The
Resurrection of the Lord--Easter Sunday
“Unless
you become like little children, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” If you’re wondering if you fell asleep
during part of the Gospel and missed that part, don’t worry. Those words of Jesus weren’t in today’s
Gospel passage. But, these words
are Easter words which we need to hear today.
Have
you ever noticed that a child, when there’s really good news, can’t help but
tell someone? The child acts as if
keeping that good news would cause that child to explode! Maybe the child got a new puppy. Maybe the child just received tons of
chocolate for Easter, or the much-desired present for Christmas. But that child has to tell
someone! We adults have learned
more how to control our emotions, and so it doesn’t effect us as much, but if
something great happens, even adults have a hard time holding it in. Imagine if you would have won that half
a billion lottery. I’m sure you
would have told someone. I sure
would! Or maybe you got a
promotion, or won a raffle, or got a new car. We want to share.
It’s as if that joy inside of us would cause us to explode. We just have to tell someone!
Today
we celebrate the greatest news ever: the tomb is empty! Christ has risen! Death has died! Sin is vanquished! Hallelujah!! Fast forward 50 days from that first Easter to Pentecost,
when the apostles received the fullness of the Spirit, and St. Peter cannot
hold it in: “‘This man God raised on the third day and granted that he be
visible...[and] everyone who believes in him will receive forgiveness of sins
through his name.’” The apostles
and disciples are so excited on that day, that everyone assumes they’re
drunk! But the only wine which
inebriated them that day was God’s Word and the fulfillment of His promises,
what St. Thomas Aquinas calls the new wine of the spirit.
And
so today, faced with this great joy, we should be bursting at the seams! The joy of knowing that Christ has won
and death is no more should be inside us, ready to explode out of us. Christ’s resurrection means that for
those who pass through the cross and remain faithful and obedient to God, as
was Jesus, there is a new life awaiting them with no sorrow, no tears, no pain,
and a glorified body which is no longer bound by the limits of this earthly
domain. Disease has lost. Hatred has lost. Darkness has lost. Jesus Christ, the way, the truth, and
the life, the light of the world, the embodiment of love, has won. This is a greater joy than winning the
lottery, or a new car, or a promotion.
But are we childlike enough to not hold this joy in?
Now,
I’m a pretty stoic guy. I’m not
one to show a lot of emotion. But
sharing our joy in Christ does not only mean that we are always smiling. There’s a lot on earth at this time
that, if we think about it enough, would probably make us want to cry. But there’s a confidence that we should
have in knowing that anything which is not in Christ will pass away, and will
receive it’s final destruction when Christ comes again to establish, once and
for all, his total dominion. This
joy that we have means that when we see sorrow and suffering, we want to bring
Christ; when we see another walking in darkness, we want to bring light; when
we see another oppressed by the chains of hatred, we want to share with them
the freedom of God who is Love.
I
saw that joy on senior day for the MSU Men’s Basketball team. Now, remember, we lost to Ohio
State. We didn’t play our
best. There was a lot to
mourn. But Austin Thorton let that
joy explode out of him when, after being asked to share a few words, began
with, “I’d first like to thank my personal Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” That’s a man who knows the joy of the
resurrection, a joy he wants everyone to experience, a joy which he could not
keep to himself. That’s the leaven
that St. Paul calls us to be in society, a leaven of sincerity and truth which
makes the whole lump of dough rise to Christ.
Of
course, to share that joy, we have to have it ourselves. And the only way we get that joy is by
knowing Jesus personally.
Evangelicals often ask this question, but really it belongs to us
Catholics: Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ? Do you know Him? Do you love Him? If not, what are you doing to change
that? By joining a Bible study, a
faith sharing group, reading Matthew Kelly’s Rediscovering Catholicism, or watching the “Catholicism” DVD series,
we can grow leaps and bounds in that joy that the apostles had.
In
first century Rome, Nero blamed the Christians for the fire of Rome which he
started, and the mob went along with it.
St. Paul was beheaded with a sword. St. Peter was crucified upside down. Other Christians were doused in tar,
attached to large poles, and set ablaze to light the evening streets. Fast forward 1500 years, and some of
the first Christians on our continent, the Jesuit missionaries, endured their
fingernails being pulled out, their right hand being chopped off, having
boiling water poured over them, and being scalped. They didn’t endure this because they had some inner strength
that we don’t have. They endured
it because of the joy of the resurrection, the joy of knowing Christ, and
realizing that nothing was more important than fidelity to God and sharing that
joy with others.
As
Deacon Mike mentioned here on Good Friday, Bishop Boyea recently released his
first pastoral letter to our diocese, calling for all of us to share the Good
News, the joy of Jesus by what we do, by what we say, by how we live our lives,
by what we make important. We come
to Mass each week, not to get our Catholic calisthenics of standing, sitting,
standing, and kneeling, but to return to Church to celebrate each Sunday as a
little Easter; to remind ourselves in what we should have our joy; and to be
strengthened by each other, by the Word of God, and especially by the
Eucharist: the Body and Blood of the same Jesus who died to save us from sin
and rose from the dead.
“Unless
you become like little children, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” Do we have the heart of a child so that
we cannot wait to tell someone who doesn’t know the joy of the
resurrection? Because the tomb is
empty! Hallelujah! Christ has risen! Hallelujah! Death has died!
Hallelujah! Sin is
vanquished! Hallelujah! Go and announce the Gospel, the joy of
the Lord. Hallelujah!!
