Love conquers Death

Easter Sunday

GN 15:5-12, 17-18, PS 27:1, 7-8, 8-9, 13-14, 2 PHIL 3:17—4:1, LK 9:28B-36

In the Passion, Christ calls on his accusers to judge his words and actions
In the Passion Christ challenges his accusers to judge him by his words and actions which he performed in Public.  When Peter gives witness to the world about who Christ is he shows that by the signs and actions that Christ has performed in his own life and in his own history.  He is rooting his faith in the words and actions of Christ. 

As a result, St. Peter sees Christ as Judge of the Living and the Dead, the one to whom the Prophets testified to, and he calls us to the gift of Faith - and the fruit of Faith which is forgiveness of sins, a healing of our relationship with God.

How is the empty tomb a witness of the resurrection?
The image of the Resurrection, of this Easter is the empty tomb.  The expectation that is in Mary’s head when she encounters the tomb in the early morning of Easter Sunday is a cold, and empty hole in the ground filled with death.  Instead, she finds that death is missing, and so she runs to St. Peter and announces the resurrection with the words “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.”  So Peter and John race with Mary back to the tomb, John arrives first, followed by Peter who sees the burial clothes wrapped up and put aside neatly.  Although John arrives first, he waits for Peter so that they both can encounter the tomb together, and they see that the burial clothes are rolled up in the tomb.  St. John sees this and receives the gift of faith.  Has someone stolen the body of Christ, they would not have bothered with the burial clothes.  The sign of the clothes gives witness to the resurrection of the Body. 

When we read on further in John’s Gospel, we see that Peter and John return home, while Mary waits outside the tomb and then encounters the resurrected Christ, and sees first hand how love conquers death, and as a result of her encounter with the resurrected Christ she runs back to the Apostles and announces the resurrection with the words “I have seen the Lord.”.  Later that day, when they are gathered in a locked room for fear of the Jews, Christ comes and appears in their midst with the words of the resurrection - “Peace be with you!” and breaths on them saying “Receive the holy Spirit.  Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained”

The Tomb of the Dead gives witness to the effects of Sin
When we are serious and honest about the way that Sin works in our life, we will admit that Sin enslaves, belittles, binds us up in chains, it traps us in judgement, shame, and accuses us of our weakness.  Sin is a tomb with a dead, rotting body in it.  It stinks of decay and the end of life. 

The Tomb of the Resurrected One is different
This is not the Tomb that Mary, Peter and John encountered on Easter morning.  They found a tomb in which the burial cloths were rolled up - out of reverence of reverence for the suffering that the Lord had endured.  There is an implicit recognition of the harm that sin causes in our life, and at the same time, we see that although quieter, more gentle, and more subtle than sin, love conquers death, it rots away at its chains and ultimately melts them away. 

How does God’s Love for us conquer death?
God’s love for us - as witnessed through Christ’s passion and resurrection frees us - it breaks the chains of death, it gives us the freedom of being the sons and daughters of God.  It calls us to a closer following of the commandments - not out of a servile obedience, but rather through a desire to deepen our connection to God, and to allow the fruit that he has placed in our lives to flourish more abundantly.

What is my witness of Christ?  

• Where have I seen Christ working in my life?  
• How has He transformed me?  
• What do I look forward to in my relationship with Him?  Is it rooted in the reality of the events that have occurred in my life?  
• Do I see my faith as something that transforms how I live my life?  
• What changes have I made in my life because of my faith?

Getting caught up in the trappings of Christianity
Sometimes Christians get to Easter Sunday and rejoice because the fasting of Lent is over. They react saying “Woo Hoo! - I can eat chocolate again…”  If this is our response then we have sadly missed the point of the disciplines of Lent.  We have just spent the last six weeks of Lent examining how sin is destroying our life and striving to counteract the effects of sin in our lives - with Prayer, Fasting and Alms-giving.  This spiritual work is intended to bear fruit in our souls.  It increases within us our capacity to be freed from that sin and so live out the fullness of Christ’s love for us.

St. Paul calls us to allow the Gospel to really change us
The analogy that St. Paul uses in the second reading today is one of yeast leavening the dough when making bread.  He points out that a little yeast can transform the dough entirely  he says “Clear out the old yeast, so that you may become a fresh batch of dough”  This is what we have been working on for this past Lent.  St. Paul goes on to invite us to “celebrate the feast, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

The disciplines of Lent show us our spiritual poverty
One of the lessons of Lent is for us to take time to recognize where our actions are giving life, and where are actions are depriving us from God’s love. Which of the habits that we formed this past Lent should we continue, and allow them to transform our lives this Easter?  “Clear out the old yeast, so that you may become a fresh batch of dough” - because Christ has given his life so that we might conquer sin and death in our lives!

Have Faith in God’s Love for you
Brothers and Sisters!  The gift of faith that we are given today is that God loves us so much that he is willing to suffer and die for us.  He will not let anything stand between us and His love for us! The way we understand this reality is to see God’s love conquering our sin, our ways of rejecting God. 

Let us live these next eight weeks of the Easter mystery diving into the fruits of the resurrection.  Ponder where Christ has transformed death and suffering in your life into joy and peace.  Where are you free from judgement and condemnation, humiliation and pain to give witness to Christ’s love for you, for the way that his saving love transforms and frees you from the tomb of death.  This becomes for us the gift of Faith - which is the Easter gift - to see the mighty works of God and to believe.