John 20: 1 - 9
The Word: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/041722.cfm
Mahatma Ghandi the Indian hero of peace who through his life example and teaching preached a gospel of non-violent resistance to oppression, once said about Christianity:
“I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
One might think that Ghandi’s life and insistence on peaceful resistance would
be compatible with the Christian way of life.
After all, isn’t that what Jesus preached over and over again: “turn the other cheek, love your enemies,
forgive those who do you wrong.”
While that is true, Ghandi’s point about Christians being
that in name only may painfully be similar to what other’s may have said about
Jesus’ own disciples and about Jesus himself.
What kind of Jew is he? He doesn’t
follow the Sabbath laws, he hangs out with the unclean and sinners, he does
nothing to stop others from doing the same, and he challenges the established
and cherished religious leaders among us. He appears to be more of a trouble
maker than a man of peace.
But our Lord is more than another teacher, wise man, or
religious founder. He is the risen Lord
who as the Savior of humanity has forever broken the hold of death and released
us with the promise of eternal life. The
resurrection of Jesus changed everything and like the earliest of Christians we
see all in light of that great mystery.
Our lives, our faith, what is of importance to us, the people around us,
the choices we make are all done in light of the resurrection and weighed
against that great truth.
So, this Easter day we gather and claim to be his
followers. We claim that we have made
the choice to believe that Jesus is indeed the Son of God. The beautiful liturgies of Holy Week and
Easter have touched many in this parish community. I’ve heard a great deal of
positive feedback.
The focus of our faith is this God-man who is indeed our
Lord and God. The resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth for all time proves that
all he said and did was indeed true.
He’s not a madman or merely another wise teacher of ancient times.
For the early Church the resurrection of the Lord was a
shattering event and all the stories of Easter in his appearances convey an
experience both real and beyond human description. In fact, the resurrection is
so pivotal, that if Jesus did not rise we would be as foolish to make the
claims for him as he was to claim it for himself. Here we go beyond science and
reason to the realm of the supernatural and miraculous. The Church proclaims that we speak of the
miraculous. God's direct intervention in
our space and time as he goes beyond the laws of nature and logic. There would
be no other way to describe the resurrection of Jesus as a truth. Whether it be
the new testament, the preaching of Paul, the lives of the Saints, the mission
of the Church, all is done because of the resurrection of the Lord and due to
the promise he made.
In other words, without the truth of the resurrection,
there would be no Christian faith. That
is how central to our claims this event becomes. No other founder of a religion
in history as ever claimed to rise from the dead, nor his followers have
claimed such, except Christians. So it either makes us lunatics, liars, or
disciples of the risen one.
But, we cannot prove the resurrection – it defies reason,
logic and every conceivable law of nature. Dead bodies do not come back to
life. But Jesus now assumes some mysterious, touchable, visible form which
combines spirit and matter, no longer subject to the natural laws of death and
decay. This is resurrection – a form yet to be seen and experienced in
eternity.
Scholars agree that Jesus’ resurrection is not at all a
miraculous return from the dead or something like a near death experience. If
that is what the resurrection was, then Jesus would have died again. When Jesus
appeared to his Apostles, he told no story of a tunnel of light, or hovering
over his body, or seeing long lost dead relatives waiting for him.
Yet we will hear this Easter season of the reaction of
the Apostles, of Mary Magdalene, of Thomas who doubted, of talking angels who
questioned visitors at the empty tomb that early morning, “Why do you seek the
living one among the dead?” (Lk 24: 1-10). We will hear of disciples whose lives
were instantly transformed from fear to overwhelming joy, wonder, and bold
courage. So convicted were they that Jesus was alive and eternally present
again that no force or threat on earth could change their minds. When they saw
the risen Lord it became a transforming experience and changed them forever.
So, through this event, God invites us to believe and to be transformed to
deeper discipleship and more courageous faith.
The rising of Christ from the dead gives hope to those
who have died. And if the dead have hope then the living also have hope. If we
the living have hope, then the death and resurrection of Christ is true.
The great witness we have today in our Gospel story is
that of the empty tomb. Women, named Mary Magdalene and Joanna and men named
Peter and John who could hardly contain their joy and wonder once they came to
conviction – because of an empty tomb. But, that alone would not be enough. It
was not a onetime event meant to be recalled through history books but the
beginning of a transforming experience for all believers. It was an invitation to see Christ alive and
present right up to our day and beyond.
We no longer look in empty tombs but in His Church, His
Body – Jesus baptizes, confirms, becomes our food of liberation in the Eucharist
as he will for our newest Elect and candidates this season. Christ unites in
marriage, comforts the dying, forgives sin, chooses and calls in the
priesthood. In those holy sacraments the risen Christ continues his work.
And, in our world today, where there is far too much
agony and not enough ecstasy, many are confused, lost, abandoned, hurt, empty,
despairing, and fearful. Many people are
dead in spirit and mind or numbed by a world which presents promises that
cannot fulfill; that the answer to every problem can be found only in science,
technology, money, or fame. And the war rages in Ukraine as they confront an
ominous and hate-filled dictator who will come to no good end.
The good news of Easter bring a time of hope to us. The
invitation to every one of us is to have hope and to share in the life of His
Church. God has no limits. We bring this good news to a world that is empty; to
replace the agony of meaninglessness, or science and technology alone, of
loneliness and rejection, of poverty and sadness with the ecstasy of faith and
hope. Let’s pray together as we approach these next ten days that God will
bring a healing to humanity and prove himself once again to be our Lord and our
God.
Christ is risen indeed, Alleluia, Alleluia!
O God, who on this day,
through your Only Begotten Son, have conquered death
and unlocked for us the path to eternity,
grant that we who keep
the solemnity of the Lord's Resurrection
may, through the renewal brought by your Spirit
rise up in the light of life.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
(Collect of Mass)
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