Tonight we celebrate that Jesus Christ is truly risen from the dead. For nearly two thousand years, this belief has been proclaimed, defended, and celebrated by the Church – that after a cruel death by crucifixion with betrayal by those closest to Him, Jesus has been raised from the dead by the power of the eternal Father.
To many this is a wild claim. It is pure nonsense. It is difficult to believe in. Many of us have seen death: We have seen its coldness and finality, so this resurrection claim can seem ridiculous! And yet it’s more than a claim - it’s the heart of our faith!
It can be very difficult when it hits close to home, especially when it is sudden or senseless. Yesterday, I received two phone calls from the same funeral home director, two of our parishioners died on Good Friday.
The first call came around noon and it was Ken Clemen who had died. I knew he was struggling, but the prognosis I heard was that he had a few more weeks to live, so this was a surprise to me.
The second call came that night and it was Mark Dalsing who had died. Mark just retired as the Dubuque Chief of Police about six months ago and started working recently for Catholic Charities. At the age of 55, this was even more of a surprise. As I talked to the funeral director, it was clear that he was even distraught over it, he sees death all of the time, more than me, but yet he was taking this one hard.
But he concluded, “well, since he died on the same day as Jesus, we believe that he will rise with Jesus as well,” to which I responded, “Amen.”All we believe and hope in is based on the Resurrection.
The women in our Gospel reading had no resurrection expectation or hope. They had simply come with spices to complete the burial rites for their fallen friend. They had come with broken hearts to prepare a body for what they assumed would be His eternal rest.
But instead of burial rites, spices, and cloths, they find themselves in the middle of an event that has forever changed the course of human history. Instead of a message of death, they are entrusted with a message of life… a message of resurrection… a message of hope.
This message is really one of love. It is love that propels this holy night, a love that was began with the creation story, that continued in the choice of Israel, that led the Isrealites out of Egypt through the Red Sea, that was foretold by the prophets and reached its full revelation for everyone, Jews and Gentiles alike, through the person of Jesus Christ. It is a love that we recalled on Holy Thursday through seeing me washing people’s feet, Jesus’ model and call to service in fraternal charity, and in our remembrance of His holy sacrifice as we received the Eucharist… It's a love that we recalled on Good Friday as Christ willingly gave himself up to death for our salvation as we venerated the Cross.
All love has its source in God who is love itself… that love bursts into our world this holy night, bringing forth life and breaking forever the bonds of death. It’s a holy love that soothes the broken-hearted, consoles the grieving, comforts the needy, and frees all from death with its darkness and hopelessness. It is this holy love that raises Christ from the dead and offers us a share in the eternal life of God.
Tonight, in churches across the world, thousands of believers will for the first time be reborn in that love through the waters of baptism. Here we will confirm two adults and one of them will receive communion for the first time, the Sacrament of God’s Love. As we renew our baptismal promises, millions who already have known that love will be renewed in it.
Here, tonight, every human heart that has ever desired true peace and mercy will be offered a share in the life of Jesus Christ – a new life where death is no more and where love triumphs.
The Christ we celebrate tonight is no longer Jesus of the cross. To remain at the cross would be to miss the very reason that Christ died for us and to ignore the life-giving power of God and the Gospel. For tonight we celebrate the risen Christ and the power of His resurrection to change our heart… to change every human heart.
The resurrection is the complete victory of love, reconciliation, and self-giving over the stones of sadness, despair, shame, self-hatred, and sin. Even that seemingly insurmountable stone we call death with its fear and dread is now defeated, its power smashed in the life-giving response of the Father to the self-giving of his only Son.
Tonight, we are a people of hope, invited to share in Christ’s bright promise of eternal life. Like the women in tonight’s Gospel who found the stone already rolled away, we now have reason to hope, to be grateful, and to rejoice. And like St. Peter, let us go “home amazed at what had happened,” so that we might live as St. Paul said, “Consequently, you too must think of yourselves as living for God in Christ Jesus.”
Amen. Alleluia!