The joy of this Easter Season is tempered by the events that took place at Virginia Tech. We commend to the love and mercy of God all of those whose lives were ended or scarred as a result of what happened.

Commentaries abound as to the underlying causes of this tragedy, with speculation about the mind and character of the perpetrator as well as questions about society at large. What happened clearly has to do with violence, but perhaps it has even more to do with the root cause of such violence, namely, anger.

Just before Easter, on the occasion of the Chrism Mass at the Cathedral, I mentioned in my homily the plague of anger in contemporary society. While what happened at Virginia Tech is an extreme example of anger gone berserk, today’s level of anger touches all of us.

Peter Wood, provost and professor of anthropology at the King’s College in New York, has written a book titled, “A Bee in the Mouth: Anger in America Now.” Professor Wood tells us that as recently as a generation ago, anger was an emotion people were expected to keep under control. Displays of anger in public were considered unseemly, a cause for others to turn away in disgust. Today, however, outbursts of anger in our country are apt to be applauded as a way of showing one’s “authenticity.” Displays of anger can win a person fame and fortune. As another writer summarizes it: “From political commentary to popular music, restraint is out and wrath is in.”

May the Crucified and Risen Christ fill your life with light and joy! As St. Paul says: “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins … But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Cor 15:17, 20), so let us rejoice with confidence!

What we read in the Gospel and what we celebrate at the liturgy from one season to another are not simply historical remembrances of things past. Scripture and the mysteries of redemption are living realities here and now because the Risen Christ is alive and active. Having passed outside of space and time (something impossible for us to comprehend), Jesus is always simply “present” in both dimensions. Easter is “today” every bit as much as it was 2000 years ago.

Even in time, our observance of Easter is more than a once-a-year occurrence. From the earliest centuries, Christians have recognized that every first day of the week — every Sunday — is a little Easter. St. Augustine says that Sunday is “a sacrament of Easter.” And St. Jerome writes: “Sunday is the day of the resurrection, it is the day of Christians, it is our day.”

“It is our day,” and yet it is increasingly evident that we Christians are abandoning what is ours in the relentless drive towards a secular society. The observance of every Sunday by faithful attendance at Mass, refraining from unnecessary business and servile work, making it a day for parish and family — all these things are no longer part of the lifestyle of many who consider themselves Catholic.

Last month I attended a very important workshop of more than 150 bishops from the United States, Canada and Latin America presented by the National Catholic Bioethics Center and made possible through a generous grant from the Knights of Columbus.

These workshops, held for bishops every two years, are always an eye-opener as to what is happening in bioethics, an area that has potential for tremendous good and for tremendous evil. The topic this year was “Catholic Health Care in Tension with Contemporary Culture.”

Health care as a ministry of the church can be traced to the beginnings of Christianity. Over the centuries religious orders of women and men played a huge role in providing medical care. This is certainly true in our country and in Toledo too. The result is that today Catholic health care is the largest provider of non-governmental non-profit health care in the United States.

It is no secret that the morality of western civilization which has governed health care is now at a crossroads. I say “western civilization,” because it is not just a matter of Judeo-Christian religious beliefs. It was the pagan Greek world that gave us the so-called “Oath of Hippocrates,” which, according to the American Medical Association’s Code of Medical Ethics (1996 ed.), “has remained in Western civilization as an expression of ideal conduct for the physician.” Today, most graduating medical-school students swear to some form of the oath, usually a modernized version.