Dear Brother Knights:
During these Easter weeks we should wish one another a deep and meaningful appreciation of what Easter has brought to humanity since the day Christ rose from the tomb outside Jerusalem.. Not only should we seek an understanding of how Easter changed things, but also an insight and appreciation of how we as Catholics and particularly as Knights of Columbus are ac-tually part of that change and transformation that began so long ago, and is still taking place. The Risen Lord, after all, is still here in our 21st century world. On Easter Sunday and all the weeks of Easter that coincide so beautifully with Springtime, we say “Alleluia” Christ is risen!” We don’t just say Christ “has risen” but “is risen” We are saying He is alive, risen and somehow here with us.
How is he here, right now with us? He is here doing his thing, his mission, his healing and redeeming through you and me who are living members of His Risen Body on earth – the Body we call the church. All the good that the Knights attempt to do, all the good each of us does as individual members of the Church is done with the power and motivation that comes from Jesus our Head. Make no mistake about it. In addition to the historical documentation: the testimony of the Apostles, the martyrs and hundreds of actual eyewitnesses of the Risen Lord we have present day proofs of Jesus’ resurrection and continued presence among us in the heroic contemporary efforts of those who reach out to the sick, the poor, the uneducated, the sorrow-ing, the lonely, the injured in body and heart, the confused and abused; and those who faithfully uphold the sacredness and inviolability of each human life, who defend marriage, and family, religious freedom rights, the natural law and Commandments and the noblest ideals of our own nation built upon those foundations.
All this is a clear demonstration of Jesus’ resurrection and His presence among us even now. “Behold,” He says, “I am with you all days, even to the end of time.”
Vivat Jesus! Rev. Msgr. Edward Surwilo, Chaplain