April 4, 2010
Easter Sunday
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. Acts 10: 40-42
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
We are born to die. But we are born again in Christ to rise with him. We have been created by God to praise, reverence and to serve him here and in the next world. We are created for the happiness of being with God forever. Our belonging to God happens in our being baptized into his life. We are called by our baptism children of God and so we are. God’s life is given to us in the indwelling which makes us temples of God and of the Holy Spirit. The Resurrection of Christ belongs to us by our dying with him to be raised unto eternal life. Christ is the best part of ourselves already in heaven and waiting for us. Christ will not be complete in heaven in his humanness until we are all one with him by virtue of living his love for one another here on earth. Thus we become his hands and his feet in our outreach to the needs of those around us. We are called by our hope in the resurrection to expect the best for each other and to look for the best in each other. The resurrection gives us reasons to hope for needed changes. The resurrection gives us Christ in each other. Spiritual intimacy is the reality of love putting us with God. God, because he is in love with the human race, allows us to find his goodness in each other. Wherever there is love, God is there. Before the Resurrection of Christ, there was no human reason to hope for a better body, no pain, being with old friends and loved one. Christ had to die not knowing so we could die with the hope of the resurrection waiting for us. We die knowing what is waiting for us. We know that heaven will be even better than what we imagine.
Study
Listening to Peter in Chapter 10 of Acts speaking of how Christ ate and drank with them after he rose from the dead makes it evident that the Resurrection is a continuation of the good things of life. Our belief in Christ brings us forgiveness for our misuse of the good things of life. Because the Lord has made us for the day of our Resurrection, we have reason enough to rejoice with the Lord and to be glad in his resurrection. Joy is the infallible sign of the Resurrection. Joy without a preceding cause gives us assurance that the resurrection awaits us. Joy belongs to Christ and is the gift given by his resurrection. It tells us that all that we do is worthwhile. We know that when Christ our life appears, then we too will appear with him in glory. Then we will be able to celebrate the feast with sincerity and truth. Christ has been sacrificed so that we might live. We go to the tomb with Mary Magdalena and Simon and John to see that the tomb is empty. All the debacles of our lives where we gave up hope are now radiant with the glory of the Resurrection which made every sacrifice of our lives worthwhile in the promise that Christ is waiting for us.
Action
We prepare for the Resurrection by prayer. It is the desire to be with Christ that promises the Resurrection. Sharing Christ becomes more and more like Eucharist and the other Sacraments. Being present to the big feasts of the Church opens our heart more and more to what the Resurrection has in store for us. It is our going to where Christ is buried in our lives and the opening of the tomb that he makes possible as he comes forth from each little moment of our lives. The Resurrection makes it possible for us to return to each familiar spot of our lives and to know the fit with each joyful moment of life has with his ongoing presence that is waiting to become the permanent presence of his love making us one with him. We search until he finds us. He is always waiting for us in the dark moments of our lives. The light of the Resurrection is more brilliant than the sun at its zenith because Christ is the light of our world in our Resurrection when all the ways we are one with him in our lives become the oneness of forever in his love. We become what we were looking for in his love.
