Easter

 

I took this picture down by the Lake on Easter morning. I had just noted two days ago that the daffodils weren't blooming yet in these mountains. And one day later there they were.
My Easter homily was inspired by my vivid awareness on Good Friday that Jesus dying on the Cross was just a memory and that the Risen Jesus was not just a memory but was available to me right here and now. As I composed the homily I realized that I wanted also to say that the Crucifixion plays an essential role, along with the Resurrection, in our salvation. The world is saved by the dying and rising of Jesus.
When I was young, even in our Latin manuals that we studied in the seminary, we were taught that it was only the death of Jesus that redeemed us. His resurrection played no part in our redemption. It simply proved that he was divine. Durwell's book, The Resurrection, was the first one I read at that time that insisted that the Resurrection was also essential to our being saved.