I recently read about the experience of a young woman at a local children’s hospital. She was asked by a teacher from her church to tutor a boy with some schoolwork while he was in the hospital. The woman didn’t realize until she got to the hospital that the boy was in the burn unit, in considerable pain and barely able to respond. She tried to tutor him, stumbling through the English lesson, ashamed at putting him through such a senseless exercise.

The next day, when she returned to the hospital, a nurse asked her, “What did you do to that boy?” Before she could finish apologizing, the nurse interrupted her: “You don’t understand. His entire attitude has changed. It’s as though he has decided to live!”

A few weeks later, the boy explained that he had completely given up hope until this young woman arrived. With joyful tears he explained, “They wouldn’t send a tutor to work on nouns and verbs with a dying boy, would they?”

The article concluded: Sometimes we are invited into people’s lives and into places and events that, on the surface, have no meaning or purpose to us. We ask ourselves, what are we doing here? What purpose do we have here? Often we define our lives only by what we can see or understand; we forget that we are a part of something larger than ourselves. When we forget, we miss opportunity after opportunity, those moments of grace, to affect our world for the better.

----------------------------------

I was particularly struck by the final words of our reading from the first letter of St. Peter: You are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may announce the praises” of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

Did you ever realize how special you are in God’s sight? Or, consider the words Jesus says about his followers at the end of today’s gospel. “Amen, Amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these because I am going to the Father.”

During this entire Easter season, we have been reflecting on the reality of the Resurrection, but not just as a historical event in the past. The question is: does the Resurrection make any real difference for our identity and our lives today. I once heard it put in these rather stark terms: if you were accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

Think of the woman teaching nouns and verbs to a young boy in a hospital burn unit. She felt that she was wasting her time. She was embarrassed to torture the patient with parts of speech. But, almost beside herself, without her being aware of it, she was giving that child hope—a reason to struggle on, a reason to live.

I think a lot of people in our world today are like that boy, and like that woman. We’re tired of all the upheaval. We’re tired of the prices of food and gas. We’re tired of all the infighting, even within families.

Today’s Scriptures remind us of who we are: we are chosen by God to make a difference, to remind people that they have a God-given dignity, to serve the needs of others and to work for the common good, to love all people, but especially those who are hurting, confused, and ready to give up. In short, we are to act as Jesus did, for he is “the way, the truth and the life.”

Remember the advice of the article with which I started our reflections: We ask ourselves, what are we doing here? What purpose do we have here? Often we define our lives only by what we can see or understand; we forget that we are a part of something larger than ourselves. When we forget, we miss opportunity after opportunity, those moments of grace, to affect our world for the better.

The fifty days of this Easter season remind us that we are people of resurrection, not death; of hope, not despair; here for others, not ourselves. When it comes to Easter, we are called, not just to remember it, but to live it. We, who have been “called out of darkness into his wonderful light,” are challenged to bring light where we find darkness.