March 23, 2008 SOLEMNITY OF EASTER
23 MAY 2008, 8:00 P.M., 8:00, 10:30
READINGS: genesis 1:1-2:2; Exodus 14:15-15:1; Ezekiel 36:16-17a, 18-28; Matthew 28:1-10
SAINT MARY PARISH, VIROQUA
Introduction: Now arrives the greatest feast of the year. Now we celebrate the new life in Jesus and in ourselves. In fact, today the Church celebrates the Resurrection in three different dimensions.
1. First, the one that makes the others possible is the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. The gospel writers tell us that the women who went to the tomb discovered the stone rolled away from the entrance. An angel tells them the one for whom they are looking has risen. They become apostles to the apostles! When Peter and John learn of it they run the distance to the tomb. John waits for Peter, the leader of the apostles, to enter the tomb first. “They observed the wrappings on the ground and saw the piece of cloth which had covered his head not lying with the wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself.” The symbolism of these winding cloths was not lost on John. When Lazarus walked out of his tomb, he carried his winding cloths with him. He would need them for a second death. But not so Jesus! He would never die again. John knew then that Jesus had risen.
2. The second resurrection is the one you and I experienced at our baptisms. It’s true. Saint Paul reminds us, “Do you not know that when you went down into the river (to be baptized) you were entering into the tomb of Jesus; and you rose up with him to new life.” That event in our lives fixed a pattern of dying and rising in our life. It is a pattern that is repeated virtually every day in the life of the Christian.
At the Good Friday Liturgy, a priest carried the cross up the main aisle of every Catholic church. Three times he paused: at the entrance, midway down the aisle, in the sanctuary. Each time he sang “Behold the wood of the cross on which hung the Savior of the world.” Tonight, (last night) the priest carried up the aisle of the totally darkened church the newly lighted Easter candle. Again, he paused; three times he paused at the same locations; three times he sang, “Christ, the Light!” The gesture is meant to say to all in the church that our dark crosses are buried by the Light of Christ. Light is victorious over the darkness. Our sorrows, our sufferings, find comfort in him. Each time that happens, we re-live the pattern of our baptism. Unless the resurrection means something to us in our everyday lives, it is meaningless. Here for us lies the meaning of Easter. The great painter, Renoir, suffered in the last 20 years of his life from arthritis. His fingers, his wrists, his arms, his backbone were all painfully afflicted. Sometimes they had to tie a paintbrush to his fingers. Still, he painted. Once, a student asked, “Why do you go on and torture yourself like this?” Renoir looked at his canvas and replied, “The pain passes, but the beauty remains.” So it can be with every sorrow!
3. There is a third kind of resurrection. It will happen at the end of time when God will raise up our mortal bodies to be like his in glory. You may know of Malcolm Muggeridge, the crotchety British journalist. Late in life he became inspired by the life of Mother Teresa; he wrote a book about her. He left his atheism and became a devout Catholic. Life-long colleagues of his were cynical about his change; but Muggeridge wrote “As I approach my end, I find Jesus’ outrageous claim even more captivating and meaningful. Often, waking in the night as the old do, I feel myself to be half out of my body…I see my ancient carcass, stained and worn like a scrap of paper dropped in the gutter and, hovering over it, myself, like a butterfly released from its caterpillar stage and ready to fly away.” A vision of his resurrection.
Conclusion: Christ is risen! We are called upon to rise daily! If we live out our baptismal promises, we shall rise again with him at the end of time.