Easter 2002

They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; 40 but God raised him on the third day and made him manifest; Acts 10: 39-40

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, today we wish each other a Happy Easter, a liturgical greeting which sounds the joy of the greatest feast of our Faith, celebrating the greatest event and greatest Good News in all of human History. We began this celebration, in a real sense, several months ago, on Christmas Day when we joyfully commemorated the day of God's coming into human history as a man born of woman. On Christmas our joy proclaims our faith to the world that the one born that day, while truly one of us, is someone infinitely greater than any of us, for he is truly God who created the universe, and who now assumes the smallness and weakness of our humanity.

The new humanity which emerged that day from the womb of the blessed Virgin was as much greater than the old humanity which descends from the First Adam, as this Second Adam, the second progenitor of the human race is superior in every way to the First Adam. He is Emmanuel, God with is, and the Redeemer of man God for us, and today we celebrate the new humanity in all its glory that came forth from the tomb on Easter Sunday morning over 2000 years ago. We are part of that new humanity born from Christ, and we have been raised with him to a whole new life in God, a life which one day we will experience in the fulness of our humanity, body and soul, as Christ raises us from the dead. That is our hope, and that is the joy we hear in the Good news today, and wish each other, when we say Happy Easter.

Perhaps we do not think much about the inner connection between the joy of Christmas and the even greater joy of Easter. We have just been through the season of lent and the sorrow of Good Friday, and we may have a tendency of such relief and joy in the celebration of Easter that we bypass its connection with Christmas. But what in fact would Christmas ultimately have meant to us, unless Good Friday and Easter had followed, the events by which we die to sin and are reborn in Christ as new creatures, citizens of His Kingdom, and members of the new humanity which came forth from his side on the Cross and from the tomb on Easter. Christmas would have meant nothing for us, if the God made man, and had not in turn made man a child of God. And Good Friday would ultimately have meant nothing without Christmas, since no mere man could have been the redeemer of man and the progenitor of a new human race. That is the blessed interconnection: without Christmas, no Good Friday, without Good Friday, no Easter, and without them both no new humanity, no hope, no joy, in the end nothing but despair.

But today we celebrate the infinite goodness and mercy of God, for he was truly born for us on Christmas, did for us on Good Friday and rose for us on Easter. This is the true history of our race, the source of our joy today and forever. This history and source of our joy is captured in the sentence from St. Paul's letter to the Philippians , which has been the leitmotif of our Lenten liturgies:

Christus factus est pro nobis obediens ad mortem, morten autem crucis, Propter quod et Deus exaltavit illum, et dedit illi nomen quod est super omne nomen. And being found in human form [Christ] humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name. Phil 2:9

Yes, because Jesus humbled himself and in made atonement for our disobedience though his obedience unto death, God has exalted him by raising him up this day, and with Him God has raised us up, who are his brethren by faith and divine adoption, so that we have hope of eternal life, including the raising of our own mortal flesh to immortality at the end of time. This is the Good News proclaimed by Peter, in today's first reading

They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and made him manifest

It is the Good News that sent the Apostles Peter and John away from the tomb filled with wonder and faith because till that moment, as John confesses "they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead."

And finally it is the Good News that Paul announces in today's second reading to the Colossians , as their Good News, the basis of their whole new way of life based now based upon their faith in Christ's death and resurrection and what it means for us:

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Colossians 3:1-4

Dear brothers and sisters, this is no fantasy or fairy tale that the Church announces to us today, but the deepest truth about man and his history, the unfathomable love of God for man, who even loved us unto his own death so that we might live in Him and with Him, forever; that we might conquer sin and even death itself by rising, in Him, to a whole new life. Who could have imagined this, what man could ever have dreamt up such a God and his love for us, a God who loves man so much that He is willing to lower himself and become a bit of dust in his creation, die for men who have all gone astray and shown the greatest contempt for his love, and finally to have risen in this world, so we might have the solid hope and longing for the life that he has planned for us from all Eternity, if only we will turn to Him.

What on earth keeps us from turning to him with all our heart except that our heart should still be weighed down with sin, the very thing he came to rescue us from by his death and deliver us from by his resurrection. His grace constantly calls us to Himself, opens the way and makes it possible for hearts weighed down by sin to turn to Him and receive immortal life. If we do not turn, would anyone be so blind as to blame it on the God who has gone to such lengths to rescue us from eternal loss, while respecting the freedom of choice which is also his gift to us as men?

Easter calls us to Joy and to conversion, to turn to Him ever more lovingly who has loved each of us unto death, and was raised for each of us, so we might never know death again. For the man who had faith, nothing can make us despair, not even our own sinfulness and weakness, for we have a mighty and merciful God who has died for us and was raised on this day for us. This is the Good News that fills us with joy today and every day, if our hearts, as Paul says, are by faith, hope and love set on Christ and the things that are above, the things that constitute our true destiny and happiness and not on the things of earth which are at best passing goods, and at worst things that will destroy us and the hope that God has placed in our hearts this day.

May the joy of Easter be the true light shining in the darkness of this world, our world, our hearts and the hearts of all men and women. May our Easter joy proclaim to a world that is shrouded in darkness and despair, the hope found only in Jesus Christ, God with us, God for us, the God who calls all men to salvation in Himself, the Crucified and now Risen Lord. Amen