April 1 2018: Easter Sunday B
April 1 2018: Easter Sunday B
Click to hear Audio Homily
Almost ten years ago as a newly ordained priest, I was in the Church of Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. This church literally covers the area where Jesus was crucified, where his body was dressed, and where he was buried. It was the site where Mary Magdalene, Peter, and John came to discover that Jesus’ body was no longer in the tomb. A few steps into the entrance of the church on the right is a flight of stairs that leads to the site of Calvary. Behind the altar of Calvary is a mosaic of Blessed Mother standing before her Son as he is nailed on the Cross. Nearby is a statue of Our Lady of Sorrows which depicts her heart pierced with seven swords. Even though hundreds of pilgrims passed through this chapel of Calvary while I was praying, there was a solemn silence and prayerfulness. Perhaps the pilgrims saw in the face of sorrowful Blessed Mother the gravity of the sins of humanity that led to her Son being crucified. After coming down from the flight of stairs from Calvary, pilgrims kneel before a slab of stone, spreading aromatic oil on the stone and kissing it. It’s called the stone of anointing where Jesus’ body was wrapped in linen, spices, and myrrh. As I knelt and kissed the stone, I imagined what Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were feeling as they prepared Jesus’ body for burial.
Just around the corner from the stone was a long line of people waiting to go inside a small free-standing chapel which enclosed the site of Jesus’ tomb. For all of us waiting to go into the chapel, we were standing with joyful anticipation of seeing the very place where Jesus was resurrected. From the Gospel accounts, we know what happened to the body of Jesus, but for the disciples of the first Easter, they were filled with sadness and anxiety. Upto the time of Jesus’ arrest, the disciples were filled with hope, joy, and purpose. With the crucifixion and death of their Master, they lost their hope and purpose. We can almost hear their anxious thoughts, “What do we do now? Where do we go from here? What was the point of our time spent following him?” As I observe the past few years sparsely attended masses during Holy Week, I wonder if the modern disciples of Jesus have also lost confidence and purpose of why they follow a man from Galilee. When I was at another parish, I remember a parishioner telling me, “No, I can’t come to the Good Friday service because that’s our family crawfish boil event.” I stood there wondering if she understood what she had just said to me. If Good Friday was only about family time, then she missed the point about what Good Friday is.
What we celebrate today is the resurrection of Christ, which would not have happened without all the events since Creation--the Fall of Adam and Eve, testing of Abraham’s faith with sacrifice of his son Isaac, Moses leading Israelites from slavery in Egypt, prophecies of Messiah the Savior, the birth of Jesus, his ministry, rejection, the Last Supper, and crucifixion. The main thread of the history of our salvation is that God desires to reunite us to him. Throughout the entire history of mankind, God is faithful to us despite our unfaithfulness (whether intentional or unintentional). As we stand before this altar of sacrifice at Mass, we cannot forget that we are standing right before the altar of Calvary where Our Lord offers his very own life for our sake. We cannot take lightly the sins that we commit everyday, for each of them has consequence. Yet, Our Lord took the consequences of our deadly actions and took them upon himself so that we might not die and experience an eternal separation from Heavenly Father. This is the good news of the day, that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. He is risen to awaken in us a love that does not die; a love of the Father that we are to teach and spread just as Jesus did.
When I was kneeling inside the chapel of Jesus’ tomb (also known as chapel of Resurrection), I was filled with hope and not dread or sadness because of the joy of the resurrection… because I know the Lord has redeemed all of us to live eternally with Heavenly Father. I was pleasantly surprised to find out the past couple of days that people still feel the significance of Easter in their lives. Normally people are not in touch with their mortality, because most people fear death. The video of me singing the song “Be Not Afraid” garnered comments from folks who remember the song from a funeral of their loved one. Many wrote that the song made them tear up because it brought back the memory of sadness and emptiness of losing their loved one. The lyric that I think touches people is the refrain, “Be not afraid. I go before you always. Come follow me. I will give you rest.” Our Lord has risen and destroyed death once for all, and we are all invited to share this amazing hope. Pope Benedict XVI wrote, “The remedy for the emptiness of our lives is found in the empty tomb of Easter morning.” When we are struggling, discouraged, or depressed, Resurrected Christ walks with us, leading us to the path of our resurrection. Our hope comes from Jesus’ empty tomb -- and thus we cannot call it empty, because it is filled with hope.
Almost ten years ago as a newly ordained priest, I was in the Church of Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. This church literally covers the area where Jesus was crucified, where his body was dressed, and where he was buried. It was the site where Mary Magdalene, Peter, and John came to discover that Jesus’ body was no longer in the tomb. A few steps into the entrance of the church on the right is a flight of stairs that leads to the site of Calvary. Behind the altar of Calvary is a mosaic of Blessed Mother standing before her Son as he is nailed on the Cross. Nearby is a statue of Our Lady of Sorrows which depicts her heart pierced with seven swords. Even though hundreds of pilgrims passed through this chapel of Calvary while I was praying, there was a solemn silence and prayerfulness. Perhaps the pilgrims saw in the face of sorrowful Blessed Mother the gravity of the sins of humanity that led to her Son being crucified. After coming down from the flight of stairs from Calvary, pilgrims kneel before a slab of stone, spreading aromatic oil on the stone and kissing it. It’s called the stone of anointing where Jesus’ body was wrapped in linen, spices, and myrrh. As I knelt and kissed the stone, I imagined what Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were feeling as they prepared Jesus’ body for burial.
Just around the corner from the stone was a long line of people waiting to go inside a small free-standing chapel which enclosed the site of Jesus’ tomb. For all of us waiting to go into the chapel, we were standing with joyful anticipation of seeing the very place where Jesus was resurrected. From the Gospel accounts, we know what happened to the body of Jesus, but for the disciples of the first Easter, they were filled with sadness and anxiety. Upto the time of Jesus’ arrest, the disciples were filled with hope, joy, and purpose. With the crucifixion and death of their Master, they lost their hope and purpose. We can almost hear their anxious thoughts, “What do we do now? Where do we go from here? What was the point of our time spent following him?” As I observe the past few years sparsely attended masses during Holy Week, I wonder if the modern disciples of Jesus have also lost confidence and purpose of why they follow a man from Galilee. When I was at another parish, I remember a parishioner telling me, “No, I can’t come to the Good Friday service because that’s our family crawfish boil event.” I stood there wondering if she understood what she had just said to me. If Good Friday was only about family time, then she missed the point about what Good Friday is.
What we celebrate today is the resurrection of Christ, which would not have happened without all the events since Creation--the Fall of Adam and Eve, testing of Abraham’s faith with sacrifice of his son Isaac, Moses leading Israelites from slavery in Egypt, prophecies of Messiah the Savior, the birth of Jesus, his ministry, rejection, the Last Supper, and crucifixion. The main thread of the history of our salvation is that God desires to reunite us to him. Throughout the entire history of mankind, God is faithful to us despite our unfaithfulness (whether intentional or unintentional). As we stand before this altar of sacrifice at Mass, we cannot forget that we are standing right before the altar of Calvary where Our Lord offers his very own life for our sake. We cannot take lightly the sins that we commit everyday, for each of them has consequence. Yet, Our Lord took the consequences of our deadly actions and took them upon himself so that we might not die and experience an eternal separation from Heavenly Father. This is the good news of the day, that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. He is risen to awaken in us a love that does not die; a love of the Father that we are to teach and spread just as Jesus did.
When I was kneeling inside the chapel of Jesus’ tomb (also known as chapel of Resurrection), I was filled with hope and not dread or sadness because of the joy of the resurrection… because I know the Lord has redeemed all of us to live eternally with Heavenly Father. I was pleasantly surprised to find out the past couple of days that people still feel the significance of Easter in their lives. Normally people are not in touch with their mortality, because most people fear death. The video of me singing the song “Be Not Afraid” garnered comments from folks who remember the song from a funeral of their loved one. Many wrote that the song made them tear up because it brought back the memory of sadness and emptiness of losing their loved one. The lyric that I think touches people is the refrain, “Be not afraid. I go before you always. Come follow me. I will give you rest.” Our Lord has risen and destroyed death once for all, and we are all invited to share this amazing hope. Pope Benedict XVI wrote, “The remedy for the emptiness of our lives is found in the empty tomb of Easter morning.” When we are struggling, discouraged, or depressed, Resurrected Christ walks with us, leading us to the path of our resurrection. Our hope comes from Jesus’ empty tomb -- and thus we cannot call it empty, because it is filled with hope.
