EASTER SUNDAY
17 APRIL 2022
In
the year 2000, Bishop D’Arcy gave me permission to take a Sabbatical. To prepare, I carefully studied the details
of the Fall Israel Study Program offered by Chicago Theological Union. I applied for and received a grant from the
Lily Foundation, funding the entire Sabbatical experience. Then I spent three months living in a convent
in the West Bank with a group of 50 priests and sisters. We studied Scripture in the morning. When we were not travelling, I walked two
miles into the old city of Jerusalem every day.
It was an incredible life-changing experience. After the Sabbatical, I spent a lot of time
remembering what had happened. I showed
slides to various groups and talked about the experience. Perhaps many were bored with my
repetitions. But, remembering what
happened helped me to make more sense of the entire experience.
This is
what happened to the original disciples.
Jesus had been preparing them for his Paschal Mystery for three
years. He told them repeatedly that he
would suffer, die on the cross, and be raised from the dead on the third
day. On Easter Sunday, Peter and the
beloved disciple enter the empty tomb and see the burial cloths carefully
placed aside. It is the beginning of a
life-changing experience for both of them.
However, the full impact of that day will become clear to them only after
they have encountered the risen Christ and received the Holy Spirit. In the Acts of the Apostles, Peter may not
have shown any slides to those gathered in the house of Cornelius. But, he understands better the incredible
events of the Paschal Mystery as he explains them in detail to those who are
listening.
During
these last three days, we have entered into the passion and death of Jesus
Christ. We celebrated the Memorial of
the Last Supper on Holy Thursday. We
paused on Good Friday to recall that his enemies put him to death by hanging him
on a tree. Today, we hear from two of
the original witnesses that God raised him on the third day. During the course of these next fifty days of
Easter, we will reflect on their accounts of how they ate and drank with him
after he rose from the dead.
Unlike
Peter and the beloved disciple, we are not original witnesses of what happened. But today, we are reminded that these events
are not just isolated recollections of what happened two thousand years
ago. These events are made present to us
in our Liturgical Remembering. Last
night, ten people renounced the evil of Satan and professed their faith in the
living God: Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. Then they entered into the
watery grave of the baptismal font and emerged one with the risen Christ, with
all their sins forgiven. This morning,
we who have been baptized into the risen life of Jesus Christ will renew our
baptismal promises and commit ourselves to living them more completely.
In his
Gospel, Saint John never reveals the identity of the beloved disciple. He is writing to us, who are his beloved
disciples through baptism. Peter is the
first to see the evidence of the resurrection.
However, the beloved disciple sees and believes. In renewing our baptismal promises, we are
the beloved disciples who are invited to see the truth. Christ has born his cross, suffered, and died
for us. We are invited to carry our
crosses, endure our sufferings, and die to ourselves on a daily basis. Whenever we humble ourselves to share in the
Lord’s cross, in his sufferings, and in his death, we share now in the
resurrection of Jesus Christ. As we listen
to the risen Lord speaking to us in his Word in these next fifty days, we
deepen our faith in the resurrection. As
we share in the Sacramental life of the Church, we recognize the risen Lord
present in the breaking of bread.
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