It’s Easter time! Bunnies and painted eggs have invaded the supermarkets since St. Patrick’s Day. Spring flowers and streams of melting snow after the dark of winter become signs for Christ’s new life as he bursts from the tomb. There’s a joy and freshness to the season. The modern symbols for the feast, however – chocolate rabbits and marshmallow chicks – can make us think that we’ve lost (as we love to say around Christmas time) the reason for the season. And have we grown disconnected from the original experience of the Twelve and the holy women who walked to the empty tomb on that Sunday morning millennia ago? The contrast seems stark between the then and now of Easter. Then was “shock at not finding the broken body of their beloved”. Now is “Let’s send the kids out to look for plastic eggs chocked with candy.” But the essential part of the experience is, in fact, the same. The essential part is Jesus who doesn’t change.

I heard a spiritual talk once about the experience of the Apostles during those days between the Resurrection and the Ascension. I don’t remember who the preacher was or if the message was even his own, but the lesson struck me and has stuck with me ever since. As Jesus appeared to disciples with his resurrected body and then drifted off again, as he slipped in and out even though “the doors were locked” (Jn 20:19), the Apostles began to learn that it wasn’t a matter of Jesus being absent or present, but rather his being visible or invisible. They began to learn that Jesus was always with them, regardless of whether they could see and feel him or not. In a sense, he “weaned” them off his sensible presence and prepared them for the solid faith life they would live after the Ascension.

Remember when Jesus appears to the disciples in the upper room for a second time and he challenges Thomas for his lack of faith. I doubt the disciples “tattled”. It wasn’t by hearsay that Jesus knew about Thomas’s unbelief. More likely, Jesus was there with them even as Thomas exclaimed his refusal to believe until he placed his finger in the Lord’s wounds. When Jesus shows himself again, he references Thomas’s objections and invites him to touch the sacred wounds. He knows all and is ever-present.

What does this mean for us? It means that the Jesus we experience today, the Resurrected Lord, can be with us the same way he was for the Twelve. His spiritual presence, though invisible, is a real presence. He knows our thoughts and sentiments. He sees our actions. And he’s not there primarily to analyze and critique (though he has every right). He’s there to accompany us with the burning love of his pierced and risen Heart.

So, today’s Easter experience is linked with that of the Apostles in this: God is with us. And as Jesus “leaves” in the Annunciation, these were precisely his words. “I will be with you until the end of the age.” (Mt 28:20) It wasn’t a symbolic presence that he promised as the clouds obscured him from sight. He promised a real presence. And this new presence would be more than just sitting next to us like a cartoon ghost. It’s a promise that the very fire of his Heart would flicker within us. He sent us the Holy Spirit, and by that Spirit he breathes his infinite Trinitarian love in us; a presence that is infinite and so very real. The way he lives in us and the way he lived in the first disciples in those first days of the Church, therefore, are the same. We are the continuation of a post-Easter and post-Pentecost Church. In the truest sense, we are his disciples and friends of the modern era. All we have to do is make space and listen to his Heart beating within us.

And that new life within us is worth celebrating. Thus, the pastel pinks, blues, and yellows, and the supermarket Easter promotions. Marshmallows and chocolates are a way to rejoice. Bunnies and hatching chicks are signs and reminders of the abundance and precious power of life. We use these traditions to remember something profound, historic and earthshattering. We remember this momentous before-and-after, the watershed time of victory and redemption. So, send your kids out to look for plastic eggs! But don’t forget to tell them also that the Risen Lord embraces them and resides ablaze in their hearts. Teach them to search with simple excitement for the ever-present Emmanuel, “God with us”. Look behind you. Turn your thoughts inward. Jesus is already embracing you.