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 Octave 2022 - Monday - Fearful, yet overjoyed

 

When Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to the place where Jesus was buried, their first encounter was with an empty tomb.  

Lovingly and dutifully, they went to the tomb, Easter Sunday morning to anoint the body of Jesus—to complete the burial rites left unfinished by Joseph of Arimathea. On their way to the tomb, they wonder  “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, it was going to be more difficult to move out of the way.

Despite this obstacle, they went to the tomb anyway. They could have stayed home. They could have dwelt on the enormity of this obstacle and stayed home. What beautiful fervor, that these holy women, despite the obstacle, go to fulfill the duty of charity anyway. And it was in that experience of being faithful and dutiful and charitable that the women encountered the angel and receive news of the resurrection.

A charitable heart, a dutiful and obedient heart opens itself to receive the good news. Alleluia.

After announcing to the women that Jesus had risen, the angel tells the women to go to announce the Goodnews to Peter and the other disciples--as a sort of Apostle to the Apostles, as the early church called her. And that’s where our Easter Monday Gospel picks up. 

Receiving this commission by the angel, we heard this morning that “They went away quickly”. This reminds me of the beginning of St. Luke’s Gospel. When our Lady is told to go to her cousin Elizabeth, St. Luke tells us that Mary left in haste. When we receive a commission by an angel, we do well not to dilly-dally. 

“They were fearful and overjoyed.” St. Matthew tells us. There’s an apt description of the Christian life if I’ve ever seen one. Christians are constantly to be going into unknown territory to spread the Gospel. That’s a fearful task, and yet, we are filled with joy, knowing that we are being faithful to the work God has given us.

And again, in this experience of being faithful, despite their fear, the women have an encounter, and this time not with an angel, but with the Risen Lord Himself.

Like the holy women on Easter Sunday morning, the Church is called to be industrious in our charity, diligent in seeking the Lord, and at the same time confident that when we are faithful, God will do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. The Lord will take care of the heavy lifting. 

And it’s okay to acknowledge that the work of the Gospel is often fearful—to speak to strangers, to stand before kings. Notice, that the Lord himself tells them, don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid how the disciples will react to this news, tell them anyway. The same goes for us. Don’t be afraid how people will react to the good news, let us tell them anyway, trusting that if there is some obstacle in their hearts, some heavy stone, God will move it, if God wills it.

Dutiful, charitable, trusting in God, may we be faithful to the spread of the Gospel and the work God has for us today and all days, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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Filled with Paschal joy, let us turn earnestly to God, to graciously hear our prayers and supplications.

For the shepherds of our souls, that they may have the strength to govern wisely the flock entrusted to them by the Good Shepherd.

For the whole world, that it may truly know the peace of the Risen Christ. 

For our own community, that it may bear witness with great confidence to the Resurrection of Christ, and that the newly initiated hold fast to the faith they have received. 

For our brothers and sisters who suffer, that their sorrow may be turned to gladness through the Christian faith.

That all of our beloved dead and all the souls in purgatory may come to the glory of the Resurrection.

O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the desires of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our lord.

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.