We are an Easter people, and Alleluia is our song. This line Pope St John Paul II dropped into his Angelus address in Adelaide, SA November 1986. He said to all who would listen:

Faith is our source of joy. We believe in a God who created us so that we might enjoy human happiness - in some measure on earth, in its fullness in heaven. We are meant to have our human joys: the joy of living, the joy of love and friendship, the joy of work well done. We who are Christians have a further cause for joy: like Jesus, we know that we are loved by God our Father. This love transforms our lives and fills us with joy. It makes us see that Jesus did not come to lay burdens upon us. He came to teach us what it means to be fully happy and fully human. Therefore, we discover joy when we discover truth - the truth about God our Father, the truth about Jesus our Saviour, the truth about the Holy Spirit who lives in our hearts.

We do not pretend that life is all beauty. We are aware of darkness and sin, of poverty and pain. But we know Jesus has conquered sin and passed through his own pain to the glory of the Resurrection. And we live in the light of his Paschal Mystery - the mystery of his Death and Resurrection. “We are an Easter People and Alleluia is our song!”. We are not looking for a shallow joy but rather a joy that comes from faith, that grows through unselfish love, that respects the “fundamental duty of love of neighbour, without which it would be unbecoming to speak of Joy”. We realise that joy is demanding; it demands unselfishness; it demands a readiness to say with Mary: “Be it done unto me according to thy word”.

It seems the pope is referring to St Augustine, giving a talk about Psalm 148. St Augustine said “let not your tongue and voice alone praise God, but your conscience also, your life, yourdeeds. For now, when we are gathered together in the Church, we praise: when we go forth each to our own business, we seem to cease to praise God. Let each of us not cease to live well, and then one always praises God [...for] God has willed that it should be in your choice for whom you will prepare room, for God, or for the devil: when you have prepared it, he who is occupant will also rule. Therefore, attend not only to the sound; when you praise God, praise with your whole selves: let your voice, your life, your deeds, all sing Alleluia”

"We are an Easter People. The Lord is Truly Risen from the Dead."

We Catholics hold in tension the sadness of our sinful situations, both received and of our own making, alongside the joy that comes when we accept the Gospel of Christ and transform our lives. This transformation comes by God’s own Grace, manifest in the forgiving waters of Baptism.  This is where Christians “are washed clean of sin, freed from all defilement, restored to grace, and grow together in Holiness”.  What to do when we have sinned after baptism?  A “second” baptism is possible; it is called Penance, or Confession or Reconciliation. Here the impossible is made possible. By His command the Lord Jesus has given to mere mortals the divine power to forgive sin (Jn 20:22) after the washing of Baptism, which as St Peter taught “now saves us”. (1Pt3.21)

It is the power of the Holy Night of Passover, the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus that “dispels all evil, washes guilt away, restores lost innocence, brings mourners joy. Night Truly blessed, when heaven is wedded to earth, and we are reconciled to God”. It is this same power extending throughout the ages in the sacramental economy, that allows us to enter into the Joy of the Father’s Kingdom, even if we are sad and sinful, angry and dejected, the Lord will make us one in him. This is our Story, this is our Song: 

Alleluia!

Praise the LORD from the heavens;

praise him in the heights.

Praise him, all his angels;

praise him, all his hosts.

Praise him, sun and moon;

praise him, all shining stars.

Praise him, highest heavens,

and the waters above the heavens.

Let them praise the name of the LORD.

He commanded: they were created.

He established them for ever and ever,

gave a law which shall not pass away.

Praise the LORD from the earth;

sea creatures and all ocean depths;

fire and hail, snow and mist,

stormy winds that fulfil his command;

mountains and all hills,

fruit trees and all cedars;

beasts, both wild and tame;

reptiles and birds on the wing;

kings of the earth and all peoples;

princes and all judges of the earth;

young men together with maidens,

the old and the young together.

Let them praise the name of the LORD,

for his name alone is exalted,

his splendour above heaven and earth.

He exalts the strength of his people.

He is the praise of all his faithful,

the praise of the children of Israel,

of the people to whom he is close.

Alleluia! (Ps148)