Happy Easter! Christ Jesus is Risen! Life takes on a new horizon.
Have you ever thought of yourself as immortal? Have you ever considered that you have a “forever” to live life? The resurrection from the dead of Jesus casts a new light on our human existence. No longer are we bound by finite ends. Our life has an all new endless and brilliant horizon, and we come to share in this new resurrected and glorious horizon gifted us by Christ Jesus through our Baptism.
Most of us will, at times, think of our mortality. We have life insurance, we draw up wills, we think of which of our treasures we will give to those special people in our lives. Some of us even write our own obituaries. And that’s OK, That’s human and that’s human thinking. But the beauty of this day, the incredible nature of today lifts our minds and hearts to another dimension – to another perspective – in deed, to another life.
It all started with our Baptism, when we were born into the resurrected life of Jesus Christ, a life that knows no end, nor boundaries. Death has no more hold on us. Yes, our bodies still die, but that is not the end of our life. For not only will our souls live on past our death, but our bodies and souls will be re-united and resurrected from our graves unto the glory that we see already in Jesus, the firstborn of the dead. With this faith, we come to find that the urgencies and anxieties that death can put upon our desires for our life come to fade into nothingness as we now see that we have a “forever” to experience—all for which we could ever yearn. And it is a “forever” lie that we must inculcate into our hearts and minds. Most of us don’t want our mortal lies to end or the lives of those we love to end. So, when the end comes for those we love, we grieve and mourn deeply.
But today’s message is to remind us that the mourning is not only temporary but really reflects the fact that we will miss the life of the one we love. Today’s message – the central one of Christendom – is that we all live on. Jesus Christ came to vividly demonstrate that. He left His tomb and walked about those he loved – how much more dramatic could that be? When we come here, when we say a prayer, when we sit in silence with our God, we must remember what being a Christian is all about. It is about being a forever people. We live on because He did for us. The impossible has come through. THAT is an incredible and almost hard to believe story. That is a story that should nourish hope. The story of Easter is that we We need to center our hearts on what is good and true and beautiful, namely Jesus Christ and his plan of salvation. That should be our strength and joy.
The resurrection gives us our freedom to decide our life’s direction, unencumbered by the insidious snares of the devil. Because we know that sin has no hold on us. There is no evil, no sin whose allure is greater than the promise of eternal life. The death of Christ—just like the death of all those who came before us who fought so that we may have freedom—bestows a great and ineffable dignity on our liberty to make choices in regards the direction of our life. The resurrection of Christ shows us a great light to guide us in our choices. It shows us a glimmer of the glory that waits when we use our freedom to embrace, not the fading allurements of the present, but an endless glory of resplendent beauty in the future.
The truth of the Resurrection makes everything new. And that truth should permeate all that we do. Which also means it should raise some qiestions for us? Does the wonder of the Resurrection penetrate my entire life filling me with peace and joy? If not, why not? Am I convinced that the best way I can witness to Christ is by a life that is “full” and truly happy, whatever the vicissitudes I may suffer?
Does the Resurrection really make a difference to me?” Do I really live differently from those who don’t accept Christ because I believe in the Resurrection? Or is my belief merely a veneer that allows me to think of myself as a Christian when really nothing in the way I live distinguishes me from those who are not Christians? Having made this evaluation, I will correct those things that needs changing to show I believe in the Resurrection with all my heart.
The glory of Easter is a future glory. It calls us to wait for fulfillment, to use our freedom to choose the greatest good—a good that lies not in any temptation before our eyes at present, but for a beauty that can only be attained through holy patience. Easter freedom is a freedom for a better tomorrow. It is, therefore, as an Easter people—by virtue of our Baptism, and nourished in the sacred food of the Eucharist—that we journey and live, not for today, but for the beauty that waits!
Halleluia, Christ is Risen.
