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My dear friends, I thank the many of you who have been with me each week during the season of Lent. Thank you for joining me once again. Happy Easter to all of you.
Churches and Tomb Empty
Obviously the season of Lent has been challenging for all of us as our nation continues to deal with the coronavirus situation. Not being able to publicly celebrate Holy Week and the Triduum liturgies has been heartbreaking for me and for all of our priests, and also for you in your own parishes wherever you belong.
Certainly this will be a year we will remember for a long time.
Now we come to Easter Sunday and we still find the churches empty on this Day of Resurrection. It does break my heart, because what we celebrate today is fullness of our identity as Catholics, as Christians.
Yes, the churches are empty. But we must also remember (and never forget) that the tomb is empty as well. The tomb is empty. He has risen!
The Empty Tomb: Simple Yet Extraordinary
My dear friends, today we ponder and celebrate the mystery at the heart of the Christian faith. It is simple but extraordinary and powerful. It was so mind-blowing that even the disciples and the apostles who Jesus told that it would happen didn’t believe it until they saw him – alive. Jesus being raised from the dead shattered all their concepts of life.
Perhaps they thought: “Jesus is risen? Really! And if he is alive, is he in heaven or on earth?”
Where is he? In the Gospel for today, the apostle John saw the burial cloths and believed. Mary Magdalene initially thought his body had been stolen. But we do know for sure from the Gospel that he is most certainly not in the tomb.
God's Love is Stronger than Death
And in a figurative way, we too, like those disciples, stand before the empty tomb today as we celebrate Easter.
The empty tomb is a bold proclamation of Christ’s victory over sin and death. If we believe, then Easter is proof that Jesus will never abandon us. The empty tomb proclaims that the “love of God is stronger than evil and death itself; it means that the love of God can transform our lives and bring about new life in our hearts – a new springtime."
The love of God can do this! And he desires to do this for us individually and as a faith community. As a country and as a world! His love can transform anything and everything for those who believe.
The Resurrection as a Turning Point
The story of Resurrection is our story. No matter the circumstances of life, no matter the pain and suffering that comes into our lives, no matter the challenges and disappointments, the resurrection of Jesus gives each of us the focus to live out the rest of our story, a story that is still unfolding for each of us.
For the disciples who really believed, Christ’s resurrection changed everything for them. It was the turning point in their lives. And it changes everything for us.
The Resurrection of Jesus proves that God has looked down on the world, seeing all the pain and suffering of humanity, all the sin and dysfunction, all the darkness and death, and God says, “My love will have the last word.” This is the real message of Easter.
More than a Holiday
Anyone who has climbed out of the depths of darkness, pain or sin knows what it means to be redeemed. For many people in our culture today, Easter is merely a holiday of sorts, something far different than what Mary, Peter and John experienced at the empty tomb!
We can only imagine what she was feeling seeing the body of Jesus gone. The disciples weren’t anticipating the resurrection. This was not part of their experience. And in reality, it isn’t part of our human experience.
As they pondered what they had seen – an empty tomb – what were they supposed to believe? The burial cloths were there, but the body was missing. There was only an empty tomb. As the Gospel stated: “For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.”
Disappointment Turns to Joy
How often what may seem at first glance to be disappointment turns into signs of new life. In believing in the empty tomb, Mary Magdalene and John and Peter embrace the truth of God’s love despite all evidence to the contrary.
Christ’s resurrection is not an event of the past; it contains a vital power which has permeated this world today. We just have to look around and see the signs of the resurrection springing up.
See the Tomb with Eyes of Faith
The proof of the Resurrection lies in the “empty tomb” and the post-Resurrection appearances recorded in the Gospels. We have nothing else to go on. But we accept this on faith.
But to believe, we must enter into this Easter story, peering into a dark and empty space and seeing the possibility of eternity. It is looking into the empty tombs of our life and finding signs of new life. We all know from our own personal experiences that where Jesus has been with us, there is life and hope, not death and decay.
Yes, my friends, the world may seem quite dark at times. It may seem dark right now as we continue to deal with the coronavirus. But thanks to the resurrection of Jesus Christ we can see quite clearly: we can see how much God loves us.
Death Brings Life and Love
And no, we weren’t there on that first Easter morning, with Mary Magdalene, Peter and John, peering into the empty tomb and seeing signs of resurrection. But we are here now as beneficiaries of the life and love that emerges from Christ’s death.
We open our hearts anew today to the grace of Christ's Resurrection and to the power of Christ’s love. He has defeated sin and death. The tomb is empty! He is not dead! He has been raised!
Be assured of my prayers for each of you as we celebrate this greatest gift ever given.
Friends, have a blessed Easter!