A Homily for Easter Sunday, 2009 (B)
Rubens, "The Resurrection of Christ" 1612
HE IS RISEN! HE IS TRULY ALIVE!
Jesus, who was crucified, died and was buried, is now risen from the dead. Evil has had its way with God’s anointed, the Messiah. It did all it could to break down the courage and fidelity of God’s anointed Savior. It exhausted its arsenal of hate, injustice, humiliation, and pain. It fought an impressive, bloody fight – but God’s anointed came out victorious.
Jesus’ victory is irreversible and total. Everything that Jesus taught about how much God loves us and the glory of the Kingdom of God has been validated as being true by His resurrection. His claim to be God’s Son, to have authority to forgive sin and reestablish communion between God and man; His universal call to abandon self-centeredness for love of God and neighbor as the path to true happiness; His promise to give grace through a Church that will endure forever. All this has been confirmed by the Empty Tomb. Sin and death have been defeated. We have been saved from our sins and redeemed.
St. Augustine expressed his joy in the irreversible victory of the resurrection by exclaiming, “We are Easter people and Alleluia is our song!” He, however, recognized that there was something much more in this victory of Christ’s than just a reason to rejoice. The reality of the Resurrection brings the power of transformation into our lives. After experiencing the reality of Jesus’ resurrection we should become new people in Christ. When St. Paul experienced the Risen Christ he exclaimed, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20).
So, has your lives been transformed – made new – by the reality of the Resurrection? Are all of us “Easter people”? If so, then what do we say about this week’s cover of Newsweek?
For those of you who cannot read it, the cover says, “The Decline and Fall of Christian America.” Even our President, on his recent trip to Turkey, said that the United States is “not a Christian country.” Do we feel OK with that? I am not saying that we should be intolerant of non-Christians, but aren’t we suppose to be transforming the world with the Good News of Jesus Christ? In today’s first reading St. Peter, in speaking for all of the disciples says that “He (Jesus) commissioned us to preach to the people and testify that he is the one appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead.” At the end of St. Matthew’s Gospel, right before He ascends into Heaven, Jesus tells His disciples to go, and make disciples of all the nations. At the end of each Mass this commission is renews when we are told to “Go in the Peace of Christ,” or to “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.”
“We are Easter people and Alleluia is our song.” Is that true for us, or is it just a nice platitude? When we say that Christ is Risen, and that Jesus is truly alive, do we really believe that or is it just some abstract saying?
JESUS IS ALIVE, HE IS REAL, AND HE IS PRESENT. The victory of Easter must transform our hearts and our eyes so that we recognize the presence of Jesus in our lives, right here and right now. We must see Jesus in all the events of our daily lives. We must witness to the Good News of Jesus Christ with our entire lives. People should know that we are Christians. We must be the channels of God’s love, mercy and grace in our workplace, in our marketplace, in our public square – in everyplace that we are. We must live the reality of Jesus’ resurrection every moment of our lives. Jesus is real and Alleluia must be the song constantly on our lips.
“Yes, Lord, make us Easter people, men and women of light, filled with the fire of your love” (Pope Benedict XVI, “Homily,” March 22, 2008).
