April 24, 2011
Easter Sunday: Solemnity of the Resurrection of The Lord
The Mass of Easter Day
By Rev. Joe McCloskey, SJ
“This man God raised (on) the third day and granted that he be visible, not to all the people, but to us, the witnesses chosen by God in advance, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commissioned us to preach to the people and testify that he is the one appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead. To him all the prophets bear witness, that everyone who believes in him will receive forgiveness of sins through his name.” Acts 10: 40-43
Clear out the old yeast, so that you may become a fresh batch of dough, inasmuch as you are unleavened. For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 1 Corinthians 5:7-8
When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed. John 20:6-8
Piety
Piety is the reality of how much Christ we live in our lives. The Resurrection is the “end all” and the “be all” of piety. The Christ of the Resurrection in his humanness is safely ensconced in heaven. Yet the Resurrection lives on in the Mystical Body of Christ. We live the Resurrection in the joy of life. Our happiness is conditioned by the resurrectional graces of our lives. How we love and how we share our lives roots the Resurrection in each moment of our lives with the deeper meaning of even the insignificant things we do. All of God’s love has its final expression in our lives when death gives way to everlasting life. The crosses of our lives and the little “dyings” of every day look to the fullness of God’s love waiting for us in heaven. Piety means the resurrection is not something I am waiting for after I die. The love of our lives makes resurrection and everyday part of who we are in God’s love. The deepest meaning of life is found in the rising of Jesus. Our joining ourselves to his dying makes his rising part of who we are. Our salvation is the reality of a death and resurrection equation that brings us salvation. We look beyond the empty tomb to see what is waiting for us.
Study
The witnesses of the Resurrection are important to us but we do not live in the time of the Apostles. We look to the saints of our daily life to see the proof of the resurrection in how Christ lives on in our brothers and sisters. Our faith in the resurrection seeks greater faith. The mystery of God and what is waiting for us in heaven is always mystery. He has so much more waiting for us that we could never have enough hope. To take the mystery that surrounds God out of God would be like taking God out of God. We accept in faith what God has revealed to us through Christ. By being the hands and feet of Christ we give resurrection reality in our world today. The crucifixion is the greatest trauma of life. How could the greatest person that would ever live in the history of the human race be put to death in such an ignominious way? The resurrection of Christ makes of the dying on the cross the ultimate statement of God’s love for us. The trauma of Christ’s dying is an ice block on the hearts of many. The Resurrection is the something beautiful on the other side of pain that melts the ice of indifference and gives meaning to involvement with the pain that racks the all too human frame of the human race. Col. 1, 24 describes the joy possible to one who makes up in their suffering what is wanting to the suffering of Christ’s body, the Church. (“Knowing that you will receive from the Lord the due payment of the inheritance; be slaves of the Lord Christ.”) Christ’s resurrection is the foothold in heaven of all who suffer in his name. If we die with Christ, how could we not be raised with him?
Action
Action gives Christ flesh and blood in the love of our life for the good things of the Lord. The Resurrection lives on in the nobility and the generosity of good people. God sees his resurrected son in us as we reach out to the needy. Each extra step we take when we are too tired to go on draws us closer to the resurrection of Christ. I am no longer fleeing from the resurrection when I face up to the sacrifices love asks of us when all seems lost. The Resurrection lives on in all the “impossibles” that become possible in our willingness to be Christ to each other. The Resurrection is where the human is held together by the divine. The Resurrection makes us the people of God. When we find Christ in each other, Christ is risen. Christ comes again and again in all the good we do for one another. Christ has died! Christ is risen! Christ will come again!
