“This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.” As we hear this message of great joy proclaimed to us in the psalm today, we joyfully greet all of you today on this glorious Easter morning when we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord.
We have been journeying with Jesus for 40 days in the desert during the holy days of Lent. The Church asked us at the beginning of Lent to observe the Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting, and works of charity. I know that many of the Catholic faithful have been following these disciplines in different ways. On Fridays throughout Lent, we here at our parishes of Holy Savior and Immaculate Conception invited you to pray the stations of the cross with us, emphasizing the reality Jesus went through in his passion and in his way of cross. His way of the cross became our way of the cross in many different ways.
Last week, we commemorated Holy Week with Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, with his last supper with his disciples on Holy Thursday, and with his death on the cross on Good Friday. At the time of his crucifixion, many of Jesus’ close friends and disciples had denied him or abandoned him out of their own fears and sufferings.
By sharing in the passion of the Lord during the holy days of Lent, we are now able to share in his resurrection today with sincerity and joy. By our participation in the holy days of Lent, we are able to rise with Jesus today to a newness of life.
This bring us to Easter morning when Mary Magdalene arrives at the tomb in the early morning hours to find that Jesus’ body was not there. The significance of the empty tomb cannot be overstated. The mystery of faith and the resurrection that the empty tomb symbolizes stand at the very foundation of our faith and as the source of our hope. Our life of discipleship and our actions of faith would be in vain if the resurrection had not occurred. The empty tomb and the resurrection are what give our faith its purpose and our hope its substance. We are called to live out this faith and pass it on to others, just as previous generations have done for over two thousand years.
Mary Magdalene was the first to witness the empty tomb. Based on her subsequent actions, of going out to notify the other disciples right away, the great medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas called he the “apostle of the the apostles.” She shared the joy of the resurrection with Jesus’ close group of followers. We can imagine their shock and confusion as they tried to make sense out of what was happening.
As Catholics, in the reality of our lives of faith, Easter is not to be a one-day event. Easter and the resurrection and the entire paschal mysteries are to be a life-changing reality for us that transform the way we live and transform our perspective in life. The reality of Easter morning is to give us the hope that we will be with the Lord for all eternity. This is a reality we are to share with others and to live out each day. The Church affirms this reality by inviting us to celebrate the Octave of Easter, which concludes next Sunday, when we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday. We are planning to have a special Divine Mercy prayer service at 3:00 pm that Sunday afternoon, which is a traditional devotion of our Catholic faith. We also will be celebrating an entire Easter Season which will end 50 days after Easter morning on Pentecost Sunday, which takes place on May 24 this year. We will have our traditional parish Pentecost lunch at Holy Savior on that day.
This Easter morning and throughout the Easter season, may we worship the Lord with humility, sincerity, and gratitude. May we be filled with the joy of Jesus and the joy of the resurrection. May our hearts be full of love, belief, and faith in our resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. We wish all of you and your families a blessed and joyful Easter.
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