Homily for Easter Sunday
8 April 2012
Nairobi, Kenya
Today, the world is very different
it is
Easter
The world we experience every day
that place of selfishness and sin
and suffering and death;
That place of often unspeakable tragedy –
I think of the people in Mathare slum
going about their business this week,
Holy Week,
who on Wednesday were suddenly
caught and
crushed by an
avalanche –
Our world, that place where the Cross
is such a heavy, daily burden –
Today, the world we know so well
finds new hope and joy.
God has had the final say in human affairs –
and in the raising of Jesus from
the dead –
God’s Word to us is Life, not death.
In this Easter Mass we bear witness
to the resurrection of Jesus.
And we pray that
faith in this risen life
will touch
us deeply and become
the story
of our own lives.
In the gospel of John,
the figures of Mary Magdalene and
the Beloved Disciple
teach us what it means to encounter
and witness
the life of the resurrection.
Ironically what they have to teach us about the resurrection
has nothing to do with a
resuscitated body
or the return of the Jesus they
knew and loved.
So often, the mystery of the resurrection is described
as though the tragedy of the
crucifixion
can somehow be forgotten or
explained away;
That Jesus has been revived and is walking among us –
and we don’t have to deal with the
sadness of death
But this is not the case with our Easter faith.
Mary Magdalene and the Beloved Disciple have to face death
squarely:
In the gospel, John writes that Mary Magdalene goes to the
tomb
early in
the morning, “while it was still dark”
The gospel does nothing to “paper over”
the sadness of death:
For Mary it is too soon
to “pick up the pieces” of her life
and move on.
She grieves for Jesus.
The Beloved Disciple also deals
with the real loss of Jesus;
What he and Peter find
in running to the burial place
is the Empty Tomb
and the burial cloths disturbed.
Like Mary, the Beloved Disciple
has been with Jesus
every step of the way,
remaining close to him,
through the passion to the Cross
and now to the Tomb.
Their fidelity to Jesus has been deep and real;
and now he
is gone,
even his lifeless body,
What they have is the Empty Tomb.
We can think of similar moments
in our lives,
Times when we have stood vigil
with someone we loved;
faithfully
present in a hospital room
or a nursing home;
Over days, maybe months.
We have all stood with a family
who has suddenly lost a child or
parent.
Perhaps to a disease that was never diagnosed,
or to violence.
We have all “been there” at the Empty Tomb.
Standing with others, faithfully,
imitating, as best we can,
Mary and the Beloved Disciple
who were faithful to Jesus
in the mystery and
agony of
his suffering and
death.
We have all been there at the “Empty Tomb”
Ironically, though,
it is in such moments as these
that the grace
of the resurrection dawns
How or why we cannot explain –
what we
know is this:
Jesus has
been raised
and he
calls us to share in that new life.
When the Beloved Disciple appears at the Empty Tomb,
the gospel of John describes what
happened:
“Then the other disciple also went
in,
he saw and
believed.”
The Easter faith of the Beloved Disciple
comes from “seeing” the Empty Tomb.
As he has been close to the Lord in his passion,
now the Lord is close to him
in the revelation of his risen
life.
And the Beloved Disciples returns
to evangelize the others.
Mary herself will later “see” the risen Lord
in the
garden and
will believe that he is alive
She, too, will go to Peter and the others
as a first
witness to the resurrection.
How is the Lord
calling you and I
to
experience the mystery
of the resurrection
in the sufferings and struggles
of our daily lives?
How are you and I called to witness
to
resurrection in the struggles of the poor?
Today, the world is very different;
we are no
longer bound to the
struggles
of our sins and suffering.
The Lord invites us to the liberation
that comes
from his triumph over death.
Let us rejoice in his victory and ours!
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