Clothed in Christ

Wisely, the Church takes a week to celebrate Easter Day, for it is too great an event to be limited to one one.  We celebrate the resurrection of Jesus himself by reading and listening to the various Gospel accounts, all basically similar, i.e. Jesus was not longer in the tomb, but alive, with variations in detail, as when different "eye witnesses" describe the same event.  It also must be remembered that the Gospels were written 30-40 or more years after the resurrection, so oral tradition played an important part in keeping the story alive.
In addition to the resurrection story, there comes our own:  our rebirth in Jesus which we received at our baptism and again renewed by the solemn repetition of our baptismal promises to reject sin, Satan and all his works and to live what we profess in the creed.  We are a new creation, we have "put on Christ".  "All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. (Gal 3:27).
The Easter Vigil saw countless baptisms and receptions into full communion in parishes around the world.  I was delighted to witness the baptism of the daughter of one of my former Rwandan students in St. Benedict the Moor parish in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Easter Sunday.  A large community gathered from all of the country, as Rwandan classmates made the effort to be there for the spiritual birth of Ava.  One even came from Canada, and there was a large youth group from Belfast, Ireland, who were treated to a festive liturgy in the Afro-American style.  The loved it. How good it was to see the universality of the gift of baptism, offered to ALL.  Truly ALL of us have been clothed with Christ, a gift for which we can never say thank you enough.
Bro. Rene