Easter Sunday

[cappie]

Nearly two thousand years ago, a kind, loving rabbi named Jesus died. He bowed His head, His body went limp, and His soul descended into the darkness of death. It was the same tragic destruction, the same horrific rending of body from soul, that millions of humans had suffered before Him, but on that day, something astonishingly new also happened. For death, as St. John Chrysostom famously says, “took a body, and received God. It took earth and encountered Heaven. It took that which was seen and fell upon the unseen.” At that moment, the darkness of death received not only another dead human but also the fullness of God. The darkness of death was suddenly illuminated by the blinding light of Christ’s divinity, the coldness of death was set aflame by the heat of God’s love, the emptiness of death was filled by Him who is the source of all that is, and death simply could not hold Christ. This was not a victory for Jesus alone, for, at that moment, death itself was blown apart, reduced to ruin, utterly vanquished. That moment began what St. Paul in today’s Second Reading refers to as the defeat of the last enemy of God: the destruction of death itself.

There are ancient icons of the Resurrection which show Christ bursting forth from the tomb with the gates of death shattered at His feet. In these images, Jesus is not alone; He holds the wrist of a withered old man in one hand and the wrist of an ancient woman in the other: it is Adam and Eve — symbolic of the whole human race — whom He pulls from their tombs. In the resurrection of Christ, all human nature is redeemed, is freed, from the power of death.

Before the resurrection of Christ, the reality of death lay behind every suffering and sadness, but after the resurrection, suffering becomes a temporary tragedy. Before the resurrection of Christ, the fear of death was the most rational thing in the world; after the resurrection of Christ, we are freed to give ourselves fearlessly to others, in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, we are free: free to share with Him in His perfect love for others, his forgiveness of others

Easter is the greatest of all Christian feasts because, in it, human nature is transformed, we are freed for total love, goodness, generosity. On Easter morning, we are invited to accept this, to allow it to actively transform our lives: to start fresh, to begin anew. In the resurrection of Christ, we are offered the gift of eternal life, freed from the burden of fear, and invited to share in the risen life of Jesus Christ our Saviour.

That is why we still gather on the first day of every week to celebrate this feast of the empty tomb, give thanks for “Christ our life,” as today’s Second Reading calls Him.

Baptized into His death and Resurrection, we live the life of the risen Christ. We are now His witnesses, too. But we testify to things we cannot see but only believe; we seek in earthly things what is above.

We live in memory of the Apostles’ witness, like them eating and drinking with the risen Lord at the altar. And we wait in hope for what the Apostles told us would come—the day when we too “will appear with Him in glory.”

And so, St. John Chrysostom proclaims to Hell and Death, “Christ is risen, and you are overthrown. Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen. Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice. Christ is risen, and life reigns. Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the grave. For Christ, being risen from the dead, is become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. To Him be glory and dominion unto ages of ages. Amen.”

 

[little2add]

 

[little2add]

May all Phatmass'ers have a happy and blessed Easter celebration today!                    I would also like to wish our Jewish friends a blessed Passover.

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Tonight’s Gospel reading from the Easter Vigil is Luke 24:1–12, when the women come across the empty tomb and are the first to be told its implications:

 

At daybreak on the first day of the week the women who had come from Galilee with Jesus took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb; but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were puzzling over this, behold, two men in dazzling garments appeared to them. They were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground. They said to them, “Why do you seek the living one among the dead? He is not here, but he has been raised. Remember what he said to you while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners and be crucified, and rise on the third day.” And they remembered his words.

Then they returned from the tomb and announced all these things to the eleven and to all the others. The women were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James; the others who accompanied them also told this to the apostles, but their story seemed like nonsense and they did not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb, bent down, and saw the burial cloths alone; then he went home amazed at what had happened.