Homily: Easter Sunday Year C

 

    Since Ash Wednesday we have been on our annual, spiritual pilgrimage to the celebration of these Easter mysteries. On Ash Wednesday we entered a penitential time. Having heard the words: “Turn away from sin and believe in the Good News of salvation, we have hopefully heeded these words.

 

   Now we come to this new moment in our journey. Like those who stood with Jesus as he hung from the cross and died for our sins, we are now told the Good News. He is risen! He is alive! And with him, if we have walked faithfully on this Lenten pilgrimage and died to sin, we have risen with him. We share in his life. We are a new creation. We have been saved and set free from the bondage of sin.

 

   The women heard the Good News and believed. But that is not the end or only purpose of the Good News of his Resurrection. They were told that they had to tell others, to witness to others this message of hope, the event that has changed the history of the world, the truth that will set others free.

 

   What would have happened if they heard the Good News and went back to their ordinary way of life, first because they did not believe or secondly because it wasn’t something they wanted to get involved in, or thirdly, they hoarded the Good News as a treasure for themselves alone? Would the Good News had died with them?

 

   Instead, they accepted the message of hope as a revelation of truth, and shared it with the eleven disciples. Though the disciples did not understand it at first, their hearts were opened and questioned: Is it true?

 

   Jesus confirmed the message by revealing himself to Mary Magdalene and then to the Eleven. But again, they were told not to keep this for themselves but to witness this new life to others.

 

   What has happened to us this Lent? What has died? What has come to new life? What experience of God’s grace and mercy did we experience? When we look upon the presence of the Lord or receive him in Eucharist, what do we feel? How has Jesus spoken to our hearts on our journey?

 

   Was all of this just for us alone or are we called by Jesus to share it with others? In what ways do you experience new life in Christ? In what way has a new sense of love enveloped you? What will you do? He is risen! It is true! Tell the world the Good News, for the world is enveloped in a darkness of hopelessness and fear, of insecurity and mistrust, of anger and non-forgiveness. The world needs a message of hope and truth, a message of light and life. You have been told that message. Go and live it. Go and tell it. Whether the other believes or not, tell it anyway to fulfill your call and mission.

 

   Should not the Good News excite us, energize us, be reflected on our face, in our way of life, in our relationship to one another? But if Christians do not live it, if Christians buy into the sad news of the world, then the Good News will not be heard. Our excitement and conviction should be contagious. He is risen! Alleluia! Go and proclaim it! Go and live it!