Word to the Wise
Sunday, April 17, 2022 - Easter Sunday: The Resurrection of the Lord; The Mass of Easter Day - ABC
[Acts 10:34a, 37-43; Col 3:1-4 or 1 Cor 5:6b-8; John 20:1-9 or Luke 24:13-35 (for afternoon Masses),234]"They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don't know where they put him." So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first; he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in. When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered the head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. Then the other disciple went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed. For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead. [John]
CHRIST IS RISEN! ALLELUIA! That is the Easter proclamation. But it was not the proclamation made by Mary Magdalen, Peter or the "Beloved Disciple" on the discovery of the empty tomb! The initial reaction is shock and bewilderment. The Beloved Disciple entered the tomb after Peter and "he saw and believed" even though he could not put all the pieces together about what he saw. It has been suggested that the reason the stone was moved away from the tomb was not so Jesus could get out but so that believers could get in! Perhaps the Beloved Disciple noted the detail about the head covering being rolled up in a separate place and concluded some kind of deliberate action had taken place?
Full belief in Jesus' resurrection would come with the experience of the Risen Lord in the days that followed. Much of it is summed up in the stories of "Doubting Thomas" {John 20:24-29) and the disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35). The experience took a while to digest and would not become a public proclamation until the experience of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-13). What is clear from the scriptural accounts of the gospels and St. Paul's experience of the Risen Lord [Acts 9:1-19} is that belief in Jesus' resurrection is at the core of Christian faith. As St. Paul put it in 1 Cor. 15:17-19: "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, are are the most pitiable people of all."
Our faith stands on the witness of the disciples who had the immediate experience of Jesus' resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit. It is on the basis of their testimony that we proclaim, "Christ is risen! Alleluia!" Each celebration of the Eucharist is a remembrance of all of this, but it is remembered, too, in our everyday lives as faithful Christians. Our brothers and sisters who celebrated baptism, confirmation and first Holy Communion at the Easter Vigil are witnesses to us of living faith. Today of all days we must proclaim "CHRIST IS RISEN! ALLELUIA!" and manifest it by the way we live!" To all my Beloved Congregation, I wish a blessed Easter celebration! AMEN