Easter Sunday Homily, April 4th 2021

April 4th 2021.  Easter Sunday

GOSPEL   John 20, 1-9

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading . . .

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GOSPEL   John 20, 1-9

It was very early on the first day of the week and still dark, when Mary of Magdala came to the tomb. She saw that the stone had been moved away from the tomb and came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved. ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb’ she said ‘and we don’t know where they have put him.’

So Peter set out with the other disciple to go to the tomb. They ran together, but the other disciple, running faster than Peter, reached the tomb first; he bent down and saw the linen cloths lying on the ground, but did not go in. Simon Peter who was following now came up, went right into the tomb, saw the linen cloths on the ground, and also the cloth that had been over his head; this was not with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in; he saw and he believed. Till this moment they had failed to understand the teaching of Scripture, that he must rise from the dead.

THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

SHORTER HOMILY . . . Easter Sunday is described in the Gospel as the “first day” of the week, but it is really the eighth day of the Lord’s creation since it follows upon all the sublime events of the previous seven days. If we allow Christ’s resurrection to penetrate into our existence, then everything changes, for everything is now understood from the perspective of heaven and eternal life. In fact, the second reading encourages us to stop thinking of things from an earthly perspective, since our real lives are hidden with Christ in God. We cannot live this new life according to our usual categories of defending ourselves, depending on our own efforts and seeking our own advancement. It is that very “survival” approach that entrapped us in a life without perspective. The second reading goes on to say that, when Christ appears, we too will appear with him in glory. This does not refer only to glory after death. Easter calls for a shift in my life from a perspective on worldly things to the perspective of the resurrection.  When Mary Magdalene arrives at the tomb, she finds that the stone has been moved. No-one could move this stone by themselves. What happens in the resurrection is purely the work of God. Why was the stone moved? To allow Christ out? No! Jesus does not need physical doors to be opened to him any longer. You do not come out of death to return to the old mode of existence. You exit to enter into a new kind of life. Jesus did not come out of death to resume being a carpenter in Nazareth. Instead he passed to an existence with the Father. Why then was the stone moved? For our benefit. It is we who do not see the resurrection, who do not see the true glory of life, who need to stop living out of the multitude of infantile perspectives that we carry inside. Our dependencies on material and self-referential things only render us mediocre, incomplete and take away our beauty. Converts or those who rediscover their faith come to realize that their entire existence has been redeemed. The stone is taken away and a new life is ignited. Only God can remove this stone, but what is important to realize is that this life is ALREADY there and waiting for us. This stone is in the hearts of every man and woman, a stone that only the Lord can move. In the Gospel, the beloved disciple arrives first at the tomb. He allows Peter to enter and then he too goes in, sees and believes. It is only now, in the light of the resurrection, that the Scriptures begin to make sense to the disciples. They did not need new Scriptures or new writings. The removal of the stone and the fact of the resurrection enlightened what they already possessed. Let us celebrate Easter, let us celebrate newness! May the Lord remove the stone so that we may enter into life. In the resurrection, all of our weakness and fragility take on the potential of new life, because in Christ everything that is ours is redeemed.

LONGER HOMILY

God’s solutions are always surprising. The people of Israel escape from Egypt right through the middle of the Red Sea. Abraham receives the promise of the Lord during the night of faith in which he was asked to sacrifice his only son.

On this joyous feast of Easter we listen to the narrative regarding the discovery of the empty tomb. This is described in both the Gospel of the Easter Vigil and that of the Sunday Mass. The stone has been moved and Jesus’ body is no longer there. Peter and John race to the tomb. John arrives first but awaits Peter before entering. There is much symbolism in these different speeds of running and the respectful waiting by John. Peter goes inside and sees the cloths, but the body is certainly not there. Then John enters, “sees and believes”. They had not yet understood the Scripture that he must rise from the dead. Easter is something imponderable, the surprising action of God. It is the aspect of reality that we never calculated. It is the escape route, the solution that we never considered. That which we never understood, the sacred Scriptures, were the deposit in which all of these promises were contained. They tell us that God is surprising, that he is not like us, that his solutions are not the ones that we think us. The escape route for the people of Israel in the great story of the Jewish Passover was through the sea! Who would have ever suspected it! Moses appeared to be leading the people to a dead end, but the sea opened and they had the incredible experience of passing through it. The water that was their salvation was also the instrument by which the oppression of the Egyptians was destroyed. In a similar way, during the night of faith of Abraham, the Lord asked for the very thing that Abraham was most attached to. It was necessary for Abraham to discover that God does not ask; God gives. That which appears death becomes life; that which appears the end becomes the beginning.

Salvation always involves the unexpected action of God

The first three readings from the Vigil recount the great works of the Lord. In the first reading God creates from nothing. He puts life where there is no life. These are things that we are asked to understand, but we are unable to understand this creation from absolutely nothing. We do not comprehend a faith that is actually gaining everything at the very moment when it appears to be losing everything. We do not understand the solution of God which is always in the place where no one would think of looking. The successful escape of the Exodus did not depend on the speed of the people but on the power of God.

Let us free ourselves from our stagnant ways of thinking! The Lord opens roadways in the sea and brings life from nothing!

Our sin leads to destruction, but the Lord places himself there, in the midst of our confused and contradictory pathways. He accepts our sin, takes it upon himself, and transforms it into unexpected salvation. In the night of Easter we sing the proclamation which has the famous patristic phrase “O felix culpa!” - the happy fault that merited such a great Saviour. Because of the Lord, the sin is no longer closed up in itself but open to the saving action of God. The death that we inflict on Jesus is resolved in the response of the Father, the resurrection, the beginning of something that we will never fully understand. Let us free ourselves from our preconceived modes of thinking! God moves the stones and makes the dead rise! He opens roadways in the sea and brings life forth from nothingness.

In order to experience the Easter of the Lord, we do not need any special techniques or mental schemes. All we need to do is abandon ourselves to him and allow him to lead us on his unexpected pathway to life.

It is one thing to be fixated with our own capacities and limits, and to think that life depends on what we make of it; it is something completely different to abandon ourselves to the Lord and be led by him along pathways that are completely unexpected and are not our own. I will never know how the Lord intends to lead me, how he intends me to progress, but the important thing is that he is calling me to let myself be led by him. This Sunday, we proclaim the joyous resurrection of Jesus, which is not a preconceived scheme, or a spiritual technique, but an act of abandonment. It involves handing ourselves over to him and allowing him to lead us to a fuller life, a life that no one will ever be able to take from us. When someone experiences the Easter of the Lord, he will never forget it again. When our pain or our oppression has been illuminated by the power and providence of the paternity of the Lord, then it will remain with us forever. The Christian celebrates Easter over and over again because the seas part in front of us over and over again, the tomb opens in front of us many times, and that which seemed the end becomes a new beginning.