Homily:
Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord – Cycle B
HE IS RISEN!
ALLELUIA!!! Man, it feels so good
to say that! You know, it’s easy to get
caught up in all of the activities that have gone on over the past three
days—or even the past six weeks, if we think back to everything that’s happened
since the beginning of Lent. That’s why,
in hindsight, I was really glad to have gotten a call yesterday to go see one
of our parishioners named Wirt. You see,
Wirt is dying. He’s 97 years old and has
been relatively spry for most of those years, but now his body is failing and
it doesn’t look like it will be too long before he dies. He’s a patient and faith-filled man, however. He’s spent these last years without his wife,
to whom he had been married for over sixty years and he wants nothing else but
to see her again; yet he’ll tell anyone that he’s content to wait until the
Lord calls him home.
I got the call not because Wirt was on the verge of death,
but rather because he had been very upset over the past day or so. You see, as death finally approaches for
Wirt, he’s become very anxious about it.
He’s starting to ask ultimate questions like, “Am I ready?” and “Do I have
enough faith?” He’s confronting the
uncertainty of death—or, rather, of what comes after death—and it has started
to scare him.
As I sat and listened to him, I couldn’t help but think
about how providential it was that we were having this discussion on Holy
Saturday. You see, the original Holy
Saturday was a day filled with uncertainty.
After the whirlwind of events that began on Thursday night and ended
with Jesus’ burial on Friday evening, his disciples and those who followed him
spent all day on Saturday dealing with all that had happened. Saturday was the Sabbath day, in which they
could do no work, thus I imagine that they spent the day wondering about what
had happened and what would happen next.
I imagine them asking themselves and one another, “How could this be?”,
“What does this mean?” and “What are we going to do now?” Even though they had heard Jesus’ words about
rising to new life, they still felt an incredible amount of anxiety now that
they faced the reality of Jesus’ death.
The fact that, by Saturday evening, some of them had given
up on the idea of rising again is apparent from our Gospel reading today. It says that “When the Sabbath was over, Mary
Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, and Salome brought spices so that they
might go and anoint him.” Now, no one
anoints the body of someone whom they think is going to come back to life. Yet here we see these women, who had followed
Jesus, bringing spices to anoint his lifeless body. The reality of resurrection, in light of all
that had happened on Friday, was incomprehensible to them and so they came to
do what they would do for any loved one who had died: anoint his body with
spices for his eternal rest.
When they arrive they find that the stone laying over the
entrance to the tomb had been rolled away.
“Surely we must have the wrong tomb” they must have thought. So they went in and found it empty. Well, not empty; because there was a young
man in a white robe sitting there who confirmed that not only did they have the
correct tomb, but that Jesus, for whom they were looking, had been raised from
the dead. “Do not be amazed” this young
man said. Do not be amazed? How could you not be amazed when you walk
into a tomb where a day and a half ago you just laid the body of a man who was
surely dead, but now you find that body gone and another man telling you that
“he has been raised”? They are amazed;
and they return, following the young man’s instructions, to tell Peter and the
disciples what they had seen and what the young man had told them.
In the days and weeks and months to follow, this news—and
the disciples’ encounters with the Risen Lord—will move them to speak boldly
about Jesus to anyone who would listen.
They gave testimony about the one who was crucified, but who now
lives. This was incredible, because for
the people of that time crucifixion was a most sure form of death: there was no
coming back. Jesus, therefore, truly was
the one the prophets spoke about and so Peter and the disciples gave witness to
this through the power of the Holy Spirit working within them.
We receive this witness and celebrate this incredible event
here today; and not just today, but for the next 50 days. Even more so, we celebrate the fact that,
through Baptism, we too have died with Christ and have been raised with him. Thus, we who have been baptized no longer have
any reason to fear death. This, in fact,
is what Paul is saying in his letter to the Colossians when he says “For you
have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” This is why we can hold up the cross as the
sign of our victory; because what was once a symbol of death has been
transformed into a sign of hope: that the power of God through Christ Jesus can
overcome the worst suffering that the world can inflict.
This is the message that I tried to impart to Wirt
yesterday: that, through baptism, he has already died, and his life is now
hidden with Christ in God and that, thus, he has nothing to fear. My brothers and sisters, this is the message
that I would like to impart to you today, too: that, through baptism, each of
you has already died, and each of your lives is now hidden with Christ in
God. To celebrate this today we will
renew our baptismal promises, so as to renew our faith in the life we have in
Christ Jesus. May this life—and the joy
of this Holy Day—inspire us to give witness to this good news and thus to
spread this light and joy throughout the whole world, because HE IS RISEN! ALLELUIA!!!
Given at All Saints Parish:
Logansport, IN – April 5th, 2015
No comments:
Post a Comment