Jesus REALLY Did Rise! — Homily for Easter Sunday
Happy Easter! Jesus is risen from the dead! Alleluia! During these past weeks of Lent, we have been waiting and preparing for this day, and here it is. It is not just a day filled with Easter activities like the Easter Egg Hunt or the Egg Dyeing Competition or even the delicious Easter brunch or dinner. Today we celebrate Jesus’s triumphant victory over sin and death, the victory that has won for us salvation and the freedom from our sins. Today, we celebrate Jesus’s Resurrection from the dead.
Have you ever found yourself walking into a situation you did not expect? Or maybe you walked into something with a certain expectation but found it to be the exact opposite? In today’s Gospel we hear about some surprises the people encountered when they went to visit Jesus’ tomb. They were expecting to see Jesus’ dead body, to mourn and to grieve at the death of their beloved friend and teacher. But what did they see? The stone was rolled back, Jesus’ body was not in the tomb, but the burial cloths were there. What? How can that happen? They just placed Jesus there the other day. But today they found the tomb to be empty, no body, but just the burial cloths. Mary of Magdala had thought somebody stole Jesus’s body, but that would not really make sense. Why not? Let’s take for example if someone wanted to steal a package from a pile of packages would they open up the box, leave the bubble wrap and box there, and then go? NO! They would probably just find the package and run before someone finds out! By a similar logic, if someone wanted to steal Jesus’s body, they wouldn’t take the time to take off the burial cloths – they would just carry his body and run away.
Instead, Mary, Peter, and the beloved disciple (John) found an empty tomb with nothing there except for the burial cloths. So, if Jesus’s body was not stolen and the tomb is empty, what really happened? Jesus had really risen from the dead.
Jesus’s Resurrection is not just something we believe in because we are told by the Church and that the Bible tells us that He did. We can come to see the truth of Jesus’s Resurrection both in historical facts and in faith. It is so important that Jesus did rise from the dead, because if He did not you should not be sitting in those pews and I should not be standing here. We know that Jesus rose from the dead because there are eyewitnesses – real people – who saw the empty tomb and the burial cloths there. These eyewitnesses we will later hear about in the Scriptures seeing Jesus and speaking with Him after the Resurrection. These are historical facts, something that really happened in history, and not just a feel-good story. With the historical facts and eyewitnesses, we can come to see that Jesus did rise from the dead and with faith we can know that He also brought about our salvation. We are here because this is true. We are here because Jesus really did rise from the dead.
Do we believe this because we have been told so or do we believe because deep down in our hearts we believe? The Church Fathers tell us that in order to really believe we must encounter the Risen Lord. Have we encountered Him? How do we encounter Jesus who has really risen from the dead? We first must encounter the Risen Lord in our hearts for it is His love for us – the love that moved Him to suffer and die for us – that moves our hearts. Then we must allow the Holy Spirit to lead us deeper into this love, not just within ourselves but also sharing it with others. From encountering the Lord in reading the Scriptures to encountering Him in the person in front of us, knowing that Jesus lives in him too. And we can also encounter Him in a most special way in the sacraments.
In just a few moments the Risen Lord will be made present to us once again on that very altar. In the Eucharist Jesus is fully and really present, body, blood, soul, and divinity. The same Jesus who rose from the dead comes to meet us again at the altar. We are invited to encounter Jesus at the altar every time we come to mass. How blessed are we! Jesus Christ is truly risen from the dead, alleluia! Happy Easter indeed!
