The Catholic Parishes 

of Stoughton 

Peace be with you! 
 

Welcome to the Catholic Parishes of Stoughton. We are a Roman Catholic community of faith, nourished by the Eucharist and committed to living out our faith in service to others. It’s our hope that no matter where you are on your life’s journey, you will find a home here. Please join us as we worship our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the source of all our faith, hope, strength and joy.

              Peace and blessings!
              Fr. Joe Mazzone
              Pastor of St. James & Immaculate Conception 

Good morning and Happy Easter! This is the day, my friends, the great celebration of the Lord’s Resurrection from the dead. This day, more than any other, is the make-or-break day for us as Christians. Easter is the hinge, the linchpin, the capstone. A priest I like to read once said, “If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, then all of us preachers should just go home and get good, honest jobs.” (!) “If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead,” he continued, “then all of those who profess the Christian faith (i.e., you and me) are basically crazy.” It’s funny but it’s true. My friends, to many in the world, to skeptics of Christianity, all of this is crazy. When you die, you are dead and you stay dead. Everything in the universe has a beginning and an end.
It might be 25 years if you’re a tiger, 50 years if you’re a palm tree or 9.5 billion years if you’re the sun. But everything in the universe, including the universe, has a beginning and an end. To say that death is not the end is to suggest something impossible. To which I say, “Absolutely! Amen!” Through Christ, through His Resurrection from the dead, God has made the impossible . . . possible.
 
Happy Easter, my friends! Let us celebrate that God has made the impossible, possible. Because of Jesus, death is no longer the end. He has conquered death! In Him we now have hope, promise, eternal life . . . and possibility. This day changes everything.
 
What does it change for you?
 
This is a good question to ask. How will this day, how will Easter, change us?
Where in our lives do we need hope, and promise, and possibility? What things in our lives seems to diminish that? Are we stuck in the Good Friday moments of our lives and forget that for a Christian there is always a Resurrection? My friends, to a passerby on that Good Friday of two thousand years ago, the Romans had killed another person — an innocent one, in this case, and tyranny and terrorism had won. The enemies of Christ were convinced that within a few days of His death, the world would forget Him. Today, two thousand years later, over two billion people will celebrate this day. Where is the Roman Empire? My friends, maybe there is something in your life in which a resolution seems impossible. Maybe there is something in your life that is leaving you hopeless, desperate. I invite you to remember the reason we are here. Jesus, in His rising from the dead, has brought hope, promise, eternal life . . . and possibility to this world. Invite Him into your heart and this day can — and will — change everything. Sometimes in life it can feel like the stone has been rolled into place and nothing will ever change, nothing will ever be any different. Well, Jesus has rolled the stone away, my friends, and the world, and our lives, need never be the same.

 
Peace,
Fr. Joe

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