04/08/2007

FR. OLMAN’S HOMILY

EASTER SUNDAY

04/08/2007

After his resurrection Jesus appeared first to Mary Magdalene and the others women. It is significant that our Lord appeared first to the women. His faithful followers, before appearing even to his Apostles whom he had chosen to preach his gospel to the world. It was to the women that he first disclosed the mystery of the resurrection. They were the first witnesses of the truth. Perhaps he wished to reward their delicacy, their sensitiveness to his message, their strength that drove them all the way to Calvary. Perhaps he wished to reveal an exquisite trait of his humanity consisting in the kindness and gentleness with which he approaches and rewards those who counted less in the great world of his time. The special place given to women in the Paschal events is an inspiration to the Church which, in the course of history, has been able to rely on them for her life of faith, prayer and apostolate.

The women went to the tomb, very early in the morning. They found the tomb open and they heard the voice of an angel telling them “He is not here, for he has been raised”. For the first time the words “He has been raised” are pronounced by an angel. There is profound meaning in this angelic presence in the empty tomb and the angelic proclamation. Just as only an angel could pronounce the incarnation of the Word, so too, a human subject was not sufficient; a human word was not adequate to express for the first time the words “He has risen”. A higher being was needed because for human beings this truth and the words which express this truth are so overwhelming, so unbelievable that no one perhaps would have dared to say it.

Jesus laid down his life of his own accord and he took it up again as he willed. Master of life and death, he did not come down form the cross when challenged, nor did he come alive as they took him down from the cross and laid him in the arms of his sorrowful Mother. He gave time to both friends and enemies to be certain of his death. For our sake he would go through death, and with us he would share the horrors of the grave. And he came back to life at his own time and at his own hour.

They glory of the resurrection is not for him alone who is God everlasting and immortal.

It is for us. In the risen Christ man has conquered sin and death. We shall pass through the gates of death and find ourselves alive, glorious, completely fulfilled if only we live the life of the grace of God.

The Risen Christ tells us “I have conquered the world”. The Lord experienced death; he accepted death to reveal himself beyond the horizon which weighs heavily on all humanity. He by his death has put to death that death which had sin at its origin. Christ by overcoming the world reveals the world to man. This world which banished God from the heart of man by committing sins given back by Christ to God and to man as the place of the original covenant, which must also be the final covenant when God will be “all in all”. Christ frees us from every form of slavery. He frees us from selfishness. He asks us to commit ourselves to love and to the service of our brothers and sisters.

We thank the Lord for his passion, death and resurrection. Life with its hunger and toil, With it seat and tears, with its shedding of blood and grasping fro breath, with its apparent futility and hopelessness, has its meaning in the resurrection of our Lord which is a pledge of our own resurrection., life for us does not end in the dark tunnel. Let us put our hand in his and let Christ lead us. He will lead us into a free country, into a land he promised to our fathers, a land flowing with the like of life and the honey o live, into a vision of peace and beauty, to eternal pastures and everlasting springs, to such depths of joy and happiness that a man is at last in peace with himself, in peace with the world around him and in peace with God.

St. Paul tells u and we have heard it in the second reading “If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth”. We have risen with Christ. Our body should be governed by higher spiritual laws. The feast of Easter teaches us a new conception, a new elevation, a new sanctification of our body, a new purity. Easter gives us a new sense of the dignity of this flesh or ours, so sensitive, so frail. It is the work of God. It is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

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Last modified:04/14/07