Easter Sunday
Inside Jesus' empty tomb
According to the Michigan Vital Records, 115,408 people died in the year 2020 from causes including cancer, heart disease, COPD, stroke, pneumonia and flu, septicemia, and COVID-19 (this is probably not the way you thought the homily for Easter was going to begin, is it?). Two of those deaths in 2020 were my grandfathers, Jesse Perez and Fred Strouse, Sr. Twenty-seven other deaths were parishioners at St. Pius X parish. Perhaps others were family or friends of yours.
I haven’t seen a number, but I have to believe that the amount of money spent on pills, creams, liquids, etc. to prolong life is a staggering amount of money. After all, living is certainly better than dying. And those who disagree, tend to overwhelmingly be the kind of people who are still alive (dead people tend to not respond to surveys).
Our bodies, too, are equipped for life. Parents are quite good at calling the bluff of children who say that they’re going to hold their breath until they die, because parents know that, if a child did actually try to stop breathing, eventually the body will go into autopilot, restart, and get you breathing again. While I can’t point to any science, I remember learning somewhere that the last parts of your body to shut-down, should you be in a very cold environment, are those that deal with life, especially the brain, heart, and lungs. We are hard wired for life. There’s even a phobia for death: thanataphobia.
But as Catholics, we should not fear death. Now, to be clear, I’m not saying we should go looking for it, either. We should not embrace euthanasia nor seek to end our own life. But today makes everything different for us. Easter changes our perspective on death.
Easter, in case we have forgotten over the years, is the celebration of Jesus rising from the dead. Jesus was truly dead; it wasn’t a trick, it wasn’t an illusion. Jesus was dead. But three days later, He came back to life. There were witnesses to this, including St. Mary Magdalene, the first to see the risen Christ, St. John the Apostle, who was there at the cross when Jesus died, and a few others. What will become clear in the Gospels over the next few weeks is that no one expected the Resurrection to happen. This wasn’t some group psychosis from people who wanted something to be true. If the Gospels tell us anything about the expectation for the Resurrection, they make clear that expectation didn’t exist. If the apostles thought that Jesus was coming back, why were they amazed at the empty tomb? Why be amazed when He appeared on the road to Emmaus, in the Upper Room, and to many others, not the least of whom was St. Paul on the road to Damascus.
And yet, despite the disciples’ lack of hope in the Resurrection, they all say He rose. And Jesus Himself, as we hear in the Easter Gospels, will prove that it’s Him by the wounds on His body, and by eating with them. And from that point on, for those who believe, death has not seemed that remarkable.
This is not to say that death is not sad, or to make light of it. I still can get tears in my eyes from people I’ve loved who have died. Perhaps as a priest the waves of grief are more common, and yet less strong, because I help families grieve a death on a regular basis. But it hurts not having a loved one around anymore. I’ve recently tried my hand at making Spanish rice that my grandmother used to make when she was alive. I’ve gotten decent, but it’s not the same, and there’s a certain frustration in not being able to taste it how she made it.
But Jesus’ Resurrection is not a story from 2,000 years ago that stays in the past. It is meant to inform our present, as well. Jesus conquering death means that death is not the end, and we do not have to have thanataphobia, the fear of death. Jesus’ Resurrection paves the way for ours, as well, and changes the way we look at death. It’s possible that we can go to heaven, because Christ has shown us the way. Through the gift of self to the Father, through laying down one’s life for one’s beloved, through following Jesus with all of who we are, death becomes a transition from this life to the life to come.
Again, I’m not saying that we can be reckless with life. I wear my seatbelt; I don’t play in traffic; I don’t only eat junk food; I go to the doctor; etc., etc. I don’t take life lightly, but I try not to give death more than its due. Our hope in the resurrection is not only meant to help us feel better about loved ones who die. Our hope in the resurrection is meant to give us courage to live the radical life Jesus calls us to, a life lived entirely for Him. What gave the martyrs the ability to suffer horrible torments of body? At the end of the day, the worst anyone could do is make them die, and death wasn’t so terrible, because Jesus had risen from the dead. The worst that Roman officials, and barbarian kings, and tribal warriors, and heads of state, and Nazi and Communist guards could do had already been done, and Jesus had conquered it.
As followers of Jesus we are not to take life lightly. We are to value and treasure every human life, and work to promote its growth and development in virtue and faith and love. Death is not a fate to be avoided at all costs, something for which we would give up anything. Death, as part of God’s will and according to His plan, is another part of the life that God has told us will go on forever, hopefully in heaven.
How does not fearing death change you today? What do you do differently if death is conquered and has no more power? How does Jesus’ Resurrection, which we celebrate today and every Sunday, make you live for Him?
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| Entrance to the empty tomb in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem |