April 4, 1999Easter Sunday |
The Gospel of St. John greets us on Easter morning with the Empty Tomb... which at first was a source of puzzlement to the Disciples. When hearing that the tomb was empty, the disciples run for the tomb. The "other disciple" (probably John) steps aside so that Peter could enter the tomb. St. John writes this to show that the official witness of the empty tomb had to enter first--that is St. Peter. He is the official witness of the Church. This Gospel thus demonstrates how early Peter was held in prominence. It is not until later on, in the Gospel, that the visions and appearances of the Risen Christ confront the Apostles with what really happened, and it will not be until Pentecost that they truly understand what happened, and the implication of it all.
The "Empty Tomb" stands as a visible reminder of what took place, and is a symbol of Faith. Jesus has truly risen form the dead, and His work on earth is now nearly complete. Jesus has won for us our redemption, and ensured for us entry into Eternal Life with God. We must, of course, cooperate with God's grace, and Jesus' teaching about how to live our lives.
Easter is thus a time of renewed hope in Eternity, in the power of God over sin and death, and is a confirmation of Jesus' earthly teaching.
A blessed and glorious Easter to all of you here today celebrating our Lord's triumph over sin and death by his rising from the tomb. I would like to share with you an important section from the New Catechism, pages 302 & 303:
Beginning with the Easter Triduum as its source of light, the new age of the Resurrection fills the whole liturgical year with its brilliance. Gradually, on either side of this source, the year is transfigured by the liturgy. It really is a year of the Lord's favor. The economy of salvation is at work within the framework of time, but since its fulfillment in the Passover of Jesus and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the culmination of history is anticipated as a foretaste, and the kingdom of God enters into our time.
By a tradition handed down from the apostles which took its origin from the very day of Christ's Resurrection, the Church celebrates the Paschal mystery every seventh day, which is appropriately called the Lord's Day or Sunday. The day of Christ's Resurrection is both the first day of the week, the memorial of the first day of creation, and the eighth day, on which Christ after his rest on the great sabbath inaugurates the day the Lord has made, the day that knows no evening. The Lord's Supper is its center, for there the whole community of the faithful encounters the risen Lord who invites them to his banquet.
These beautiful teachings can encourage us to fully appreciate the opportunity we have to celebrate Easter once a week for the rest of the year.
Easter is the highest Holy Day of the Christian world. It begins with the Easter vigil after sundown on the evening before when the first Mass of Easter is celebrated. It celebrates the very foundation of Christianity: Jesus is raised from the dead and through Him we are redeemed! Those who believe and are baptized share in His new life. This theme continues throughout the Easter season that lasts for fifty days and concludes with Pentecost. In almost every language the name for this feast is some form of the word "Passover" (from the Hebrew Pesach). The earliest Christians saw the resurrection as fulfillment of all that Passover meant to the Jews. It had come to celebrate not only their escape from death and slavery in Egypt but new beginnings. When Christianity reached the northern countries it received the name "Easter" from the Teutonic peoples, a name that refers to springtime, the time of new growth. Easter is the name that is used by all English speaking peoples throughout the world. It is a time when many new people throughout the world are added to the Body of Christ. ALLELUIA!
The celebration of Easter commemorates the ultimate conversion, from death to renewed life. This conversion is not limited to the resuscitation of a dead body (i.e. the raising of Lazareth), but conversion to a totally new life beyond our grasp - "See, I make all things new." (Rev. 21:6) Throughout the season of Lent we have focused on various models and stages of conversion from the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday wherein we received ashes with the signing words "Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel." Easter commemorates the ultimate goal of all conversion journeys. In St. Basil's treatise on the Holy Spirit he writes: "When mankind was estranged from him by disobedience, God our Savior made a plan for raising us from our fall and restoring us to friendship with himself. According to this plan Christ came in the flesh, he showed us the gospel way of life, he suffered, died on the cross, was buried and rose from the dead. He did this so that we could be saved by imitation of him, and recover our original status as sons and daughters of God by adoption. To attain holiness, then, we must not only pattern our lives on Christ's being gentle, humble and patient, we must also imitate him in his death. Taking Christ for his model, Paul said that he wanted to become like him in his death in the hope that he too would be raised from death to life. We imitate Christ's death by being buried with him in baptism."(Office of Readings, Tuesday, Holy Week)
The celebration of the Sacrament of Baptism is highlighted at the Easter Vigil as we confer Baptism on those members who have been preparing through the Rite of Initiation for Adults program, and at all the Easter Masses we renew our Baptismal Promises. Scripture contains numerous passages that speak metaphorically about our death to self as we are "buried in the waters of baptism." This Easter Sunday's Second Reading proclaims "If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God" (Col 3:2).
These passages express the way to conversion-death to self-all self-centered, ego enthroning ways, that is the main purpose for all Lenten penitential practices.
May we realize even more profoundly through the deeper release of the Holy Spirit within the meaning of St. Augustine proclamation-We are Easter people and Alleluia is our Song.
My dear family in Christ,
The Lord is risen alleluia! This is our proclamation on this Easter morning. All our attention is drawn to the One who has been raised from the dead.
It's more than a story. We are drawn into the ultimate meaning of life. Jesus Christ has conquered sin and death. In Him all is made NEW; this is our joy.
The message that went from Jerusalem on that first day of the week is our message. In the liturgy that we celebrate we are caught up in this transforming event. The only way to be touched by this is not to remain spectators but participants.
As believers we put our faith in the resurrection. I would say this is nothing less than living out of the conviction that God has given us everything. To accept the resurrection of Jesus Christ and to be incorporated into this means that what Jesus did is ours if only we believe.
God has left us the divine plan when He sent the Son and through this Easter season we are invited to make this real in our lives. As we say at the memorial acclamation during the Eucharistic prayer: Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again.
May the Risen Lord truly give you the courage and conviction to live out the hope to which we are called. He has left us the Holy Spirit to carry the divine will to completion. Happy Easter!
Fr. Ron
Do you remember special Easters? I remember my sisters in pretty new dresses and my little brother wearing a tie like a hangman's noose. I remember we often took home movies, which in those days was a major production. The light bar seemed ten feet long! I remember relatives coming over and Easter egg hunts. The dominant feeling was being happy.
I hope you feel happy this Easter. The good news of Easter is that every Good Friday in our lives can be turned into an Easter Sunday. The good news of Easter is that nothing can defeat us any more - not pain, not sorrow, not even death. The good news of Easter is that Jesus will work a miracle in our lives on this very day if we will but open our hearts to His Easter power. Why not give it a try?
Father Murphy
The highest aim in life - To know God and do His will.
The most enriching good habit - Complimenting others.
The most destructive bad habit - Worry.
The greatest joy - Giving.
The greatest loss - Loss of self-respect.
The most satisfying work - Helping others.
The ugliest personality trait - Selfishness.
The most endangered species - Dedicated leaders.
Our greatest natural resource - Our Youth.
The ugliest look - A frown.
The greatest "shot in the arm" - Encouragement.
The greatest problem to overcome - Fear.
The most effective sleeping pill - Peace of mind.
The most crippling failure disease - Excuses.
The surest way to limit God - Unbelief.
The most powerful forces in life - Love.
The most dangerous piranha - A gossiper.
The greatest Life-Giver - The Creator.
The world's most incredible computer - The brain.
The worst thing to be without - Hope.
The deadliest weapon - The tongue.
The two most power-filled words - "I Can."
The greatest asset - Faith.
The most worthless emotion - Self-pity.
The most beautiful attire - A SMILE!
The most prized possession - Self esteem.
The most powerful channel of communication - Prayer.
The most contagious spirit - SALVATION.
The greatest attribute of Jesus - Obedience.
The GREATEST - GOD!
1. ACTS 10:34. 37-43.
Our first reading on this Easter Sunday recalls St. Peter's proclamation to the people of Jerusalem that Jesus rose from the dead and all who join themselves to him through faith will have their past sinfulness blotted out and can begin to live a whole new life.
APPLICATION: Easter is a feast for the heart and the spirit and the senses. We give thanks and praise to God for raising Jesus from the tomb and for all the blessings he gives us in his name.
2. COLOSSIANS 3:1-4.
St. Paul proclaims that those who have faith in Christ now live with his life, and he draws out some of the implications of this. We are risen
with Jesus and now must live out that faith by focusing our attention on heavenly things.
APPLICATION: Just as we can't separate Jesus' suffering and death from his resurrection, neither can we expect to live resurrection life without sufferings.
3. JOHN 20:1-9.
We hear how the disciples first discover the Good New that Jesus is truly risen from the dead. Jesus had spend his life among the downtrodden and the poor. Even at the moment of his resurrection he continued this identification, for it was not the Temple priests or even the apostles who were the first witnesses to his resurrection, but a woman despised by the proper people of her day.
APPLICATION: The first witness to Jesus' resurrection was an outcast from society whose only redeeming grace was her blind loyalty. In life, in death and in resurrection, Jesus was among the powerless. Why should it be different today?
Fr. Eugene R. Sinz
By: Joseph F. Pearce, C.O.
Next Sunday is the first Sunday of Easter. It begins what church refers to as a Week of Sundays, the seven weeks between the Resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday and the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the infant church in the upper room on Pentecost Sunday. Pentecost was the second feast to develop in the early church. It continued the joy of the first Easter when, to the apostles joy, they found that Jesus had truly risen from the dead as the women from the tomb had proclaimed. It is a time of preparation. We move from joyous cries of Easter, "He's Alive! Alleluia" being satisfied to be in His presence again, promising that we will never leave Him or let Him out of our sight to the acceptance of the Ascension of Jesus into heaven and dealing with the sense of abandonment until the descendent of Jesus' spirit at Pentecost and the birth of the Church. Jesus' spirit gave the apostles the courage to leave their locked rooms and proclaim the Good News of Jesus the Christ. It must be the same for us. We must use this time between Easter and Pentecost as time of preparation for our mission of proclaiming the Good News of Jesus to those we meet. For it is the duty of every Christian to proclaim the Good News. It is not just a priest's job. It is not just a sister who is responsible to teach Jesus' message of love. Deacons are not the only ones called to share the Good News with their neighbors and their parish. No, we all are called to be missionaries. Just like a new born child is fed at the breast, then eats baby food before gradually eating "adult" food, so we are fed gradually by Jesus first with the milk of Lent, and then with the baby food of Holy Week and Easter. Now, during these next seven weeks, we will begin to eat adult food so that we may be sent by the spirit on Pentecost as missionaries of the Good News to our families, work places and friends.
The Church arose out of the event we know as the resurrection of Jesus and out of the faith the apostles had in the risen Christ. Their preaching centered on it, and Paul states: If Christ has not been raised then our preaching is useless and your believing it is useless; indeed we are shown up as witnesses who have committed perjury before God, because we swore in evidence before God that he had raised Christ to life.
The affirmation of Jesus' resurrection lies at the heart of Christianity. The Church's faith and life over the centuries have centered on the risen Lord.
Today we affirm with the Church our faith in Christ, the Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary whom the apostles knew, who was crucified, buried, rose, and who is living. Lord and only mediator of salvation, he has given humanity a new form of existence, changing its condition to give it the definitive life to which God destines all those who believe in his Son Jesus.
Christ's resurrection is the culmination of sacred history; it crowns the history of salvation, that is, the actions which display God's coming among men to bring about their divine calling to which his love destines them.
The Bishops of France, 1972
Allelulia! We are redeemed people entering into the Great Fifty Days of Easter, a prolonged celebration of the victory of the risen Christ over death and sin. Our fifty-day liturgical feast will take us on a journey of remembrance through the life of the early church and culminate in the feast of Pentecost - where a roomful of prayer-filled disciples received the Holy Spirit, just as their beloved Lord had promised. He is risen!
From the lavish joy of Easter season, replete with symbols of new life, new light, fresh water, new wine and best of all - new members of the faith community, - we will move into "ordinary time." In ordinary time we signify our liturgical cycle by the sequence of time marked numerically, much like the civil calendar. Week by week, we celebrate our faith and praise the most high God in our liturgies. In ritual time we gradually become changed by what we do and how we pray. We are shaped by our liturgies, changed by our gathered prayer.
The Easter season is a time of ecstasy and a time of savoring the mystery and magnitude of the truth that Christ has died, Christ is risen, and Christ will come again. Our salvation is complete - life has been wrenched free from death and the promise of eternal life is the inheritance of all the baptized. Yet we live a culture in which speed is highly valued. We are asked to consume with all our senses - sound bites, visual flashes, cyber-touch, fast food and more. In the midst of this sensory swirl, the Church invites us to make a counter-move. We are invited to the Eucharistic feast. What's more, we are invited to stay a while. Stay and pray. Stay a while and share a kiss of peace. Take and eat this bread, drink this wine and sing! Bask for fifty days in joy and hope. Relish the season at hand and receive the richness offered in the paschal mystery of the Church. We are blessed beyond measure.
Pentecost appears in the liturgical cycle as a doorway whose threshold beckons us to move from prayer into proclamation and the rhythm of holy living. Our baptism is fulfilled through the power of the Holy Spirit, given to us today as to the early disciples, to enable us to proclaim the good news of Christ boldly and faithfully. Pentecost marks the transition from timidity to confidence for disciples now as then. We have celebrated Christ's resurrection with exuberance. We have lingered for fifty days in the light cast by the paschal candle. We are now called to go forth with fiery hearts and renewed minds to practice what we have learned in Easter's burst of hope, day by day, and week by week.
by Pope John Paul II.
Mary, The Model of the Moral Life...Mary is the radiant sign and inviting model of the moral life...Mary shares our human condition, but in complete openness to the grace of God. Not having known sin, she is able to have compassion on every kind of weakness. She understands sinful man and loves him with a mother's love. Precisely for this reason she is on the side of truth and shares the Church's burden in recalling always and to everyone the demands of morality. Nor does she permit sinful man to be deceived by those who claim to love Him by justifying his sin, for she knows that the sacrafice of Christ her Son would thus be emptied of its power. No absolution offered by beguiling doctrines... can make man truly happy. Only the Cross and the glory of the risen Christ can grant peace to his conscience and salvation to his life. [VS n. 120]
Dear Brothers and Sisters, the Gospel of God's love, which we are celebrating today, finds its highest expression in the Eucharist. In the Mass and in Eucharistic Adoration we meet the merciful love of God that passes through the Heart of Jesus Christ. In the name of Jesus, the Good Shepherd I wish to make an appeal--an appeal to Catholics throughout the United States and wherever my voice or words may reach--especially to those who for one reason or another are separated from the practice of their faith. On the eve of the Great Jubilee of the two thousandth anniversary of the Incarnation, Christ is seeking you out and inviting you back to the community of faith. Is this not the moment for you to experience the joy of returning to the Father's house? In some cases there may be memories to be healed; in all cases there is the assurance of God's love and mercy. The Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 will begin with the opening of the Holy Door in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome: this is a powerful symbol of the Church--open to everyone who feels a need for the love and mercy of the Heart of Christ. In the Gospel, Jesus says: "I am the door; whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture." (cf. Jn 10:9)
