Holy Spirit Catholic Church
Homilies
Easter (A) 2011:
The Resurrection of the Lord
Easter Sunday is the high point of the church year.
No Sunday, no feast day compares.
Despite the crowds in church at Christmas, not even Christmas
equals Easter. Without the
resurrection, no one would have celebrated Jesus' birth!
Rather, both His birth and His death would have faded from the
world's memory. Easter is
the center of our faith. St.
Paul puts it this way, "If Christ has not been raised from the dead,
then our faith is empty, senseless" (1 Cor 15:14).
But
we're not here for a lesson in Latin.
We're here to celebrate the resurrection.
Notice, though, how the first Easter with Mary Magdalene at the
tomb
is not the sort of Easter
we are used to celebrating.
In fact, at the beginning there is no celebration, joy, or songs of
alleluia. Instead, there is
only Mary Magdalene standing next to the tomb in the dark of early
morning. The first Easter
begins with weeping, grief, and sadness.
"They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don't know where
they put him." After the
betrayal and the suffering, after the crucifixion and the dying, the
empty tomb appears one more layer of heartbreak in a tragic story.
The
first Easter begins with Mary Magdalene expecting to find Jesus still in
the tomb. Instead, she is
found by the risen Lord.
Resurrection breaks into the world in ways no one expects.
Then the risen Christ gives Mary a message that no one expects,
either. She is sent out with
the message of new life. Our
Lord literally makes her an apostle ("sent out" is what the word
"apostle" means). And the
message Mary Magdalene is given is the message that stands at the heart
of Easter's new life. Go to
my brothers and tell them, "I am ascending to
my Father and
your Father, to
my God and
your God" (John 20:17).
After
the betrayal and suffering, after the crucifixion and dying, there is no
animosity or revenge, no guilt or shame.
This first Easter, this first day of the week, this new beginning
is filled with God's gifts of forgiveness, hope, and life!
Through the resurrection, Jesus Christ has made us his own, has made us
God's own. Through Jesus, we
all belong to God. Before
the resurrection and throughout the Gospel of John, Jesus has spoken
about God as "the Father", or "the
Father who sent
me,"
or "my
Father." Before the
resurrection, Jesus had called his followers "disciples" or "servants"
or even "friends." But now
in and through the resurrection, we have been welcomed into a new
relationship with God.
Not
only has Jesus' life been made new, our life with God is made new.
"I am ascending to my Father and
your Father, to
my God and
your God." The
resurrection is a crucial moment for our life in God.
The disciples, and we along with them, are welcomed into this new
world. In Jesus, we receive
life as God's children. As
Colossians reminds us, our life in now hidden with God in Christ!
On
Easter we meet face-to-face with the unexpected and crucial truth of
faith. In the death and
resurrection of Christ we are encountered by God doing something
unexpected in the middle of a dying world and in the middle of our own
lives where heartbreak and sorrow, sin and death, are what we come to
expect. The resurrection of
Jesus . . . this first Easter, this first day of the week, this new
beginning . . . is filled with God's gifts of forgiveness, hope, and
life, and all creation is made new.
But
to say that in Christ all things are made new does not mean that, as we
move into the future, each day will be progressively better and better,
or safer, or more peaceful.
Rather, it means that in every circumstance of our life . . . form great
joys and simple satisfactions all the way through pain, sufferings, or
tragedies that lie before us . . . the cross is raised up for our life
and hope. In the words of
St. Paul, now nothing can separate us from the love of God, nothing in
life and not even death.
This
is the crux of our faith and the turning point of God's world.
By his resurrection, our
sorrow is exchanged for Jesus' joy.
Through his resurrection,
our broken lives are transformed by his forgiveness and new life.
In his resurrection, Jesus
is on his way to God and he gathers up the whole world with him.
"I am ascending to my Father and
your Father, to
my God and
your God." With Mary
Magdalene and Peter and all the witnesses of the resurrection, our lives
are made new. And it is
worth all the joy and celebration and alleluias that we can muster!
May
our Risen Lord and Savior bless you with a most joyful season of Easter!