Sunday, April 8, 2012

4/8/2012 – Easter Sunday – John 20:1-9


     While Christmas seems to be the Christian holy day that gets all of our attention in our modern world, especially the message of Christmas that our commercial, secular world want to tell, it is Easter that is really at the heart of what we believe as Catholics.  The Triduum of masses, of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday, are called the culmination of our Church’s liturgical year.  Holy week and our celebration of Easter morning mass today connects the cross of Jesus to his resurrection, a connection that we need to make in order to truly understand what our faith is all about.
         Last night we had our Easter Vigil mass.  The symbol of that mass is so striking.  Diane, Mary Sue, and Helen were remarking to me how especially for children, sitting in the dark church with the lights from the candles penetrating the darkness around us is such a strong message that will stay in the memory bank of a child throughout his lifetime.  The Easter fire starts out in front of the church, symbolizing the light of Christ that is brought into our world and into our lives in our very special way through his death and resurrection.  We have our candles lit by the light of Christ, symbolizing the source of the true light for us in our lives.
         Mary Magdalene was still in the darkness of night when she came to the tomb that morning.  You can just imagine the spiritual darkness that consumed her that morning that overshadowed the darkness of the night.  Full of remorse and pain, anger and frustration, she now believes that our Lord’s body had been stolen from the tomb.  It was bad enough that he was put to death; now his body could not even be anointed.  This is a first sign for Mary Magdalene, for Peter and the beloved disciple, of knowing that something very special and very unique was going on .  But they still no idea what all of this was about, about the full implications that the resurrection would have on their lives and their faith.
         There is a lot for us to figure out as well, isn’t there.  I think a lot of us have taken our faith for granted, we have taken for granted the religious freedom we have in our country to practice our faith.  Maybe what is going on in the world and in our country should be a wake up call for us.  And even though it is Easter when we celebrate our Lord’s resurrection, we can never forget that it is intrinsically tied to the cross, to the sufferings that Jesus endured on the way to his death and resurrection.  And although we will have 50 days of the Easter season up until the celebration of Pentecost on May 27, it looks like we as Catholics will still have our crosses to bear as we need to stand up for our faith and for the freedom to practice our faith in the world.  Indeed, in order for us to truly understand the light of the resurrection, we in turn must be lights shining in the darkness of our world.  For these next weeks during the Easter, we will ponder what the resurrection of Jesus really means to us, we will ponder what it really means to live the resurrection in our lives.    

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