Easter Sunday – A
April 5, 2026
Our Lady of Grace Parish, Parkton
Chocolat
This past Thursday, three days ago, I received in the mail a box of homemade Easter eggs from my sister-in-law Lynn.
Lynn makes these every year. They are buttercreams coated with dark chocolate and they are delicious.
Well, these Easter eggs led me to remember a movie named Chocolat. Chocolat, as may be obvious, is, the French word for chocolate and I suggest that this movie is a great Easter story.
The story takes place in a small French village in 1959. Life in this little village is very traditional, very structured, and very rigid.
But then, into the village comes a young woman named Vianne and her little daughter. Vianne opens a chocolaterie – a chocolate shop.
She makes and sells anything made with chocolate – chocolates filled with nuts and jellies and crèmes, hot chocolate, chocolate cake, everything. You can gain a couple pounds just watching the movie!
The mayor of this French town is very opposed to the chocolate shop and tries to keep the villagers from patronizing it. He sees it as a place of sinful indulgence.
And, of course, because Vianne opened the chocolate shop during Lent, the mayor judges it to be the work of the devil. Well, despite all of the mayor’s efforts to make it fail, the shop succeeds.
Vianne’s shop becomes a place of acceptance, love, and care. Little by little the entire village is changed and on Easter Sunday, even the young parish priest throws away his traditional homily and just speaks from the heart about what the risen Christ means to him.
He tells the villagers and us, the audience, not to measure goodness by what we can condemn and reject and exclude. Instead, he calls us to measure goodness by what we can create and love and embrace.
A Resurrection Story
As I said, I see Chocolat as an Easter story, a resurrection story.
It tells how people of this French village come to fuller life or simply come to life after being virtually dead. On the surface, this happens because of chocolate, but in truth, the transformation happens because of the qualities that Vianne has introduced.
Chocolat and Easter give us messages like:
v the value of uniting rather than dividing people – key word – uniting people.
v the importance of accepting differences rather than rejecting those who are different – key word – accepting differences.
v the excitement of creating opportunities rather staying stuck in the status quo – key word – creating opportunities.
v The merit of highlighting light rather than ruminating on darkness – key word – highlighting light.
Actions like these – uniting people, accepting differences, creating opportunities, and highlighting light – actions like these are life-giving. They bring us a satisfaction that is invaluable.
They give us a fullness that we can find in no other way. And, of course, the grounding of all of this is Jesus, the risen Christ – as the young priest in Chocolat came to realize.
Jesus’ life on earth and then his death and resurrection – these teach the truth of the Easter mystery that dying leads to rising. Dying, letting go of lesser ways and following the lead of Jesus, the risen Christ – this gives us life.
Embrace Easter
So, today I invite you to really embrace the message of Easter.
Embrace it, as happened in that little Franch town. If we do that, we will discover that the way of the risen Christ – uniting people, accepting differences, creating opportunities, and highlighting light – this way gives us such a fullness of life that resurrection just feels right and makes sense.
That’s the message of Easter that I bring to all of us this morning. That’s how I see our faith in the risen Christ.
So, Happy Easter and please enjoy your chocolates!
