Custodian of Holy Land gives 3 advice to fully celebrate the Easter of Resurrection

Fr. Francesco Patton, custodian of the Holy Land, has encouraged Christians to fully celebrate the Easter of the Resurrection of Christ, for which he has invited to follow three advice.

In an article published in Vatican Newsthe Franciscan friar reflected on the evangelical passage that tells the appearance of Jesus resurrected to Peter and six other disciples who were on the banks of Lake Galilee, “overwhelmed by the death of the teacher.”

“Jesus resurrected appears at dawn, when it is no longer night but it is not yet day. It appears when it is more difficult to recognize his face, but not his voice,” and encourages them to get to fish “when fishing is useless.” That is, he asks them to “trust him, once again and fully. Because only he is able to tear down our failures and fill our gaps,” says the priest.

But, in addition, it is approaching where Pedro – who had denied it three times before the crucifixion – and gives him “the most important question, the same one that gives us: ‘Do you love me more than anything and that everyone? If you love me, you can really start following me again. If you really love me, you can start taking care of the people I trust you. If you really love me, you can also give me your life until the end.

In that sense, Fr. Patton encouraged to take three attitudes “if we want to celebrate Easter, if we want to celebrate it fully”:

1. Do not be imprisoned for an empty grave. When María Magdalena arrived at the sepulcher she found him empty and believed that they had taken the teacher. However, Jesus appeared to him and asked to announce “to his brothers and sisters that he had risen and went before them to Galilee, and that there they would meet him again.” Therefore, said Father Patton, “we must also learn not to remain prisoners of an empty tomb. Jesus risen is in front of us and walks in front of us.”

2. Do not be imprisoned for failures. “If we want to celebrate Easter, we cannot be prisoners of our personal failures: both in human and religious.”

3. Do not remain crushed under the circumstances of life. The Franciscan priest said that “if we want to celebrate Easter, we cannot remain crushed under the heavy stone of the circumstances that we have to live, which speak of failure and death: wars, pandemics, earthquakes, economic crises, natural catastrophes and disasters caused by our human imprudence and, sometimes, even by our human cruelty.”

In his article, the Italian friar said that “Jesus resurrected has already overcome all this and only asks us: ‘Do you love me to the point of trusting me? Are you willing to start with me again? Are you willing to get back in the center of your life?'”

“Then and only then can you tell us again: ‘Follow me, take care of the people who trust you and learn with me to give your life,” he wrote.

But in addition, the custodian said, “only then we will also be able to recognize him present when it is no longer night, but it is not yet daytime, and we will experiment that waiting in him will never be disappointed, deceived or confused, and we can walk with confidence, accompanied by him, by the paths of time towards eternal Easter.”