Easter Sunday Homily Year C

Acts 10:34, 37-43 Col 3:1-4 (or 1 Cor 5: 6-8) Jn 20:1-9 (All A, B, & C)

We’re Winners!

Making Our Baptismal Promises Meaningful; The Power of Easter Experience; The Risen Christ Today.

1st Reading – Acts 10:34A, 37-43

^34A And Peter opening his mouth, said:

³⁷ what has happened all over Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached,

³⁸ how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the holy Spirit and power. He went about doing good and healing all those oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. 39 We are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and [in] Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree.

⁴⁰ This man God raised [on] the third day and granted that he be visible,

⁴¹ not to all the people, but to us, the witnesses chosen by God in advance, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.

⁴² He commissioned us to preach to the people and testify that he is the one appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead.

⁴³ To him all the prophets bear witness, that everyone who believes in him will receive forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Responsorial Psalm – Psalms 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23

R. (24) This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.
or:
R. Alleluia.

¹ Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his mercy endures forever.
² Let the house of Israel say,
“His mercy endures forever.”
R. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.
or:
R. Alleluia.

¹⁶ “The right hand of the LORD has struck with power;
the right hand of the LORD is exalted.
¹⁷ I shall not die, but live,
and declare the works of the LORD.”
R. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.
or:
R. Alleluia.

²² The stone which the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
²³ By the LORD has this been done;
it is wonderful in our eyes.
R. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.
or:
R. Alleluia.

2nd Reading – Colossians 3:1-4

Brothers and sisters:
¹ Therefore, if you be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above; where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God:

² Mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth.

³ For you are dead; and your life is hid with Christ in God.

⁴ When Christ shall appear, who is your life, then you also shall appear with him in glory.

Or 1 Corinthians 5:6B-8

Brothers and sisters:
^6B Do you not know that a little yeast leavens all the dough?

⁷ Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new paste, as you are unleavened. For Christ, our Paschal Lamb is sacrificed.

⁸ Therefore let us feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Sequence Victimae Paschali Laudes

Christians, to the Paschal Victim
Offer your thankful praises!
A Lamb the sheep redeems;
Christ, who only is sinless,
Reconciles sinners to the Father.
Death and life have contended in that combat stupendous:
The Prince of life, who died, reigns immortal.
Speak, Mary, declaring
What you saw, wayfaring.
“The tomb of Christ, who is living,
The glory of Jesus’ resurrection;
bright angels attesting,
The shroud and napkin resting.
Yes, Christ my hope is arisen;
to Galilee he goes before you.”
Christ indeed from death is risen, our new life obtaining.
Have mercy, victor King, ever reigning!
Amen. Alleluia.

Alleluia – CF. 1 Corinthians 5:7B-8A

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
^7B Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed;
^8A let us then feast with joy in the Lord.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel – John 20:1-9

¹ On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb.

² So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.”

³ So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb.

⁴ They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first;

⁵ he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in.

⁶ When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there,

⁷ and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.

⁸ Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed.

⁹ For they did not yet understand the scripture that he had to rise from the dead.

OR Gospel – Matthew 28:1-10

¹ After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.

² And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, approached, rolled back the stone, and sat upon it.

³ His appearance was like lightning and his clothing was white as snow.

⁴ The guards were shaken with fear of him and became like dead men.

⁵ Then the angel said to the women in reply, “Do not be afraid! I know that you are seeking Jesus the crucified.

⁶ He is not here, for he has been raised just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.

⁷ Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ Behold, I have told you.”

⁸ Then they went away quickly from the tomb, fearful yet overjoyed, and ran to announce this to his disciples.

⁹ And behold, Jesus met them on their way and greeted them. They approached, embraced his feet, and did him homage.

¹⁰ Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”

Or Gospel – Mark 16:1-7

¹ When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go and anoint him.

² Very early when the sun had risen, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb.

³ They were saying to one another, “Who will roll back the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?”

⁴ When they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back; it was very large.

⁵ On entering the tomb they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a white robe, and they were utterly amazed.

⁶ He said to them, “Do not be amazed! You seek Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Behold, the place where they laid him.

⁷ But go and tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you.’”

Or Gospel – Luke 24:13-35

At an afternoon or evening Mass.

¹³ That very day, the first day of the week, two of Jesus’ disciples were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus,

¹⁴ and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred.

¹⁵ And it happened that while they were conversing and debating, Jesus himself drew near and walked with them,

¹⁶ but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.

¹⁷ He asked them, “What are you discussing as you walk along?” They stopped, looking downcast.

¹⁸ One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days?”

¹⁹ And he replied to them, “What sort of things?” They said to him, “The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people,

²⁰ how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over to a sentence of death and crucified him.

²¹ But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel; and besides all this, it is now the third day since this took place.

²² Some women from our group, however, have astounded us: they were at the tomb early in the morning

²³ and did not find his body; they came back and reported that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who announced that he was alive.

²⁴ Then some of those with us went to the tomb and found things just as the women had described, but him they did not see.”

²⁵ And he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!

²⁶ Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”

²⁷ Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the Scriptures.

²⁸ As they approached the village to which they were going, he gave the impression that he was going on farther.

²⁹ But they urged him, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.

³⁰ And it happened that, while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them.

³¹ With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight.

³² Then they said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?”

³³ So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem where they found gathered together the eleven and those with them

³⁴ who were saying, “The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!”

³⁵ Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of bread.

Homily

No matter how we explain it, in the beginning, the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters (Gen 1:1f). Then God created light, and the sky, the earth, the vegetation, the stars, the fish, the birds, all kinds of animals, and – as the final good gift, the most noble creatures of all – people. And God looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good (Gen 1:31). The story of the human race from then on is less glorious – fall of Adam and Eve, their son Cain murdering his brother Abel, the sometimes perverse “People of God”, and the wars, pollution, destruction, murder, rape, robbery, and other evil that people have brought about ever since.

The story stimulates questions. Is it really good for the human race to have been created? Have we served any purpose? Would the universe have been just as well as off had we never been? If our highest purpose is to give greater honour and glory to give, have we done so? One thing is sure. The human race made necessary a new beginning comparable to the sparkling newness of the days of creation.

That new day came with the first Easter Sunday. The resurrection of Jesus was the most momentous occasion since the week of creation. Jokes are funny because the punch lines are so unexpected and delightful; our Lord’s resurrection is the punch line of the history of salvation.

New hope came with the proclamation of the Good News of Jesus the risen Lord by the Apostles, like the preaching of St Peter in today’s First Reading. On Good Friday the Church showed us a Pater who had denied even knowing Jesus, and who was reduced to tears at the realization of his failure. Here on Easter Sunday we see a different Peter; there are few more openly since confessions of faith than his today in all Scripture.

He typifies a boundary-breaking love for and faith in the risen Lord. Indeed, Faith and love are in the history of the church intimately connected. Faith involves an alignment of the heart, a commitment of loyalty and trust. The words for faith in the languages of the Bible don’t mean only, “belief” in the modern sense; to say “I Believe: meant “I commit myself to, I rest my heart upon, I privilege allegiance to.” The Latin credo, “I Believe,” is from cor, “heart”, as in the English “cordial”. So belief is an action word. For biblical writers and for us, the opposite of Faith is not doubt, but nothingness – nothing to give our heart to, nothing to live for, nothing to judge ourselves by.

In his Gospel, St Luke had written of Jesus’ mission as travelling to Jerusalem, where his most important lesions lay. Throughout his ministry, Jesus resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem (Lk 9:51) to work, to suffer, to die, and to rise. In the Acts of the Apostles, which Luke also wrote, he shows the Gospel message moving in accord with Christ’s command from Jerusalem, on a journey that will take it to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).

So the book called the Acts of the Apostles represents a second journey of Jesus, working through Apostles who carry his Gospel message. The Book of Acts describes the risen life of Christ in his body, the Church. It is therefore fitting that, throughout the Easter season, the liturgy’s First Reading comes from Acts. The speeches in Acts, accurately reflecting the preaching of Peter and the other Apostles, provide the basis outline of the four Gospels – the essential facts about the ministry of Jesus, the death of Jesus, his resurrection, and the witness that Jesus is truly Lord. We, living centuries later, become Christians in exactly the same way as people did then –by hearing the testimony of others. The message – called the kerygma, or proclamation of God’s salvation – calls for our personal response.

Peter’s speech today is like the others, a little “creed” like the one we say at Mass and suitable to the Easter renewal of our baptismal promises that we make today after this homily. Peter says that God’s revelation of His plan for the destiny of humankind through Israel culminated in Jesus of Nazareth. The ministry of Jesus is an integral part of God’s revelation (v. 37). The coming of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus is an integral part of God’s revelation (v. 38).

The Apostles were witnesses (v. 39), giving testimony not only about Jesus’ resurrection, but also about his ministry. They were empowered to make clear the exact meaning and interpretation of his sayings and deeds to the developing Christian community, which is the bearer of the word of salvation, in the light of his death and resurrection. Despite Jesus’ goodness, the leaders performed an act of sheer horror by having him crucified – only to have God raise him up on the third day (v. 40) and to have him seen by enough witnesses to make this otherwise unbelievable event believable (v. 41).

Jesus had commissioned the Apostles to preach (v. 42) – a commission not only to the Twelve, but to every Christian. To fulfill our obligation means many things; not only words, but deeds and example. It means knowing not only the doctrines of our faith, but also the particular needs and temperaments of those we meet so as to make Jesus’ massage attractive to them. Peter’s speeches, for example, changed to fit his audience. Today, speaking to non-Jews, he emphasized the coming divine judgement; when he spoke to Jews, he appealed to their hope of Messiah. In both case, the biggest result was the offer of the forgiveness of sins through Jesus’ name (v. 43) – a removal of guilt that enables a new relationship with God and other people.

Because of the resurrection of Jesus, his followers have contributed to many ideas of our civilization – the principle of personal moral responsibility, for example, and the rule of tolerance, the rational for the brotherhood of all members of the human race, the basis for the exaltation of womankind, the standard of mercy, the principle of enthusiasm, the element of optimism, and new concepts of peace. In our lives we can continue to contribute such other areas as defined by the life and example of Jesus – the guarantees of Justice, esteem for human life, regard for law, the expressions of democratic ideals, reverence for the right of minorities.

The very beginning of the First Testament says humanity failed because we tried to be like God. At the close of the New Testament humanity is promised that we can be like God. What does Jesus promise that the temper promised but didn’t deliver? In a phrase, a new life. We strive for this, or we have nothing for which to strive. Without the challenge and the promise of Jesus the rational choice is that set forth by Paul (1Cor 15:32, quoting Is 22:13): “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”

Our Christian life should be joyful. It may be perhaps compared to the egg. The Easter egg is a symbol of the resurrection, insofar as from the egg a new life may spring. This feast of Easter, more than any other of the year, is a day filled with a new life of enthusiasm praise, and rejoicing. Some people feel that they have little experience of the risen Christ. Perhaps the problem may be more one of recognition. Today we should pause to recognize that “heaven” is not a special place apart from our universe. “Heaven” is the universe, recognized as being in God. Let us resolve to lead a “heavenly” life on earth, witnessing God’s power and love. May these joyous reflections help to give us a happy Easter!