A Homily - Holy Week, Easter Sunday (Year C) A Holy Day of Obligation

First Reading - Acts 10:34, 37-43 ©

Responsorial Psalm - Psalm 117(118):1-2, 16-17, 22-23 ©

Second Reading - Colossians 3:1-4 ©

Sequence - Victimae Paschali Laudes

Gospel Acclamation – 1 Corinthians 5:7-8

The Gospel According to John 20:1-9 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 Hear the Easter message, follow Jesus and walk humbly in pursuit of the good; serve justice with compassion. Be merciful, like Jesus, a source of healing in the world, this is the way; place your hope in it and believe.

 The way is God’s law, it is written in our hearts. God speaks to us there, to everyone; do not doubt it. The divine law is like a living flame; look into the flames and see its truth shimmering, tongues of fire leaping from the burning coals, its smoke rising like incense.

 All human law is merely a reflection of the divine law, obfuscated and dim and corrupted by the imperfections of our nature.

 It is good to uphold the law, through right living as a blessing to everyone, in the exhibition of mercy and compassion. We are alive in the world and our faith calls on us to live as if we believed that the promise of our salvation were true, as if it were true already accomplished in full…this is the Gospel, and it means good news, the good news that Christ has risen.

 It is the essence of Christian faith to trust in this proposition, to trust in the belief that you and everyone will rise as Christ did, not in a transactional way, not as an exchange for the coin of our “belief,” but returned to life by God merely because God loves us…as an act of supererogatory grace

 Imagine the holy family, by which I mean the entirety of creation, all of the living and all of the dead and including everyone who will yet come to be; imagine all of us living in the garden now, at peace, without want or enmity, living in that place where we are able to see God clearly, a place in which our relationships with each other are more important to us than gold, political power or any other earthly treasure; imagine that and you will be seeing a manifestation of the will of heaven. When we will have achieved that heavenly state, we will have brought divine providence to creation, and it will be blessing to all.

 Celebrate the feast of Easter, take part in it and accept the way as Jesus taught us, the way he showed us through his life, through his death and resurrection as depicted in our mythology.

 Celebrate the feast, knowing that it does not matter whether our myths are literally true…or not.

 Believe in the hope that Easter represents, even in the dark times, even in times as dark as the first Sunday morning after the crucifixion, when Mary Magdala and Mary, Martha’s sister, came to the tomb.

 Remember.

 It was Mary Magdala who had anointed Jesus for burial. She and her companions, including Jesus’ mother were at the foot of the cross when he died, and Mary Magdala was the first to receive the revelation that he had risen.

 It was dark when Mary arrived at the tomb, but not completely dark, and in the dim light of morning she saw a hint of the truth that was about to unfold, with the sun rising to fill the day with light. She saw that the stone had been rolled away from the tomb, she looked inside and found it empty.

 At first Mary assumed that someone had come and removed the body of Jesus, taken him and hidden him somewhere…then she received the visitation from the angel of the lord and she understood.

 Mary hurried to find the other disciples, to tell them what she had found and evangelize them. When she reached them she encountered their doubt…but when they arrived on the scene and explored the tomb for themselves, the understanding of what had transpired began to take hold among them. They saw the empty tomb and the burial garments cast aside. In that moment they realized that Jesus had been raised from the dead. It was upon this belief and on the strength of their witness that the Church was born

 Know this.

 The Church was not built on the foundation of Peter’s faith, which faltered and failed on the night Jesus was arrested. It was built on the faith of women, like Mary and Mary and Mary and Martha, the women who never abandoned Jesus, who did everything in their power to make the path that was in front of him smooth…they adhered to the way.

 Throughout his ministry it was the women among his disciples who understood his mission, it was the women who were able to fully comprehend the power of his message, including the necessity of responding to it in faith, which they did.

 Those great women, the mothers of the church, responded with trust, not with propositions and creeds but with action and their living witness.

 While his male disciples tripped over themselves, doubted him, doubted each other, vied for supremacy, betrayed him, denied him and sold him into captivity, which led to his torture, trial and execution; while all of that was going on, these women were by his side, comforting him, tending to him, doing everything in their power to ease the burden of what lay ahead of him. The women in Jesus’ company were never confused about his mission, they always understood how it would end.

 On Easter we should remember them and honor their commitment to service.

 

First Reading - Acts 10:34, 37-43 ©

'We Have Eaten and Drunk with Him After His Resurrection'

Peter addressed Cornelius and his household: ‘You must have heard about the recent happenings in Judaea; about Jesus of Nazareth and how he began in Galilee, after John had been preaching baptism. God had anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and because God was with him, Jesus went about doing good and curing all who had fallen into the power of the devil. Now I, and those with me, can witness to everything he did throughout the countryside of Judaea and in Jerusalem itself: and also to the fact that they killed him by hanging him on a tree, yet three days afterwards God raised him to life and allowed him to be seen, not by the whole people but only by certain witnesses God had chosen beforehand. Now we are those witnesses – we have eaten and drunk with him after his resurrection from the dead – and he has ordered us to proclaim this to his people and to tell them that God has appointed him to judge everyone, alive or dead. It is to him that all the prophets bear this witness: that all who believe in Jesus will have their sins forgiven through his name.’

 

Responsorial Psalm - Psalm 117(118):1-2, 16-17, 22-23 ©

This day was made by the Lord: we rejoice and are glad.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

Give thanks to the Lord for he is good,

  for his love has no end.

Let the sons of Israel say:

  ‘His love has no end.’

This day was made by the Lord: we rejoice and are glad.

The Lord’s right hand has triumphed;

  his right hand raised me up.

I shall not die, I shall live

  and recount his deeds.

This day was made by the Lord: we rejoice and are glad.

The stone which the builders rejected

  has become the corner stone.

This is the work of the Lord,

  a marvel in our eyes.

This day was made by the Lord: we rejoice and are glad.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

 

Second Reading - Colossians 3:1-4 ©

Look for the Things that Are in Heaven, where Christ Is

Since you have been brought back to true life with Christ, you must look for the things that are in heaven, where Christ is, sitting at God’s right hand. Let your thoughts be on heavenly things, not on the things that are on the earth, because you have died, and now the life you have is hidden with Christ in God. But when Christ is revealed – and he is your life – you too will be revealed in all your glory with him.

 

Sequence - Victimae Paschali Laudes

Christians, to the Paschal Victim

  offer sacrifice and praise.

The sheep are ransomed by the Lamb;

and Christ, the undefiled,

hath sinners to his Father reconciled.

Death with life contended:

  combat strangely ended!

Life’s own Champion, slain,

  yet lives to reign.

Tell us, Mary:

  say what thou didst see

  upon the way.

The tomb the Living did enclose;

I saw Christ’s glory as he rose!

The angels there attesting;

shroud with grave-clothes resting.

Christ, my hope, has risen:

he goes before you into Galilee.

That Christ is truly risen

  from the dead we know.

Victorious king, thy mercy show!

 

Gospel Acclamation – 1 Corinthians 5:7-8

Alleluia, alleluia!

Christ, our passover, has been sacrificed:

let us celebrate the feast then, in the Lord.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to John 20:1-9 ©

He Must Rise from the Dead

It was very early on the first day of the week and still dark, when Mary of Magdala came to the tomb. She saw that the stone had been moved away from the tomb and came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved. ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb’ she said ‘and we don’t know where they have put him.’

So Peter set out with the other disciple to go to the tomb. They ran together, but the other disciple, running faster than Peter, reached the tomb first; he bent down and saw the linen cloths lying on the ground, but did not go in. Simon Peter who was following now came up, went right into the tomb, saw the linen cloths on the ground, and also the cloth that had been over his head; this was not with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in; he saw and he believed. Till this moment they had failed to understand the teaching of scripture, that he must rise from the dead.

 

Holy Week, Easter Sunday (Year C) A Holy Day of Obligation