Alleluia! Alleluia! He is risen! Happy & Blessed Easter to all! As we stand here on this day of great rejoicing, the question that’s placed before us is, “Are we in shape? Back on Ash Wednesday, as the ashes that have long worn off our foreheads were placed upon us & we were called to repent, I recalled my journey back to the gym. Slacking off for a number of years from regular & consistent exercise, I began my own Lenten journey with the desire to get back into the habit of regularly taking care of my physical health, primarily through regular trips to the gym to spend time exercising. I invited us to consider, in our way & in our own lives, how we needed to get back in shape. Maybe, like me, it was physically, maybe it was spiritually, maybe it was the way that we interacted with one another. The invitation of Lent was to honestly examine our lives & see where we needed to get ourselves back in shape.

  So now, as we move from Lent to Easter, from sorrow to joy, are we in shape? I pray that the answer is yes, that this Lenten journey that we’ve concluded has helped us to be a more committed disciple of Christ, more alive in His Spirit. But, I also think that, if we’re honest, there is still plenty of work to be done. We may have done some great work on getting back in shape, but now that Easter has arrived, now is not the time to stop going to the gym. Now that we’ve reached Easter, now is the time for the exercise to continue. What benefit would there be if we did all this great work getting back in shape only now to let it falter & slide? Maybe we won’t carry on all the practices that we engaged in during Lent. Maybe there’s something that we chose to fast from during Lent that we’ve already enjoyed again, & that’s fine. But, while we may return to some of our pre-Lent ways, let’s make sure that we don’t return to all of our pre-Lent ways. Let’s make sure that we are changed, that the shape that we’ve gotten back into on this journey; the ways we’ve grown closer to God through our prayer, fasting, & almsgiving; the ways that we’ve been changed to be more like Him; let’s make sure that we don’t slip back into all of our old ways & become totally out of shape now that Lent has ended. Let us rejoice! Let us celebrate! But let us also not slack off & return to our old ways either!

 Have a Blessed Easter! Alleluia!