Easter Sunday 2026 - Easter Renewal

 

He is Risen, Indeed He is Risen! Alleluia!

On Good Friday, the world was darkened by an eclipse of the sun. Evil was so tangible that even the earth shuddered with an earthquake. It was a day when lies and conspiracies and plotting seemed to conquer truth, and darkness seemed to eclipse light, and death seemed to have been victorious over life, and Satan seemed to have gotten the upper hand on God.

But enough of that. For now we celebrate a morning when the tomb was empty; a morning when light was so bright it blinded roman soldiers and burnt an image into a burial cloth; a morning when life triumphed over death, and truth trumped falsehood, and hope was victorious over despair, and faith championed doubt, and God put Satan in his place. For He is Risen, Indeed He is Risen! Alleluia!

The extraordinary news of Easter morning is that not only did Jesus Christ conquer death for himself, but that he shares that victory over death and sin and despair and darkness and sin and evil with us. His victory is ours. He invites us to share in his triumph. If that is not extraordinarily Good News, I don’t know what is.

On the High Holy Days, many of us come to Church for a lot of different reasons: perhaps you are here today because it’s simply family tradition or because it just seemed like the right thing to do; perhaps you are a life-long Catholic, and there was never a doubt that you’d be at Church on Easter Sunday.

Maybe there’s a bit of darkness, or a lot of darkness in your life, and you just needed to draw near to the brightest light you possibly could today. In that case, you’re in very good company, because I’m pretty sure everybody in this Church has experienced are periods in life that seem more like Good Friday than Easter Sunday. Periods of life when you wonder about life’s meaning, periods of life when we seem stuck on a cross, or overwhelmed, like life has buried us in a tomb, when we struggle to find God amidst all the chaos and violence and evil in the world.

The message of course today is that Good Friday does not get the last word. Easter morning does. Our faith in Jesus Christ allows us to be confident that evil and death do not get the last word. So, if there is a part of your life, that still seems to be stuck in Good Friday, I invite you to ask Jesus very sincerely today, to enter that part of your life, to transform it. Ask him to come into that Good Friday broken relationship, that Good Friday doubt or confusion, that Good Friday sense of defeat. And to allow him to bring Easter Victory to your Good Friday sufferings.

A number of years before his death, Pope Francis offered these words on Easter: “Let the risen Jesus enter your life, welcome him as a friend, with trust: he is life! If up till now you have kept him at a distance, step forward. He will receive you with open arms. If you have been indifferent, take a risk: you won’t be disappointed. If following him seems difficult, don’t be afraid, trust him, be confident that he is close to you, he is with you and he will give you the peace you are looking for and the strength to live as he would have you do.”

In just a few moments we will renew our baptismal promises. From time to time I meet a college student or older adult who, though baptized as an infant has left the practice of the Catholic faith: they aren’t coming to mass and they don’t accept the truth behind particular Church teachings.  I ask them why they’ve left the practice of the faith in which they were raised.   And they often say, “well, I was baptized as a baby, so I didn’t get a choice to become Catholic or not.”

Well, to all of you, who feel like you didn’t get a choice, today, and every Easter, we renew the promises of our baptism, we renew our faith that Jesus rose, we renew our belief in all the Church teaches in his name.  You will then be sprinkled with the Easter waters, that the Lord may breathe new life into your religious commitments.

In fact, the Early Christians celebrated every Sunday as a “little Easter”. They knew that without this little Easter every week, they’d be allowing those forces which conspired against Christ on Good Friday to have power over them. So, if you want to make this Easter part of your deliverance out of the Good Fridays in your life, make every Sunday a “little Easter”

For, if the power of Christ’s resurrection is to overflow in your life, constant faith must be an open conduit. Don’t shut off the flow of grace. If you are tempted to do so, remember that it’s the power of the world trying to isolate you again.

So today, the priest will ask every one of you here six questions for the renewal of your baptismal promises.  The first three have to do with Sin.  Christ’s Easter victory was a victory over sin, so the Christian is to seek to be rid of anything that has to do with sin.  So the priest will ask, “Do you renounce sin, so as to live in the freedom of the children of God. Do you renounce the lure of evil, so that sin may have no mastery over you? Do you renounce Satan, the author and prince of Sin?”

What are we saying, when we say “I do” to these questions?  I’m promising to do everything in my power, with the help of the power of Easter, to put an end to sin in my life, to put an end to all self-absorption and all selfishness. I’m promising to do everything in my own power to change my life, to alter my daily and weekly routines, that they can better reflect the Christian faith as taught by the Catholic Church.  I’m renouncing all of those excuses of laziness which hinder the power of Easter becoming more manifest in me. All the powers of lust which cause me to focus on passing earthly pleasure instead of eternal heavenly joy. Today, we readily turn away from these things. For those excuses, those sins, are the most likely culprits for not enjoying the peace and joy God wants for us.

The last three questions of the baptismal promises concern the doctrines of the Faith.  Do you believe in God the Father, do you believe that Jesus Christ suffered and died and rose again, do you believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church.

These are teachings the Church professes every Sunday when we profess the Creed.  These are the truths upon which our religious life rests.  These are the truths that give us strength in the face of temptation, they are the light of truth in the darkness of the world’s confusion and error. Amidst all of the nonsense in the world, all of the error perpetuated through modern media, all the fake news out there, the Christian can say, I know these things to be true.

We renew our baptismal promises today, and by doing so open ourselves to the power of Christ’s Easter Victory. Through them, we become heirs of the promises of Christ, that we, like him, shall be risen from the dead and live forever. For he risen from the dead, indeed he is risen, alleluia, alleluia. 

 

 

Easter Sunday 2024 - The end of the eclipse

 On Good Friday, the world was darkened by an eclipse of the sun, much like the one that we will experience here in Northeast Ohio, a week from tomorrow. 

That eclipse of the sun, causing darkness to fall over the land, was certainly fitting, in response to the mourning and sorrow experienced by Jesus’ disciples, especially his Mother, who stood at the foot of the cross. The eclipse was also a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies, such as Amos 8:9, which speaks of the sun going down at noon and the earth being darkened on a clear day. It appeared, for a moment that darkness had triumphed—that the violence of man overcame the goodness of God. The extent to which man would go to secure his power, his comfort, his ego. He would lie, conspire, manipulate. He would torture and slaughter the innocent lamb of God. 

Yes, there for a time, it appeared that Good Friday was a victory, not for God, but for evil. It appeared that the eclipse that began with original sin in the Garden of Eden would last forever. 

But, the eclipse has ended. The stone rolled in front of the tomb, has been rolled back to reveal that the tomb is empty. And easter celebrates a morning when light was so bright it blinded roman soldiers and burnt an image into a burial cloth—a morning when life triumphed over death, where truth trumped falsehood, when hope was victorious over despair, when faith championed doubt, when God put Satan in his place. Jesus Christ is risen today! 

And the Easter proclamation is not a mere historical recollection but a living reality that continues to reverberate through the centuries. The resurrection of Christ offers new life, transformation, renewal, conversion, spiritual resurrection, to all who profess Him.

Old ways, which we have sought to cast aside during the season of Lent, make way for new beginnings. Easter means, “I will not let selfishness keep me from the generosity God wants from me. I will not let fear keep me from the courage God wants from me. I will not laziness keep me from the life giving endeavors God wants for me.” Pride and Envy, Lust and Sloth no more. It is time to live for purity, generosity, goodness, and peace.

For, the extraordinary news of Easter morning is that not only did Jesus Christ conquer death for himself. The good news is that he shares that victory over death and sin and despair and darkness and sin and evil with us. His victory is ours. He invites us to share in his triumph. If that is not extraordinarily Good News, I don’t know what is. 

Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure everybody in this Church could raise their hands in agreement, that there are periods in life that seem more like Good Friday than Easter Sunday. Periods of life filled with death and darkness. Periods of life when we wonder about life’s meaning, when we struggle with sickness or the death of someone near to us, periods of life when we seem stuck on a cross, or overwhelmed, like life has buried us in a tomb, when we struggle to find God amidst all the chaos and violence and evil in the world.

But, the message of Easter is that Good Friday does not get the last word. Easter Sunday does. Our faith in Jesus Christ allows us to be confident that evil and death do not get the last word, that there is truly nothing that can keep us from the love and life God wants for us. That his mercy endures forever and that God will always have the last word over Satan. So, if there is a part of your life, that still seems to be stuck in Good Friday, I invite you to ask Jesus very sincerely today, to enter that part of your life, to transform it. Ask him to come into that Good Friday broken relationship, that Good Friday doubt or confusion, that Good Friday sense of defeat. And to allow him to bring Easter Victory to your Good Friday sufferings.

The Easter Gospel also speaks to our experience of obstacles. In John’s Gospel this morning we hear how Mary of Magdala had come to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. Mark’s Gospel includes the detail that as she and the other women made her way to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus, she wondered  “Who will roll back the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” After all, the stone was heavy. It was large. It was truly a foreboding obstacle. It took several people to roll it into place. 

What beautiful fervor, that Mary and the holy women, despite the obstacle, go to fulfill the duty of charity anyway. They could have stayed home. They could have dwelt on the enormity of this obstacle and stayed home. But they go anyway. 

And they find the stone already moved, the obstacle has already been removed by God. The power of the resurrection was already at work. 

And then, Mary ran. Mary ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them of the empty tomb. Talk about overcoming obstacles in order to do the work of God! In first-century Jewish society, women were often marginalized and their testimony was considered less reliable than that of men. In many cases, their testimony was considered inadmissible. And yet she goes, and testifies. The power of the resurrection already animating her mind and heart and will.

The power of Christ’s resurrection is unleashed when we refuse to allow fear to keep us from doing God’s will. 

Good Friday was not an obstacle for God’s will to be done, nor was the stone of the garden tomb. Nor were the social and cultural norms of his day. 

Now there are certainly some social and cultural norms in our own day which want to keep the Church from spreading and continuing the saving mission of Christ. 

Emphasis on personal autonomy over the sanctity of life, romantic permissiveness and the normalizing of perversion, relativism and moral subjectivism which denies the existence of truth—moral, philosophical, or theological. 

And like Mary of Magdala, we cannot allow these dark forces to keep us from spreading the saving Gospel of Christ. God desires our freedom from spiritual, intellectual, and emotional bondage. 

The fact that you are here today is a sign that God wants you to respond to an invitation to believe, and like Mary of Magdala, to become instruments of the Gospel. Unlike so many these days, you are here, which means God has already begun to move away some stones in your lives. The eclipse has already begun to wane. 

So continue to allow the power of Christ’s resurrection to animate your lives every day. Don’t go back into the tomb and roll the stone in front of the light of God. Say yes to God every day. And every week. 

The Early Christians celebrated every Sunday as a “little Easter”. They knew that without this little Easter every week, they’d be allowing those forces which conspired against Christ on Good Friday to have power over them; they were allowing excuses and fears to keep them from serving the Lord. So every Sunday for them was an opportunity open their lives to the Easter victory of Christ, to all Easter to resonate in their lives. And it is meant to be for us as well.

In just a few moments, we will renew our baptismal promises: our resolve to not be mastered by sin, by those immovable rocks, but that through the faith of the Church, we will seek Him who longs to be found, over and over in our lives. For He is Risen. Death couldn’t hold him. Unbelief and human cruelty couldn’t vanquish him. Politics can’t replace Him. Science can’t explain him away. The noise of the world cannot silence him. Perversion, selfishness, human weakness cannot keep him from being longed for. 

For He was bound and now brings power. He was bruised and now brings healing, He was pierced and now eases pain, He was persecuted and now brings freedom, He was killed and now brings life. For he is Risen. Indeed, he is Risen. Alleluia. Alleluia. For the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Easter Sunday 2023 - Easter Laughter

 I went home to Madison the other day to visit my sister, her husband and my two nieces, and they were getting ready to dye easter eggs. I asked my nieces if they knew where this tradition of dyeing easter eggs came from. And they said, sure, Jesus died on good Friday so that we can dye for easter.

I usually don’t begin my homilies with jokes, but I begin my easter homily in this uncustomary way, at least for me, because there’s a bit a tradition behind it…and by the way, I’ll try to keep this short…I
know my homilies can be like reading in the car…alright at first, but then after about 15 minutes you start to feel a little queasy. Anyway…

During the 15th century in southern Germany, a delightful custom sprung up in many parishes. At the end of the Easter Mass, the priest would leave the altar and come down among the people and lead the congregation in what was called the “Risus Paschalis”, Latin for “the Easter laughter.” The priest would tell funny stories and sing comical songs to evoke Easter laughter.

There was a protestant minister named Johannes Oekolampadius, a funny name for a very unfunny man. He condemned Catholic Easter laughter and the priests who encouraged it for behaving like comedians. And there were some excesses on our part. Supposedly, Risus Paschalis evolved into pranks that were causing property damage and Pope Clement X had to restrict the practice. 

But, why did this practice arise? Of Easter Laughter? Perhaps it’s because laughter is often a sign of the joy that should mark this day. Joy is to bubble up in us like laughter after a good joke.  Ecclesiastes speaks of “a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance” well, the time of Lenten weeping and mourning is now finished. And that means a new time has begun, marked not by weeping but laughing and dancing.

Perhaps Risus Paschalis arose because Easter is the greatest, most elaborate, most memorable prank in history. Think of it…everyone was convinced Jesus was gone, dead, done away with for good. The Pharisees and Sanhedrin thought so; they had done everything in their power to be rid of Jesus who they thought to be guilty of the most heinous of blasphemies—claiming to be God. Pontius Pilate and the Roman soldiers thought so; with Jesus dead, they wouldn’t have to worry about an insurrection. The crowds that called for Jesus’ crucifixion thought so, in their minds, Jesus was a charlatan and got what he deserved. Satan himself must have thought that he had pulled off a great triumph in frustrating the plans of God. 

But then the surprise.. the ultimate Peekaboo. The most unexpected punchline. Death and violence do not get the last laugh. The work of the evil one is undone by turning his own weapons against him. Cruel torture and death become instruments of the consolation and divine life. Suffering and death, which entered the world as a consequence of sin, were to become the very means by which sin was vanquished.

Easter is the morning when God laughs out loud, laughs at all the things that snuff out joy and life. Psalm 2 says, “The One enthroned in heaven laughs” And because of our faith, Christians are in on the joke. The prophet Job says, “He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy.” On the sermon on the plain, in Luke’s Gospel, the Lord himself says,” Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.”

The Acts of the Apostles tells us that following Easter wherever the disciples went, “there was great joy” (8:8); even amid persecution they continued to be “filled with joy” (13:52). And it’s a joy that comes from knowing that there is nothing the devil or the world can do to us to stop the Gospel message. There is nothing the government or whatever world power is actually running things can do to keep us from pursuing holiness and eternal life. Christ is victorious. Nothing can separate us from the Love of Christ Risen from the Dead.

Pope Francis wrote “The joy of the gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. Those who accept his offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness and loneliness. With Christ, joy is constantly born anew.” 

As Abraham and Isaac were walking back down the mountain. You can imagine Isaac was a bit shaken, but the whole incident of being bound and placed on altar. Abraham perhaps tried to pass that one off as a joke too. So Abraham tries to lift Isaac’s spirits by sharing that good news that he has to upgrade their family computer to Windows 10. Isaac said, "But father, we don't have enough memory!" To which Abraham replied, "Don't worry, my son, the Lord will provide the RAM."

And he did. God provided for our salvation. And he won. The Lord has provided everything we need for a joy-filled life. Even in the midst of our sorrows, we can look that sorrow, that cross, right in the face…and say, you don’t get last word. In a sense, we laugh, with God, when evil seeks to convince us of it's strength.

You just remember the time Esau asked Jacob to round up his 37 sheep…and Jacob said…40…round-up 37 you get 40. It's a math joke! Or you remember the parade of aging easter bunnies who could only hop backwards, they were a receding hare-line. 

I encourage you to share some Easter Laughter with each other today...I get all my material off of popsicle sticks...you might consider the same...

May the joy of Easter fill your hearts more than I just filled the church with groans with that last one…for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Easter Sunday 2021 - Who will roll back the stone for us

 “Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb.” Consider for a moment how Mary Magdalene had begun making her way to the tomb with no idea that the stone blocking the tomb would have been rolled back.

In fact, in Mark' version of the Gospel, Mary Magdalene states to the other women accompanying her, “Who will roll back the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” After all, the stone was heavy. It was large. It was truly a foreboding obstacle. It took several people to roll it into place. And yet, even before the first rays of Sunday-dawn began to fully shine, the faithful holy women went anyway to the tomb anyway—to anoint the body of Jesus. 

And yet, maybe there was something else. A hope. An intuition that something had changed. Perhaps, even an unspoken confidence that God would provide the means to overcome this obstacle. God was drawing them forward, despite the obstacle. And behold, hardly had they arrived when the saw “the stone rolled back”. For the Lord had risen!

We too have a keen desire to find the risen Lord. And we often worry that there are many obstacles to finding Him—wounds from the past, concerns about the present, anxieties about the future, doubts, attachments, preoccupying questions: My life is so busy, however will I find him? My life is so complex, however can I really trust Him. My sins are so great, however will he triumph over my vices?

I can assure you, precisely because you want to find the Lord, you have already overcome many obstacles-many doubts and attachments. God has already rolled back many stones for you.  

Last night at the easter Vigil, two souls in particular were in our midst, who, like Mary Magdalen, like Peter running to the tomb, Angela and Bruce, from our parish RCIA. Let me tell you, they were full of joy last night, seeking and finding the risen Lord in the Sacraments of the Church. We can only imagine the many obstacles that they had to overcome in order to make it here last night—and we are so glad they are—directed by divine providence, in answer to our prayers, and the sufferings of the martyrs and saints. The stone blocking the encounter with the Risen Lord in the Sacraments was finally rolled back. No doubt, a sign of new life, the life of the resurrection in our parish, as for the last two year we didn’t have any new initiates. It’s not too early to start praying for next year’s class, whoever those souls might be. Maybe someone here this morning will come to seek the Lord in Baptism or full initiation. For this we pray!

The search for the risen Christ, of course, is not only for the uninitiated. The search for God is an ongoing dimension of the Christian life. For this reason, following the example of the holy women, every Christian must always have a holy preoccupation about seeking and finding the Lord, daily. “Seek and Ye shall find. Knock and the door will be opened to you.” Waking up in the early dawn—or whenever that alarm clock rings, and prayerfully committing to searching for him daily will make us industrious and diligent in our spiritual lives. 

And like the holy women, the Christian life also calls us to that confidence in divine aid, that the Lord will take care of those stones which are beyond our own strength to move. God is already at work to roll back many stones—many obstacles to grace—in the life of this parish, as he always has been. But not just the life of the parish in general, God is occupied with the large stones in our individual spiritual lives. For, the Lord desires to draw each of us deeper into His divine life, and will do for us what we cannot do for ourselves, when we trust Him.

Trust. It’s not easy for many of us. Especially for those who have been wounded and betrayed in the past. But Easter is a time of new beginnings. So, trust that the Church’s teachings will enable you to walk in the fullness of life. Trust that devout prayer is worth more than all other earthly responsibilities. Trust, that the Church’s pastors will lead you in holiness and truth. Trust that the effort to break your selfish habits is worth it. Trust, not in your own strength, but in God’s grace, to roll back those unfathomably heavy stones.

Every year, Easter marks a time of renewal in our faith lives, our spiritual lives, in our search for God. But Easter is the promise that the Risen Christ can be found even in the emptiest of places, the most sorrowful places, those places once ruled only by death. 

In just a few moments, we will renew our baptismal promises: our resolve to not be mastered by sin, by those immovable rocks, but that through the faith of the Church, we will seek Him who longs to be found, over and over in our lives. For He is Risen. Death couldn’t hold him. Unbelief and human cruelty couldn’t vanquish him. Politics can’t replace Him. Science can’t explain him away. The noise of the world cannot silence him. Perversion, selfishness, human weakness cannot keep him from being longed for. 

For He was bound and now brings power. He was bruised and now brings healing, He was pierced and now eases pain, He was persecuted and now brings freedom, He was killed and now brings life. For he is Risen. Indeed, he is Risen. Alleluia. Alleluia. For the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Easter Sunday - 2020 Belongs to Him!

Last night, at the Easter Vigil, in an empty Church, I performed one of my favorite rites of the entire Church year, the blessing of the Easter Candle, the Paschal Candle. Into the wax of the candle is carved the holy cross, the first and last letters of the Greek Alphabet, and the four numerals of the current year. As the priest carves these characters, he says the following words: “Christ yesterday and today, the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega. All time belongs to him and all the ages. To him be glory and power through every age and for ever.”

This ritual was strange this year for a number of reasons. First, to carve the year 2020 into the candle called to mind the strange and terrible events of these last few months. 2020 began in January with the escalation of international tensions and the threat of war. February saw the beginning of the spread of a terrible pandemic, which has brought sickness and death, economic instability, loss of job, family tensions and anxiety about the future. We have seen government taking measures to mitigate these forces, but also, in some places, government dangerously approaching the infringement of our great freedoms, the right of free speech, assembly, and religion. And then of course, one of the saddest consequences of the global pandemic, and the reason for this video, the closing of church doors, the suspension of public liturgies and celebration of the sacraments.

And yet, I was profoundly struck to, that those numerals 2020 are carved into the Paschal Candle between the symbols Alpha and Omega—symbols of Christ’s reign over all of human history. 2020 belongs to Him. All time belongs to him and all ages. Ages of good health, ages of pestilence, ages of war, ages of peace. In a sense, 2020, is just another year, in which the mission of the Church remains the same—to proclaim, celebrate, and live out the dominion of Jesus Christ over the forces of evil and death.

2020 belongs to Him. And the power of his Easter victory is unleashed when Christians pray, and when we preach, and when we allow his Word and His grace to guide our lives.

Even now, the good that is being done in this time of pestilence, can be traced to him. Hospitals were invented by Catholics following the Lord’s teaching to care for this sick. The Catholic Church remains the largest non-government provider of health services around the world, providing care to the young and old alike, regardless of religion or economic status. The scientific method being utilized to find a cure for this virus was developed by Catholics. And faithful to the Lord’s teaching, the poor and hungry continue to be fed even when the temptation is to be only concerned for ourselves.

The Paschal Candle reminds us, this feast reminds us, that Jesus Christ is not simply alive yesterday, he lives not just yesterday, but today and for eternity.

In a very real sense, the corona virus, and our hours and days and weeks of isolation and quarantine are under his dominion, and he calls us to seek him, and find him, and believe in him, and follow him. 2020 has offered us the opportunity to head the Lord’s call to “seek what is above” as St. Paul writes in our second reading, to consider what is most important in life, to not be so consumed with the earthly. Let me share with you the power words of Cardinal Robert Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, on this topic.

“This virus acted as a warning. In a matter of weeks, the great illusion of a material world that thought itself all-powerful seems to have collapsed. A few days ago, politicians were talking about growth, pensions, reducing unemployment. They were sure of themselves. And now a virus, a microscopic virus, has brought this world to its knees, a world that looks at itself, that pleases itself, drunk with self-satisfaction because it thought it was invulnerable. The current crisis is a parable. It has revealed how all we do and are invited to believe was inconsistent, fragile and empty. We were told: you can consume without limits! But the economy has collapsed and the stock markets are crashing. Bankruptcies are everywhere. We were promised to push the limits of human nature ever further by a triumphant science. We were told about artificial procreation, surrogate motherhood, transhumanism, enhanced humanity. We boasted of being a man of synthesis and a humanity that biotechnologies would make invincible and immortal. But here we are in a panic, confined by a virus about which we know almost nothing. Epidemic was an outdated, medieval word. It suddenly became our everyday life. I believe this epidemic has dispelled the smoke of illusion. The so-called all-powerful man appears in his raw reality. There he is naked. His weakness and vulnerability are glaring. Being confined to our homes will hopefully allow us to turn our attention back to the essentials, to rediscover the importance of our relationship with God, and thus the centrality of prayer in human existence. And, in the awareness of our fragility, to entrust ourselves to God and to his paternal mercy.”

2020 belongs to Him. No doubt we all long to return to Church and return to the Sacraments in the weeks ahead, and even return to work or school. But we are also urged to consider how the light of Christ’s resurrection can fill our lives today. How his light can shine even in isolation, even in sickness and darkness and death. How Easter Joy is to be manifested today—how our hearts and minds and talents and treasure in His service, in the service of his Easter victory.

After carving those numerals, 2020 into wax, the Paschal candle is carried through the dark Church. It is carried through the church and lifted high, symbolic of our duty to allow the light of Christ to shine in the darkness of our lives. The candle is carried in darkness, but not before the priest offers a powerful prayer: “May the light of Christ rising in glory dispel the darkness of our hearts and minds.”
Whatever darkness our world is experiencing, whatever darkness you are experiencing, allow Christ’s light to dispel it. Look to His light, open your mind and heart to his light through daily prayer and reflection on His Word and His Truth. Conform yourself to His light by turning away from all sin and selfishness, all irrational fear and worry, all addiction to material creation, and trust in earthly princes, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Easter Sunday 2019 - Christ's Triumph over Death

He is Risen, Indeed He is Risen! Alleluia!

On Good Friday, the world was darkened by an eclipse of the sun. Evil was so tangible that even the earth shuddered with an earthquake. It was a day that lies and conspiracies and plotting seemed to conquer truth, when darkness seemed to eclipse light, when death seemed to have been victorious over life, when Satan seemed to have gotten the upper hand on God.

But enough of that. For now we celebrate a morning when the tomb was empty, a morning when light was so bright it blinded roman soldiers and burnt an image into a burial cloth, a morning when life triumphed over death, where truth trumped falsehood, when hope was victorious over despair, when faith championed doubt, when God put Satan in his place. For He is Risen, Indeed He is Risen! Alleluia!

The extraordinary news of Easter morning is that not only did Jesus Christ conquer death for himself. The good news is that he shares that victory over death and sin and despair and darkness and sin and evil with us. His victory is ours. He invites us to share in his triumph. If that is not extraordinarily Good News, I don’t know what is.

On the High Holy Days, many of us come to Church for a lot of different reasons: perhaps you are here today because it’s simply family tradition, perhaps you’re here because it just seemed like the right thing to do, perhaps you are a life-long Catholic, and there was never a doubt that you’d be at Church on Easter Sunday. I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure everybody in this Church could raise their hands in agreement, that there are periods in life that seem more like Good Friday than Easter Sunday. Periods of life filled with death and darkness. Periods of life when we wonder about life’s meaning, when we struggle with sickness or the death of someone near to us, periods of life when we seem stuck on a cross, or overwhelmed, like life has buried us in a tomb, when we struggle to find God amidst all the chaos and violence and evil in the world.

The message of course today is that Good Friday does not get the last word. Easter morning does. Our faith in Jesus Christ allows us to be confident that evil and death do not get the last word, that there is truly nothing that can keep us from the love and life God wants for us. That his mercy endures forever and that God will always have the last word over Satan. So, if there is a part of your life, that still seems to be stuck in Good Friday, I invite you to ask Jesus very sincerely today, to enter that part of your life, to transform it. Ask him to come into that Good Friday broken relationship, that Good Friday doubt or confusion, that Good Friday sense of defeat. And to allow him to bring Easter Victory to your Good Friday sufferings.

A few years ago Pope Francis offered these words on Easter: “Let the risen Jesus enter your life, welcome him as a friend, with trust: he is life! If up till now you have kept him at a distance, step forward. He will receive you with open arms. If you have been indifferent, take a risk: you won’t be disappointed. If following him seems difficult, don’t be afraid, trust him, be confident that he is close to you, he is with you and he will give you the peace you are looking for and the strength to live as he would have you do.”

In just a few moments we will renew our baptismal promises. From time to time I meet a college student or older adult who, though baptized as an infant has left the practice of the Catholic faith: they aren’t coming to mass and they don’t accept the truth behind particular Church teachings.  I ask them why they’ve left the practice of the faith in which they were raised.   And they often say, “well, I was baptized as a baby, so I didn’t get a choice to become Catholic or not.”

Well, to all of you, who didn’t get a choice as infants, today, and every Easter, we renew the promises of our baptism, we renew our faith that Jesus rose, we renew our belief in all the Church teaches in his name.  You will then be sprinkled with the Easter waters, that the Lord may breath new life into your religious commitments.

The Early Christians, in fact, celebrated every Sunday as a “little Easter”. They knew that without this little Easter every week, they’d be allowing those forces which conspired against Christ on Good Friday to have power over them. So renew your faith in him today, renew your commitment to seek that life, seek that joy that he wants to give you through a living relationship with Him.

So today, the priest will ask every one of you here six questions for the renewal of your baptismal promises.  The first three have to do with Sin.  Christ’s Easter victory was a victory over sin, so the Christian is to seek to be rid of anything that has to do with sin.  So the priest will ask, “Do you renounce sin, so as to live in the freedom of the children of God. Do you renounce the lure of evil, so that sin may have no mastery over you? Do you renounce Satan, the author and prince of Sin?”

What are we saying, when we say “I do” to these questions?  I’m promising to do everything in my power, with the help of the power of Easter, to put an end to sin in my life, to put an end to all self-absorption and all selfishness. I’m promising to do everything in my own power to change my life, to alter my daily and weekly routines, that they can better reflect the Christian faith as taught by the Catholic Church.  I’m renouncing all of those excuses of laziness which hinder the power of Easter becoming more manifest in me. We readily turn away from these things, for those excuses, those sins, are the most likely culprits for not enjoying the peace and joy God wants for us.

The last three questions of the baptismal promises concern the doctrines of the Faith.  Do you believe in God the Father, do you believe that Jesus Christ suffered and died and rose again, do you believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church.

These are teachings the Church professes every Sunday when we profess the Creed.  These are the truths upon which our religious life rests.  These are the truths that give us strength in the face of temptation, they are the light of truth in the darkness of the world’s confusion and error. Amidst all of the nonsense in the world, all of the error perpetuated through modern media, all the fake news out there, the Christian can say, I know these things to be true.

We renew our baptismal promises today, and by doing so open ourselves to the power of Christ’s Easter Victory. Through them, we become heirs of the promises of Christ, that we, like him, shall be risen from the dead, and live forever. For he risen from the dead, indeed he is risen, alleluia, alleluia. 

Easter Sunday 2017 - Transforming the Tomb

Yesterday morning, I spent some time watching April, the most famous giraffe in the world, give birth to her new calf. For weeks, millions have watched tuned in to gaze into this little zoo enclosure to see one of God’s spectacular creatures bring new life into the world. Million watched and waited on April’s womb. And now her womb is empty because it has brought forth new life: a healthy little baby giraffe, who’s already walking around and smiling with that goofy giraffe grin.

Today, on this Easter Sunday we celebrate not an empty womb, but an empty tomb, the first empty tomb since the fall of Adam and Eve. For remember, from the time of the sin of Adam and Eve, the tomb had claimed every human soul. The tomb was the place of captivity and darkness. The tomb was the place where death reigned supreme. It was the place of stench, decay, and utter sadness.

But on Easter Sunday morning, a little less than 2000 years ago, God did something completely new in the history of the world. He defeated the tomb; the powers of death, which dragged every human soul since Adam into hell, were defeated. Through Christ’s resurrection, death lost its grip over human souls.

Utter defeat has been transformed into irreversible victory. As C.S. Lewis said, “The door which had always been locked had for the very first time been forced open.” Evil had its way with God's anointed. Death had sway over mankind.  But now, no more. Christ is risen, he is truly risen!
The tomb, in a sense, is transformed into a womb. The place of death is transformed into a place of life. From this lifeless tomb burst forth new life. As St. Paul says, Jesus Christ is “the first-born of the dead.”

Jesus Christ’s resurrection, his bursting forth from the tomb, is the stamp of guarantee on all of his teachings and promises. He rose, just as he said he would. Resurrexit sicut dixit. And so all of his promises can be trusted, we can put our faith in Him. We can believe that those follow him as he taught us, those who have been reborn in baptism as he taught us, those who eat his flesh and drink his blood as he taught us, those who carry their crosses faithfully to the end as he taught us, will be raised with him as he taught us. No believer, no one who believes in Christ and follows him, will be subject to the tomb. No tomb shall ever hold Christ’s faithful ones again.

Yes, we may still face physical death. But physical death, we Christians know is not the end of the story anymore. The tomb through Christ is transformed into a womb, whose darkness and constriction are now simply a place of preparation for new and eternal life. Those who buried simply rest and wait to be raised.

In the Creed, every Sunday, we profess this belief in the resurrection of our bodies. Just as Christ is risen and lives forever, so all of his faithful ones us will be raised on the last day and live forever.
Jesus himself teaches this John’s Gospel; he says, “The hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out, those who have done good deeds to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked deeds to the resurrection of condemnation.”
This truly is Good News, the best of news.

Chesterton writes: “‘God raised Jesus from the dead!’  This was the fundamental and unalterable testimony of those who had physically seen Jesus dead and then alive again.  The historical fact of Jesus resurrection is the ground and basis of all true love, hope, and joy; for if Jesus is still in the grave then all of humanity will remain in the grave too.  But he is not in the grave, and this makes all the difference.  Now those who put their hope in Jesus may find their way into a fullness of joy: partially in this world; fully in the next.”

A baby in his mother’s womb cannot comprehend the beauty and splendor of life outside the womb; he’s not even begun to experience the joy God has in store for him. Similarly, the life of the Christian faith opens us to great vistas of truth and beauty and goodness and joy that can be found no where else.

Is your life full of Christian joy? Are you surprised by the unexpected joy of encountering God in your prayer life, through acts of Christian service? Are you surprised by the joy of studying the faith and reading and studying the Scriptures? Are you surprised by the joy of experiencing the gifts of the Holy Spirit manifesting in your life and in your family? If not, let this Easter be an invitation to enter more deeply into life.

Lack of Christian joy is often a sign of infantile faith. Lack of joy is often a sign that we are still allowing the powers of death and sin to reign in us, that we are not allowing faith in the Risen Christ to flourish in us. If you aren’t experiencing true Christian joy, if you haven’t been living your faith as you should, if you haven’t been praying and studying and serving and coming to mass and going to confession as should, let today be a new beginning. Let it be a new beginning of living the faith, encountering Christ, spreading his Gospel. For true Joy and new life can only be discovered through Jesus Christ.

In just a moment, we will renew the promises of our Baptism. Many of us, baptized as infants, did not get the opportunity to make our own baptismal profession. It was made for us by our parents and godparents. But every Easter, Mother Church gives us the opportunity to renew our baptismal promises. We will promise once again to put behind us the old life of sin, to walk with Christ in newness of life, to make our souls places where the risen Christ may dwell and bear fruit and draw sinners to himself through us.

Listen to this beautiful invitation expressed by Pope Francis at Easter a few years ago, Pope Francis; he said: “Let the risen Jesus enter your life, welcome him as a friend, with trust: he is life! If up till now you have kept him at a distance, step forward. He will receive you with open arms. If you have been indifferent, take a risk: you won’t be disappointed. If following him seems difficult, don’t be afraid, trust him, be confident that he is close to you, he is with you and he will give you the peace you are looking for and the strength to live as he would have you do.”
Jesus is Risen, indeed he is Risen, let us rejoice and be glad.  Alleluia, Alleluia.