He is Risen! The Church has now entered the season of Easter, when we celebrate that Jesus Christ has conquered death by his Resurrection from the dead. This is a time, above all, to step out of the "tomb" of sin and into the "new life" of communion with God.

In the great Easter Triduum, we tend to gloss over Holy Saturday, but what did Jesus accomplish by descending to the dead?

One question that I've thought about quite a bit over the years is this: Why did Jesus die on the Cross? I grew up in a good Catholic family and have long known what Jesus did for our salvation, but the question of why his death was part of God's plan is a bit trickier, isn't it?

“Yet it was our pain that he bore, our sufferings he endured” (Isaiah 53:4). Here we touch upon one of the central mysteries of the Gospel - The Son of God became one of us and fully immersed himself into the suffering and brokenness of our humanity in order to bring healing to us.

In his extraordinary chastity, St. Joseph demonstrated heroic virtue that all of us, especially men, can learn from today.