lives to be conquered and transformed by the Resurrection!”
Pope Francis, Regina Cæli, 6^th April 2015

6. To celebrate Easter is to allow Jesus to triumph

“To celebrate Easter is to believe once more that God constantly breaks into our personal histories, challenging our “conventions”, those fixed ways of thinking and acting that end up paralyzing us. To celebrate Easter is to allow Jesus to triumph over the craven fear that so often assails us and tries to bury every kind of hope.”
Pope Francis, Homily, 31^st March 2018

7. Easter sacraments renew our life and our relationships

“The grace contained in the Sacraments of Easter (Baptism and Communion) is an enormous potential for the renewal of our personal existence, of family life, of social relations. However everything passes through the human heart: if I let myself be touched by the grace of the Risen Christ, if I let him change me in that aspect of mine which is not good, which can hurt me and others, I allow the victory of Christ to be affirmed in my life, to broaden its beneficial action.”
Pope Francis, Regina Cæli, 1^st April 2013

8. We are a people of hope
“Let us not quench the wavering flame (cf. Is 42:3) that never falters, and let us allow hope to be rekindled.”
Pope Francis, Blessing To The City And To The World, 27th March 2020

Read more:
– Easter Poem: One Solitary Word
– Top Pope Francis Holy Spirit Quotes

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1. “God has fallen asleep in search for our first parents, the lost sheep” – Anon 2nd cen

“Something strange is happening, there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and Hell trembles with fear. He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, He who is both God and the Son of Eve.”
Anonymous 2nd century author, Homily for Holy Saturday

2. “On Easter God conquered hell and gained the stars” – St Venentius Fortunatus

“Behold, the favour of the reviving world bears witness that all gifts have returned together with its Lord. For in honour of Christ rising triumphant after His descent to the gloomy Tartarus, the grove on every side with its leaves expresses approval, the plants with their flowers express approval. The light, the heaven, the fields, and the sea duly praise the God ascending above the stars, having crushed the laws of hell. Behold, He who was crucified reigns as God over all things, and all created objects offer prayer to their Creator. Hail, festive day, to be reverenced throughout the world, on which God has conquered hell, and gains the stars!”
St Venentius Fortunatus, Poem on Easter

Thank you to Fr Jonathan Farrugia from Malta and Mike Aquilina from Canada for their support in compiling the Fathers Of The Church quotes.

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