Easter is a feast that speaks for itself. Ours is an Easter religion. In fact our faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior rests on this feast of Christ’s resurrection from the dead. We believe that life has the final word, not death. As Paul the Apostle tells us, ‘if Christ has not been raised then we are still in our sins.’ If Christ be not raised the shame and pain of our crucified Christ was for nothing. If Christ be not raised the chief priests and the mob that followed them won the day on Calvary. If Christ be not risen then the forces of hatred, bigotry, racism, sexism, exclusion, fear of the stranger, greed and power that are part of our lives today will win the day. If Christ be not risen then the evils of the peoples of this world in which we live; the wars, the genocides, the hunger that kills millions, all the realities we cannot deny, these harsh facts of life, we will not surrender to the evils of their reality because of our faith in the risen Christ – the Lord of life, the conqueror of death.
In the end it is the goodness of so many men and women, a goodness that confronts the lies of racism and bigotry and white supremacy, the goodness that reaches out to the poor, the hungry, the man of woman out of work, the families that cannot afford adequate housing that in the end will show the power of justice and love, the power of Christ and his resurrection.
Seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. So we are ever mindful of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ, we are faithful at being present at the Eucharist, we try to be a person of prayer. Seeking the things that are above we try to be present to the people around us, sensitive to their needs. Seeking the things that are above we try to bring peace to our own families and be reconciled with people with whom you are estranged. Seeking the things that are above us we pray for our wounded and shamed church. Seeking the things that are above us we support our parish family in its works of charity and try to be instruments of peace with all those men and women who come into our lives.
Today and every day let us feast with joy in the Lord.” Just as Christ passed through death to resurrection, so too will we pass through this world and its suffering to the glory of a new life.
God bless us all with a holy and happy Easter.
This Homily entry was posted on Sunday, April 21st, 2019.
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