"Christ our Paschal Lamb, has been sacrificed,
let us then feast with joy in the Lord"
John 20: 1-9
The Word: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/040923.cfm
It seems to me that any
discussion of the resurrection of Jesus must lead inevitably to reflection on
the sacraments. The resurrection, as
strange as this concept may seem, is indeed a matter of faith. What we believe
and proclaim this night and by our very existence as Christians is outside the
limits of science, technology, and verifiable proof.
The fact that the historical
Jesus existed in space and time more than 2,000 years ago is established by
historians and scripture scholars. But
any modern discussion of Jesus seems to end at the time of his crucifixion and
burial.
Going beyond this historical
fact and talk of this same man coming back from the dead in a visible form is
beyond science and may seem to many like nothing more than a myth made up by
desperate Christians who wanted to carry on the impact Jesus of Nazareth had
upon so many. However, if that were true anyone with common sense would agree
that it would have disappeared centuries ago.
Belief in the fact of the
resurrection of Jesus from the dead is absolutely the foundation of
Christianity. St. Paul reminds the
Christians of Corinth that: “If Christ
has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.”
In his book, Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict XVI
writes:
The
Christian faith stands or falls with the truth of the testimony that Christ is
risen from the dead. If this were taken away, it would still be possible to
piece together from Christian tradition a series of interesting ideas about God
and men . . . a kind of religious world view. Jesus would be a failed religious
leader, who despite his failure remains great and can cause us to reflect. But
he would then remain purely human, and his authority would extend only so far as
his message is of interest to us . . . In other words, we would be alone. Our own judgment would be the highest value.
Only
if Jesus is risen has anything really new occurred that changes the world and
the situation of mankind. Then he becomes the criterion on which we can
rely. For then God has truly revealed
himself.”
We are here to proclaim this night before a world that is saturated with, the idol of technology, a distorted view of humanity, aggressive independence, lust for power and dominance, that we believe first that God does exist, that his existence is confirmed by the testimony of thousands of generations before us who believed as we now believe, that God who took on a human nature in the person of Jesus Christ, who came to this earth to face the darkness of sin and death, through the sacrifice of his own life on the cross, descended to the lowest level of human sin, and in his resurrection transformed despair into the hope of eternity.
We are able to say with Christ, that in the face of sin and death, we have won the battle. Because of the resurrection of Jesus, not even death will hold us. That God has had the last word and it is life. This Easter we gather and claim to be his followers. A part of me is envious of the Apostles experience. Gradually, through convincing appearances of the risen Lord, the collective and shared moments in his presence, they came to believe and ultimately to die for who became for them Lord and Savior. Jesus Christ not only was but also is. And if Christ IS present and alive today, how do we come to know him, to touch him, to believe in him?
It is a constant point of
the resurrection appearances before the Apostles and woman followers, that not only
was Jesus alive and transformed in a strange existence between the worlds of
the spirit outside space and time but also could be so present to those early
followers, that they were convinced to see him was not imaginary or dreamlike but
so real that they “ate and drank with him” as St John testifies. They could see
him, touch him, hear him and share food with him. Can we still encounter this
living God?
Our celebration of the sacraments of the Church, all seven of them, have come down to us through the lived experience of the Church. It is the risen Christ we encounter not in some symbolic form but in a real and touchable way.
That God offers his physical
embrace through the waters of baptism, the anointing with oil and the gifts of
the Holy Spirit, that he unites a couple in marriage who bring new life and a
higher level of selfless love into the world, he ordains a man to serve in his
name in priesthood, he heals the sick, forgives sin in Reconciliation, brings
hope to the dying, and in a deeply personal way he feeds us with himself in the
Eucharist.
All the sacraments are God's physical and tangible embrace. All of our sacraments have a physical element to them, and we are reminded that the risen Christ is not in some distant heaven but is present to us where we gather in his name, as we do so tonight, he is present to us and through his grace we can be transformed more in his image and likeness. We are a resurrection people.
Fr. Ron Rolheiser writes
beautifully in his book, Our One Great Act
of Fidelity:
“There comes a point, even
with God, when words aren’t enough. God
has to pick us up, like a mother her child.
Physical embrace is what is needed. Skin needs to be touched. God knows that. It’s why Jesus gave us the Eucharist.”
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 rejoice
in a faith that gives us a God who will bring a healing to humanity and prove
himself once again to be our Lord and our God.
Christ is risen indeed,
Alleluia, Alleluia!
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