Easter Sunday – Resurrection of the Lord – Year A – April 16, 2017
Act 10, 34a.37-43; Ps 118; Col 3,1-4; Jn 20,1-9
1) Christianity is the religion of the living.
“Of all the days in the year that the Liturgy celebrated in various ways, there is not one that is more important of the feast of Easter because, in the Church of God, this day makes holy all the other solemnities. Also the birth of the Lord is directed towards this mystery: the meaning of the birth of Christ is for Him to be nailed to the cross. In the womb of the Virgin he took mortal flesh; in this mortal flesh the design of passion is realized completely; and so it happened that, for an ineffable plan of God’s mercy, this became for us redeeming sacrifice, abolition of sin and beginning of the resurrection to eternal life “(St. Leo the Great, Sermon XLVIII, 1 – PL 54, 298 A – 299 TO). It was right and proper to prepare ourselves for Easter with the Lent journey (= the exodus) that has made us more aware that we are a people “established by Christ as a communion of life, charity and truth” (Lumen Gentium, 9), and taken by Him as the instrument of salvation for all humanity.
Today begins the Easter exodus so that we can walk “in the world in search of a future and permanent city (see Heb 13, 14), bring to the world “Jesus as the author of salvation and the source of unity and peace”, and establish us “the Church that for each and all may be the visible sacrament of this saving unity”. (Lumen Gentium, 9).
Who guides us on this journey? Christ risen from the dead, a death to which he had been condemned absurdly because he had told the world the truth and loved it.
Jesus, the Good Shepherd, guide us using as a pastoral the cross on which he died. Jesus’ dying on the Cross among insults and ill-treatment suffered by him until his death, has been a dying for us, poor creatures, taking our place for our benefit. While he was suffering the hatred of men, he took this hatred upon himself removing it from them and welcoming it in his mercy. His death was a death of the love that never dies.
Christ, the Good Shepherd, not only leads his sheep, but takes the lost one on his shoulders and carries it home. If we are clenched to his Body we live, and in communion with his Body we reach the heart of God.
This infinite heart was revealed to us by Christ who, through his resurrection, demonstrates that love is stronger than death, stronger than evil. This is the force by means of which He brings us to himself, holding us tight on his shoulders. United to his love, let’s go with him to the house of Heaven, the abode of Life in love.
In the crucified Christ, human suffering has a meaning, because this suffering does not seek to destroy life, but to those who knows how to accept it, serves to make life more intense and perfect: holy and redeeming.
The cross is not “scandal” for the Jews and “foolishness” for the Greeks of two thousand years ago, but even today for many it is “scandal” and “madness.” But if we contemplate with care and devotion the mystery of Easter, we understand that the “absurd” and “outrageous” act of God has, as a reason, the free, merciful and almighty love of God for men that is entirely and powerfully manifested on the Cross of Christ. In fact, this Cross has two faces: the apparent defeat and the victory, the Crucified and the Risen. In the Cross are revealed all the evil and misery of man who does not hesitate to condemn the innocent Son of God, but are also manifested the depth and effectiveness of God’s forgiveness.
In Christ crucified and risen, love and not hate has the last word. In this total charity and not elsewhere, it is to be found the true reason of the Christian hope, the good news[1] that gives meaning and depth to life and history in spite of the failures. It is a good and happy news that demands conversion not only to a good moral life, but to the religion of true Life.
In this religion, we walk with the Risen Christ who goes from death to life, and we pass from sacrifice to glory, from abnegation to fertility, from renunciation to love, from love to life. There is no other path that leads to happiness, the complete fullness to life. It is the path traced by the Resurrection.
2) Christ is risen, He is not here.
To the holy women who, in the first glow of the day, had gone to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus, the angels said: “You are seeking Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen, he is not here.” This words express all the mystery that we celebrate today: Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified, has resurrected.
What does this statement “He has resurrected” means? It does not mean that the Jesus dead on the cross was revived and returned to the life of before such as it happened to the Naim widow’s son and to Lazarus, who were recalled from death to a life which was to end with a final death. The resurrection of Jesus is not an overcoming of physical death that we know even today: a temporary overcome that at some stage ends with a death with no return. Jesus does not live again as a reanimated dead, but by virtue of divine power, above and beyond the area of what is physically and chemically measurable. The power of God does so that the dead-crucified body of Jesus may be made partaker of the divine life: eternal life. A life qualitatively different from that experienced before.
To use more concrete words (at least I hope): the Incarnate Word, passing through death, is introduced with his humanity in the divine Glory which in his divinity He has always enjoyed. On the last evening of his earthly life, Jesus had prayed: “and now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory which I had with thee before the world was” (John 17.5). On Easter morning this prayer has been heard.
3) Seek Him in Galilee, namely among the living.
Having told the pious women: “He is not here, he is risen,” the angels add immediately: “Go to Galilee, there you will see him.” What does it mean for us today this indication to go to Galilee? In my opinion, at least for us, “Galilee” is not a geographical place; it is a place of the heart, an existential place.
We must not seek Christ in the graves of the dead, not even among the great men covered with dust by the time we call history, nor in books and utopias. Let us seek him among the living. Let us seek him because Christ is the God of the living flower and not of the dead thoughts.
But you might ask me: “How can we be sure that the living do not deceive us?” In this case I would reply: “Look for him among the living in Christ that is the Church.” Let us seek among those who have the strength and grace to say: “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we looked upon and touched with our hands concerns the Word of life – for the life was made visible; we have seen it and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was made visible to us – what we have seen and heard we proclaim now to you, so you also may have fellowship with us; for our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We are writing this so that our joy may be complete “(1 Jn 1: 1-4).
In the light of the words of St. John, I try to point out some ways to where and how to encounter the Risen Jesus.
The first – I have mentioned it just above – is the Church that becomes concrete experience in the Christian community where the Word enlightens us, the sacraments sanctify us and make us partakers of Christ’s life.
The second is the familiarity with the Bible and, in particular, the Gospel to be understood as the testimony of those who have met Jesus and by the Holy Spirit have communicated their experience in the four Gospels. The Gospel is fundamental: to be read, studied, meditated, prayed, lived with the help of the Holy Spirit and in the Church that, faithful down the centuries to the testimony of the Apostles, presents it in the liturgy and put it in our hands because it is our daily nourishment.
The third way to encounter Christ, dead and risen, are the sacraments, particularly the Eucharist that puts us in communion with the self-giving of Jesus and makes us his Body, and Confession through which we receive the fruit of the redemption that comes from the cross of Christ. Confession renews our life with a heart cleansed and open to the Redeemer and to the neighbor.
The fourth way is to practice the works of material and spiritual mercy that enable us to perceive the presence of Christ in the poor and the needy neighbor. In this regard, let’s remember the parable of the Last Judgment, where Jesus says: “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me sick and you visited me, in prison and you came to me “(Mt 25,35-36).
4) Witnesses to the Risen Love.
Every Christian, cultivating in his heart a commitment to abide the love of God, remaining in Him and with one another, is called to be a witness of the resurrection of Christ, especially in those human environments where the forgetfulness of God and man’s confusion are stronger. What is the specificity of the testimony of the consecrated Virgins in the world? The one that it is possible to live only for love to Christ. Giving themselves completely to Christ, they also live a love of obedience to Him, doing His will and living his crucified love. At one point, Christ in order to love went into a progressive experience of self-emptying up to the cross. If we want to love as Christians, we need to know and do like him. This way of loving puts the Other before me, and makes me live by his love of Risen One. Yes, the love of Christ is a resurrected love, a love that always begins again; it is an Easter love. The love of the Christian is as bright as the morning sun. It is a love that bounces back, and does not remain lying. It is full of courage because love is the moving gift of self. The love of Jesus is so and is able to transform sadness into joy, to burn the heart, and to recall to us the Scriptures, like to the two disciples of Emmaus. The virginal love is, in a special way, a resurrected love. Consecrated virginity proves that it is possible to live for God and in His love, and to proclaim by word and deed the resurrection of Christ bearing witness to the communion among us and the charity towards all, without exception.
