EASTER SUNDAY HOMILY – YEAR A
Repent, Believe, Grieve and Experience Easter
(Acts 10:34, 36-43; Psalm 118; Col 3:1-4; John 20:1-18)
****************************************************
The feelings most often associated with Easter morning would be peace and joy. Hopefully, as we woke up this Easter morning, we were experiencing at least to some degree, those Easter emotions.
Whether we are experiencing those emotions or not, the liturgy today seeks to instill or deepen those emotions with its message to repent, believe, grieve and experience Easter.
It begins with belief. In the gospel we are told that St. John, the other disciple, also went into the tomb, saw the linen cloths lying there, and believed. Let us join St. John in a profound act of belief in the resurrection. Let there be no doubt – Jesus is risen from the dead. Death and sin have been overcome. The body of Jesus was not stolen or the cloth would be gone with it. Jesus burst out of that burial cloth, leaving them behind. This was resurrection to new life – he would never die again.
Then we move to repentance and forgiveness. St. Peter, speaking after the giving of the Spirit at Pentecost, is very clear. Everyone who believes in the Risen Lord will receive forgiveness of sins through his name. Actually, all the appearances of Jesus after his resurrection are experiences of forgiveness. The apostles and disciples had betrayed, denied and abandoned him. They must have had some fear of seeing him, yet when they did, there was only peace and joy – in other words, total, unconditional, compassionate and merciful forgiveness. Easter is all about receiving God’s forgiveness through Jesus and being reconciled to God.
Returning to the Gospel, we see the next element of Easter joy flows from grieving our losses. When Mary Magdalene recognizes Jesus after he calls her name, she wants to grab hold of him and to go back to her previous experience of him. Jesus tells her not to cling to him, because he has changed. He tells Mary she cannot have him back the way he was before because he has risen to a new reality. The Jesus of history is now the Christ of faith. Mary has to grieve and mourn the loss of him as she knew him, let him ascend to the Father, and then he would be able to send her his Spirit to be with her in a new and even better way, which is what happened at Pentecost when the Spirit came on the disciples and birthed the Church. The Jesus of history will now be for them and for us, the Jesus of faith.
It is the same with us. There is an important lesson here. We also must grieve and mourn our losses, whatever they are, so as to not get stuck in grief. We need to especially mourn and grieve the loss of our loved ones, those who have passed on, stop clinging to them, cry all we need to, share our emotions of sadness and even self-pity, pray about this, and finally, give our loved ones back to God. We will then receive their spirit to be with us in a new and even better way. We will feel their presence and not miss them as much.
So many of our brothers and sisters today are stuck in grief. So often we hear of someone who is drinking because he or she misses his or her mother or father or siblings, some to the point of prematurely ending their lives. This need to grieve is an important part of the Easter message for us, and can be a source of new life, helping us to move on beyond grief to good grieving.
Easter is not about passively contemplating an empty tomb. It is an invitation to encounter the risen Christ, to believe, to rejoice, and to share the Good News. By his resurrection, Jesus reaches out to all who are entombed in the world, setting every heart free from sin and death to embrace his gift of new life. Jesus also makes Mary Magdalene an “apostle to the apostles,” the first one to see him and announce she has seen the Lord.
Today, in faith and hope, let us renew our baptismal promises to the risen Lord, in whom death is no more; life is eternal. Let us celebrate in joy his spirit of love among us, transforming all humanity – indeed creation itself.
