Suy Niệm > My seven-minute homily - index
My Seven-Minute-Homily, April 24th 2011
Easter Sunday, Year A
Acts of the Apostles 10, 34.37-43; The Letter of St. Paul to The Colossians 3.1-4
and the Gospel of St. John 20,1-18
The little girl was out for a walk with her grandpa. They took a short-cut through a cemetery. As they were walking along, the little girl was fascinated by all the crosses, statues, monuments, and floral wreaths on either side, so, like any such child, she had many questions to ask. What are those things? She was asking her grandpa and was pointing the graves and tomb stones. The grandpa was caught unawares. How do you explain the facts of death, let alone the facts of life, to a four-year old? Anyhow, he had a go.
These were people who lived in those houses down there, and one day Holy God came and took them away to live with him, in his house with all his angels. The little girl thought about that for a while and, as most parents know, when you answer one question, you are sure to get another one. And did they go off to live in Holy God's house? She asked. Yes, they did, said the grandpa hoping that was the end of the matter. Suddenly, the little eyes lit up, and she turned to her grandpa with a smile of understanding, and, with complete conviction in her voice, as she said: I bet you! Grandpa, when they went off to live with God and all his angels in his house, that this is where they left their clothes.
And she was right that is what the angel said on the morning of the resurrection if you are looking for Jesus, he is not here ... but come in and see where he left his clothes.
The Lord is risen Alleluia! This is what we can say during Easter celebration and during Holy Eucharist celebration. We thank God for moment of grace, for moment of resurrection. Everyone has experienced a situation of death, a mourning time for the lost of many beloved ones in life. Like Mary of Magdalene making a routine visit to the tomb of Jesus, but saw that the stone had been moved away from the tomb. Naturally, we looked for some simple explanation, they have taken the Lord our off the tomb and we don’t know where they have put him, but it wasn’t anything like that, it was what the scriptures teach us, that your work must always rise again.
“They can kill a bishop, but they cannot kill the Church which is the people” Archbishop Romero, some days before he was martyred. Yes, that is very right! Jewish authorities killed Jesus on purpose to destroy him but this is the way to let him resurrected. The Church is bigger and bigger with many new members who believe not in death only but also in resurrection.
We as Christians are invited to come and see the tomb. Clothes were lying on the ground that we can recognize for what they are and the person was not there anymore he is resurrected! Alleluia. We have once more fulfilled what God taught us in all the scriptures
and we would come to believe in the resurrection, in the life after death.
The resurrection is the source of Christian hope. This is the mystery beyond words. However to believe in the message of Easter is not a matter of tombs long ago in Palestine, but having the conviction that it is worthwhile to seek to bring light in darkness, to oppose lies with truth, to work for justice in the face of human corruption, and to say that death does not have the last word. When we profess our faith in the resurrection of Jesus we are not setting out something with the intention that our understandings should grasp it and comprehend it. Jesus has been transformed to a new kind of existence by the Father beyond our understanding and we can only express it in symbols such as that of the empty tomb. By contrast, the proclamation 'Jesus is Risen' is an invitation to share in a new way of seeing God and the universe, and it is only from within this new vision of faith that it makes sense.
We are invited to join with those who accept the invitation Christ in order to be baptized during Easter Vigil or Easter Season. They become new members of the Church like we are. The Church is bigger and bigger with new members who believe in the resurrection of Christ. Today is our day for rejoicing in the risen Christ, for thanking the Father for his love, and for reminding ourselves of that to which we have committed ourselves: The Way. Death has contended with Life, yet despite tombs and symbols of death all around us, we proceed to commit ourselves to life, confident that as the Father transformed the existence of Jesus, so he will transform the whole creation.
The Lord is risen Alleluia! Happy Easter!
Father Great Rice
