Easter Sunday (Fr. Francis)

I miss so many of the things that make Easter special. I miss the Church filled with people, the joyful music, the beautiful flowers, the pastel decorations, the babies with goofy Easter outfits who have no idea why people are smiling at them. I miss things that I never even thought I cared about before, but now that I’m stuck in my home, adhering to a stay-at-home order, and social distancing from the people I love, the things I miss jump out at me. So many of us are feeling the stress of illness and death, of being laid off or trying to work from home while our children run around and disrupt us, or of impatiently trying to homeschool our children to get them through the end of the semester. It can feel quite burdensome.

Why must it be this way? When will it end? This Coronavirus has turned our world upside down to be sure, but now it has even left its mark on Easter. Somehow it just doesn’t seem fair. How can I celebrate the joy of our Savior’s resurrection in a house that’s overcrowded, filled with dirty laundry, and desperately short on toilet paper because so many people are hoarding it? But then I think back to that very first Easter which we heard about in today’s Gospel, and it sheds some light on my dilemma. How did the early Church come to celebrate the joy of Easter? It’s obvious when we read from the conclusions of the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and the epistles that these were people who were overjoyed at the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Did they have grand and beautifully decorated Churches? No, they often gathered in people’s houses to celebrate the Mass, houses which probably were overcrowded, filled with dirty laundry, and quite frankly I don’t even know if they had toilet paper back then. Did they have beautiful decorations and joyful music? Perhaps, but it didn’t take very long before those things had to be removed from public view as the Church came under persecution. Of course, I assume that they probably did in fact have cute babies. But if they lacked the trimmings and trappings that make up our celebration of Easter, how did they find the joy of the resurrection? They found it in their hearts. They found it in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. They found it in the sheer joy of knowing that there something special about them: they were a disciple of the risen Jesus Christ.

On this Easter Sunday, despite all of the distractions that want to pull away our joy, we must remember that our faith is bigger than life, and that our God is bigger than death. We are called to find our joy for the resurrection of Jesus Christ in our hearts. We are called to welcome that same Holy Spirit into our hearts so that we too can live in the joy of the greatest event in all of history — the resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Savior and our Messiah. It is there, in the depths of the heart, that we come to know the Lord and to appreciate his resurrection. It is there, in the depths of the heart, that we embrace his love and come to a conversion experience. It is there, in the depths of the heart that the risen Lord speaks to us of his great love and mercy.

Easter joy does not require a Church filled with people, joyful music, beautiful flowers, pastel decorations, or even babies. Easter joy comes from the sheer exuberance we feel from knowing that Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, loved me enough to suffer and die for my sins, and to rise from the dead for my salvation. Easter joy comes from an inner conviction that my life is special and worth living because I am a disciple of the Lord, and that he loves me more than I could ever imagine.

On this most unusual of Easter Sundays, we have more reason than ever to exclaim, “Alleluia! He is risen!” We have more reason than ever because this virus which plagues our world has caused us to think more deeply about the value and the meaning of life, and it is there that we find the deeper truths about what it means to have a Savior. About what it means to have eternal life. And about what it means to know that we are so loved by our creator that he gave his life so that we can have eternal life.

As painful as this pandemic has been, it has brought some lessons with it that we do well to remember. Lessons like the fact that doctors, nurses, delivery people, janitors, and the like are much more heroic than our sports stars. Lessons like the fact that it’s not all that bad to be stuck inside as a family having dinner together and playing board games. Lessons like the fact that we appreciate our friends and loved ones a whole lot more when we are suddenly afraid of losing them. But, most importantly, lessons like the fact that Easter is not about what happens around us, or what entertains us. Easter is about giving thanks for our Savior who gave literally everything he had to us from the goodness of his sacred heart, so that we can embrace him in the depths of our own heart.

Easter is the greatest and the most important feast in the Church for three reasons: 

1. The Resurrection of Christ is the basis of our Christian Faith.  It is the greatest of the miracles, for it proves that Jesus is God.  That is why St. Paul writes: “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain; and your Faith is in vain” (I Cor 15:14). “Jesus is Lord, He is risen!” (Rom 10:9), was the central theme of the kerygma (or “preaching”), of the apostles, because Jesus had prophesied His Resurrection as a sign of His Divinity:  The founder of no other religion has an empty tomb as Jesus has. 
2. Easter is the guarantee of our own resurrection.  Jesus assured Martha at the tomb of Lazarus: “I am the Resurrection and the life; whoever believes in Me will live even though he dies” (Jn 11:25-26). 
3. Easter is a feast which gives us hope and encouragement in this world of pain, sorrows, and tears.  It reminds us that life is worth living.  It is our belief in the Real Presence of the Risen Jesus in our souls, in His Church, in the Blessed Sacrament and in Heaven that gives meaning to our personal as well as our communal prayer, strength to fight against temptations, and freedom from unnecessary worries and fears.

He is indeed risen! Happy Easter to all!

Rev Fr A Francis HGN