Happy Easter! Felices Pascuas! Joyeuses Paques! Buona Pasqua! Jesus Christ lives. Because He lives, we live. That is the Easter message: God's world is ours forever.
Sometimes in our desire to be profound, especially on Easter Sunday, we miss the obvious. I think of an early draft of the “Hound of the Baskervilles.” Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson were camping out on the Dartmoor one night. Holmes awoke in the middle of the night, shook Watson and said: “Look at the sky, Watson. What do you see?” Watson replied, “I see stars, millions and millions of stars.” “And what does that tell you?”
Watson paused, then replied, “Astronomically, it tells me there are billions of galaxies and countless planets in them. Horologically, it tells me it’s 3 am. Theologically, it tells me the universe is charged with the grandeur of God.” Holmes was silent. Watson finally asked, “Well Holmes, what does this magnificent night tell you?” The detective simply snapped, “Watson, you idiot, it tells me someone stole our tent.”
Yes, sometimes in pondering the meaning of Easter, we miss the obvious. The Easter message is simple. Jesus Christ is risen. He lives. And because He lives, we live. God lives in us and we live in God. That is God's incredible gift to us!
The word “Easter” comes from “Eastre,” the name of a Saxon goddess of the dawn or spring. Easter symbolizes life.
A popular symbol is the Easter egg. Just as the chick breaks out of the egg at birth, so too we believe that, in the mystery of death, we will break out of our earthly “skin,” so to speak, into a new indescribable heavenly life. And why do we believe this? Because Jesus, once crucified and dead, is alive. He already anticipates our future, what we will become. But until Jesus Christ comes again in glory at the end-time to make all things new, we are called now, by virtue of our baptismal promises, to continue the ministry of Jesus, to be his missionary disciples today as the apostles were in the 1st century. To paraphrase St. Teresa of Avila, the great 16th century Spanish guru in spirituality, the living Christ today has no eyes, no hands, no feet but ours; ours are the eyes with which the living Christ looks compassionately on the needy; ours are the feet with which he walks to do good; and ours are the hands with which he helps others.
Easter is about the dawn, a new day for each one of us. Every morning, we have another chance. Perhaps when we went to bed we carried “baggage”with us: bad things said and done, good things unsaid and not done. In the morning, all is possible, all is opportunity. We begin again.
And who among us is content with who we are? Who doesn’t want to be more loving, more generous, more compassionate, more helpful? Who doesn't want the courage to act upon our convictions as opposed to our fears. Who among us doesn't know of a heart to heal, a broken relationship to mend, a lost soul to find?
This Easter, God wakes us up again. Let this be the day to start again, to repair the broken, to rediscover God's extraordinary grace transforming ordinary lives into the likeness of God.
In the word of God today, Peter proclaims the kerygma, the proclamation of the good news. Peter here speaks about all that God has done for us through Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus was baptized by John, anointed with the Spirit, and went about the countryside working signs and wonders, proclaiming that the kingdom of God was beginning to burst into our lives. Eventually Jesus was crucified, but then burst forth out of the tomb and was lifted up to his heavenly Father, so that He could draw all of us to himself into a new, transfigured heavenly life. That is the good news!
Yes, Jesus is alive and because He lives, we also live. He is indeed, Peter shouts, a God of mercy and forgiveness. And that’s why Pope Francis emphasizes that the Church is a field hospital, here to heal wounds, to welcome the lost.
Paul in his letter to the Christian community in Colossae, modern Turkey, challenges us to seek God in our everyday lives so that we might be with Him in glory at the end time.
In the Gospel according to John, we hear the story of the resurrection of Jesus. Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb to find it empty; she summons Peter and John. The disciples discover that Jesus is not among the dead. He is Risen; He is alive. He passed through the mystery of death into a new, glorious heavenly reality. And this glorious heavenly reality is our future as well. And this risen Jesus was not a spirit or ghost, nor was he simply resuscitated, or the disciples would have recognized him immediately. The earthly Jesus in death made an evolutionary into a new kind of spiritual embodiment.
Jesus said: I live, and because I live, we also live. How is that? Born in the flesh, we are reborn in the Spirit. In the rite of baptism, the Spirit of God is poured out upon us, and a new life is ours. The triune God lives within us and we live within the triune God.
As we grow in faith, in confirmation, our forehead is blessed with oil in the sign of the cross—and in that gesture God pours out more fully the gifts of the Spirit so we may show forth the fruits of the Spirit in our daily lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-discipline.
In this Eucharist, the living Christ truly presences himself to us sacramentally and mystically in the signs of bread and wine and becomes one with us in communion so that we can go forth from this Mass to continue his saving ministry through our hands and feet and voices. And if we should stumble on our journey, the Living Christ lifts us up in the rite of penance where we celebrate God’s mercy.
Yes, through these sacramental encounters with God, we experience the living Christ. In the exchange of wedding promises God strengthens the love between husband and wife. In the anointing of the sick, God heals us in body and soul. All the sacraments are signs of God’s care for us as we journey to our heavenly dwelling place.
Eternal life in relationship with God and one another: that is our ultimate purpose. In the mystery of our own dying, we believe we will make a leap of faith into a new reality, as Jesus already has.
Yes, Easter is all about a fresh start. It's about getting our priorities straight. First things first. Easter is about asking: How can we be more loving, more generous, more compassionate, more helpful? Easter is about seeking a heart to heal, a relationship to mend, a lost soul to find.
It’s a new dawn, a new day, a fresh start. Christ is risen. And because He lives, we live.
