April 5, 2015

Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord B

Acts 10: 34, 37-43; Colossians 3: 1-4; John 20: 1-9

It is Easter, let us rejoice and be glad! I take some moments to review my ‘discovery’ of what Easter is.

Growing up in Central New York, Easter ‘kind of’ meant the beginning of spring. Mom and Dad and the five siblings all had shopped for their ‘Easter clothes’. I’m not sure how much choice we had in them, but they all came with mom’s final approval. On Easter we wore them and it didn’t depend on what the weather was like. We had specific instructions, not to get them dirty or messed up and we wore them for the whole day. So I felt that Easter was special because we got dressed up, had special church ceremonies, had a special Easter feast of food, starting with ham and all its trimmings plus two of mom’s special homemade pies. Easter was a celebration of family and faith. I remember them now in a different way, since four of us have passed and are with the Lord. It is a day to rejoice, remember and be grateful for the love of my parents and siblings who have helped me develop into the person I am. They have helped me find the Lord and realize His love for me at all times. It is Easter, let us rejoice and be glad!

I looking now at a painting of Les Disciples depicting Peter and John running to the tomb. Their looks show worry, apprehension, confusion, doubt and at the same time some sort of expectation. Yes the Lord has risen, let us rejoice and be glad. I find it quite interesting that none of the Gospels describe the actual Resurrection itself. Jesus is placed in the tomb, and the next ‘fact’ is that on coming to the tomb it is ‘empty.’ Jesus is risen, as He said. What was the actual Resurrection like, the scriptures never say. Fr Demetrius Dumm, a very holy biblical scholar in Flowers in the desert, a spirituality of the Bible states, “It was a tremendous eschatological event—a kind of explosion on the frontier between time and eternity. It was both historical and metahistorical: in time and beyond time. Its deepest meaning can be perceived only through the eyes of faith and, once perceived, it reveals the meaning of human existence with a clarity that had never existed before. The path of Jesus, a path of loving service, is not the folly that it seems to be, for it leads to eternal life. And the path of selfish pursuits is not the wisdom it seems to be, for it leads to defeat and frustration.”

When Jesus raised Lazarus, He came out of the tomb wrapped in burial cloths. Jesus burial cloths are left behind. Faith is now not in the corpse but in the totally new life, the resurrected life, the promise of life to all who are faithful, the hope that each person lives with. When Mary sees Jesus, she is told to ‘stop holding on’…the earthly relationship is over…but God is with us in a totally new way as each of us continues life on earth and wait to experience the new resurrected life in heaven. Looking at the different parishes I have served and at the different images of Easter...they all speak of new life. From Easter bunnies and chicks, colored eggs, and new clothing to spring bursting into bloom in all its beauty…the cycle of death to life, new life affirms the resurrected plan of God. ‘It is Easter let us rejoice and be glad’. But it still could mean just the fascination with the beauty around us and not be in touch with the beauty within that is the meaning of Easter.

Mary Magdalen who is reported in all the gospels as the first at the scene is not convinced that Jesus rose. The same is true of Peter as is seen in John’s Gospel today. John says that Peter saw: he saw the empty tomb, he saw the burial clothes, but he doesn’t say that he believed. Then John tells us, “Then the other disciple also 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.” That gift is available to each person now, who can read and discover that God loves each person, always has, and is always with each person, leading them to their heavenly home, the purpose of their existence.

Easter means that I have to say ‘Yes’ and repeatedly say ‘Yes’. Say ‘Yes’ to the presence and love of God in my life. Say ‘Yes’ to God who raised Jesus who is the sustainer of all things and the power behind nature to renew itself. It means saying ‘Yes’ to Jesus who ‘sacrificed’ Himself in love to the Father’s plan for creation and became for every person of all time the sign of God’s love. Easter is saying ‘Yes’ to the hope of Easter, but more especially a concrete message to each person about how that hope is to realized. It is saying ‘Yes’ to the cross: Jesus suffered and died, each of us suffer, especially the pains of proving the extent and depth of our love for God who loves us so that we can rise to a new level of being. Saying ‘Yes’ is so hard; it’s not what my selfish humanity wants to do. Yet it is the way that Jesus showed me in His total love. It is Easter, let us rejoice and be glad!

It is about me saying ‘Yes’…how am I doing with this? Where is my doubt? Where is my hesitation? Am I afraid? Many years ago I read one-time United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold Markings. I found it a tremendous testimony of a meaningful life. His often quoted celebrated lines put this ‘Yes’ bluntly: “I don’t know Who—or what—put the question; I don’t know when it was put. I don’t even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone—or Something—and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life in self- surrender, had a goal.”

Thomas Merton in what is known as The Road Ahead puts it in a Christ mode, “My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following Your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please You does in fact please You. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this, You will lead me by the right road though I may seem to know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust You always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for You are ever with me, and You will never leave me to face my perils alone.”

Mother Teresa’s Easter Message in Love: a Fruit always in Season brings this message to today. “Easter Sunday ‘He has risen’ Alleluia! May the joy of the risen Jesus Christ be with you. To bring joy into our very soul the good God has given Himself to us. In Bethlehem, ‘joy’ said the angel. In His life, He wanted to share His joy with His apostles ‘that My joy may be in you’. Joy was the password of the first Christians. Saint Paul—how often he repeated himself: ‘Rejoice in the Lord always; and again I say, rejoice’ (Philemon 4:4). In return for the great grace of baptism the priest tells the newly baptized: ‘May you serve the Church joyfully.’ Joy is not simply a matter of temperament in the service of God and souls. It is always hard—all the more reason why we should try to acquire it and make it grow in our hearts.”

It is Easter, let us rejoice and be glad!