Homily for 1st Sunday of Easter Year A 2017
Acts 10:34,36-43; Colossians 3:1-4 or 1 Corinthians 5:6-8; John 20:1-18
Introduction
Happy Easter to you! That is how we Catholics greet each other at Easter. Our Orthodox brothers and sisters do it by saying, "Christ is risen," to which the other person responds, "he is risen indeed," a phrase drawn from the gospels. But what does it mean that Jesus is risen indeed?
If this were a question on a multiple choice test, these would be your options:
- Resuscitation: Jesus came back to life only to die again, like Lazarus.
- Reincarnation: Jesus came back to life as someone or something else.
- Immortality of the soul: the soul of Jesus was alive, but was now separate from his body, like a ghost.
- None of the above, every teacher's favourite last resort.
Sometimes when students taking a multiple choice test don't know the answer, they use a process of elimination. Let us try that too.
Scripture and Tradition
The first answer, resuscitation, refers to when someone who has died is brought back to life, to their previous earthly life. In the gospels Jesus did resuscitate three people: the son of the widow of Nain (Luke 7:11-17), the daughter of the synagogue official Jairus (Mark 5: 35-43) and of course the famous Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha (Jn. 11:1-44).
In the Lazarus story Jesus arrived four days after Lazarus had died and been buried. When Jesus tried to comfort Martha and Mary by suggesting that Lazarus would rise on the last day, they just wanted their brother alive there and then, not in some distant future. Jesus agreed to their request and resuscitated Lazarus. But Lazarus is alive no longer; he died again.
In the case of Jesus, after he rose from the dead, he would not die again; he lives on forever. Jesus is risen, he is risen in deed.
What about the second choice, “reincarnation”? The idea of reincarnation has recently made some inroads into the Western Culture through the New Age practices from the East. In some of the Asian religions the goal of life is for soul to return to this earthly life, but in another body, human or animal, depending on how one lived in the previous life. Thus those who live an upright moral life can expect to return perhaps as Meryl Streep or Angelina Jolie, Denzel Washington or Antonio Benderas. But those who lead a wicked life, after death can expect to return as pigs, or sheep or even worse, nutria.
Even in Bible, there are hints of a belief in reincarnation, as when for example Jesus asks his disciples who people say that he is and they reply: “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” But as Peter correctly says: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God,” Jesus is none of these people.
Similarly, after his resurrection, Jesus did not come back as another person. He came back as himself, but a glorified self who could enter rooms even with doors closed. For Jesus is risen, he is risen indeed.
The third option, the one that speaks about the immortality of the soul, is more promising, but is still lacking. This is what the Greeks believed, that at death the souls of the just would not die, but would leave behind the bodies and go on to live eternally. Even in the Old Testament, the books of Daniel and Wisdom that speak about life after death, limit themselves to the soul being immortal, saying nothing about the body.
But even this answer is not enough. Because when Jesus appears, it is not just his soul, but his body, as he will demonstrate to the doubting Thomas, by having him touch his hands and side. For Jesus is risen, he is risen indeed.
And so, we must choose the last answer, "None of the above." Even Mary Magdalene and the apostles, who were witnesses to the resurrection, when they told their story chose "none of the above" explanations. Despite being aware of these other ways of understanding life after death, they don't claim that Jesus is resuscitated, or reincarnated, or back to life only in some spiritual way. They don't tell the story in the way we tell myths saying "once upon a time" or "a long time ago in a galaxy far far away." No. They simply assert that Jesus of Nazareth, their friend and master, is alive again.
And this is the message that these witnesses will keep preaching over and over again, because it was a complete novelty. It is a novelty that they would be willing to die for, even when the authorities tried to stop them from proclaiming what they had seen, heard and believed. St. Peter, for example, clearly stated that "This man [Jesus] God raised on the third day and granted that he be visible, 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."
Today we celebrate Easter and believe in the resurrection, only because they believed. We rely on their testimony, that Christ is risen, and is risen indeed.
Christian Application
What does it mean for you and me, that Christ is risen? Let me offer three take-aways: a firmer belief, a surer hope and a certain orientation for life.
Belief in the resurrection is so central to our identity as Christians, that without it we cannot bear the name of Christ. Like the first witnesses, we have to put aside any other beliefs such as resuscitation, reincarnation or even that only the soul of Jesus continues to live without his body, or worse, that Jesus lives on only in some symbolic or metaphorical way. That is why as Christians we not only celebrate this belief at Easter, but indeed every Sunday, which is a small Easter, and indeed at every Mass when right in the middle of the Mass we confess our salvation saying: "We proclaim your death O Lord and profess your resurrection, until you come again."
Our belief in the resurrection of Jesus gives us a surer hope for our own resurrection of body and soul. At the end of time we too hope to do what Jesus did on Easter morning, rise in body and soul. We shall return, not to this life, not even as some glamorous movie star, but as a better form, a glorified form of ourselves, a 2.0 version of ourselves.
But our belief in the resurrection must also translate into action. We must live like people of the resurrection. That is the admonition that St. Paul gives to the Colossians, when he tells them: Brothers and sisters, If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God . . . . not of what is on earth." Because we hope to rise with Christ when we too die, we must prepare for admission into the resurrection to life, rather than to death. We must live lives that conform to the model set for us by his life and by his teaching, by living according to the Ten Commandments, the two great commandments of love, the Beatitudes and the Corporal and spiritual works of Mercy. There will be no do-overs as would happen in resuscitation and reincarnation – this is our only shot and we must take advantage of it.
Conclusion
And so, let me propose three images for what the hope of the resurrection could mean for our lives.
- With the resurrection as the lighthouse, we can use it to navigate the ship of our life, through the stormy and rocky waters of this world.
- Or we could also see the resurrection as the destination we set on the GPS of our life, giving our lives turn by turn directions that lead us to life with God.
- One final image, a football image. May the resurrection be the goal line to which we run the ball of life, with the sure hope of making that decisive touchdown, which will win us, not just the super bowl, but the super bowl of super bowls, eternal life with God, forever and ever.
And all this is possible, because Christ is risen, he is risen indeed.
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