EASTER SUNDAY OF THE RESURRECTION OF THE LORD

5 APRIL 2026

 

          Saint Paul uses the example of the Jewish Passover Meal to describe what happens at Easter.  To prepare for the Passover Feast, all Jewish homes must be cleared of any yeast.  In Egypt, Moses had instructed his people to kill a lamb and spread its blood on the lintels of their doors.  The angel of death would pass over the homes of the those marked by that blood.  Then, Moses instructed the people to leave in haste on the next day.  Because yeast takes a while to ferment, they must make unleavened bread in preparation for the journey.  I know this from my own baking.  To prepare to bake a loaf of sourdough bread, I have to feed the starter which contains living yeast.  If I forget to feed the starter, the living yeast loses its power to rise the dough.  For Jewish people, the unleavened bread came to symbolize the haste in which their ancestors had escaped Egyptian slavery.  At every Passover meal, they eat unleavened bread as a sign that they must trust in God’s love as they continue their journey through life.

            That is what Saint Paul tells the Corinthians.  Our Paschal Lamb has been sacrificed in his death on the cross.  His blood has freed us from the power of sin and death.  For that reason, we must throw out the old yeast of malice and wickedness.  We need to celebrate this Feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.  The Lord invites us to trust that this great Feast of Easter has the power to transform us more completely into the Body of Christ.

            During these days of the Sacred Paschal Triduum, we have seen much of the unleavened bread of malice and wickedness.  The crowds who acclaimed Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah and Son of David on Palm Sunday shouted that he be crucified on Good Friday.  One of the closest followers of Jesus betrayed him with a kiss, after he had washed his feet as a sign of humble and loving service.  Most of his disciples ran away, and Peter denied knowing him three times out of fear.  Witnesses came forward with false testimony to convict him in the presence of the religious leaders. Those leaders condemned him out of jealousy.  The Roman governor knew that he was innocent, but condemned him to death to appease Caesar and the boisterous crowds.  The soldiers inflicted horrible physical pain and mocked him.  As he was executed in a most cruel way, those who passed by and one of the criminals made fun of him and challenged him to prove that he was the Son of God by coming down from the cross.  His dead and beaten body was taken down from the cross and buried in haste.  Lots of wickedness and malice!

            Today, Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead and destroyed the old yeast of malice and wickedness.  Mary Magdalene will encounter him later in the day.  The risen Christ will break through the locked doors of the apostles and present the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.  He will grant mercy to all who fled in fear and forgive the denials of Peter and heal the unbelief of Thomas.  He will send his disciples out to announce the Good News that God’s love is eternal and stronger than death.  Transformed by the power of the resurrection, they will imitate Peter’s actions in today’s first reading and welcome pagans like Cornelius as brothers and sisters in the risen Christ.  They will no longer lock themselves in fear.  Instead, they will proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ, even though it will cost them their lives.

            In just a few moments, we will be invited to renew our baptismal promises.  In doing so, we will throw out the old yeast of malice and wickedness.  We will be invited to be transformed by the resurrection and proclaim it with sincerity and truth.  Christ is risen!  His resurrection has the power to change our lives to walk confidently together on our journey of faith.  There is still plenty of the unleavened bread of malice and wickedness in our world.  The Resurrection does not change that.  But it changes us, giving us the peace and love the world cannot give.

 

GOOD FRIDAY

3 APRIL 2026

 

          In conducting the trial against Jesus, Pontius Pilate asks the question, “What is truth?”  He knows the truth about this peasant from Nazareth.  He knows that Jesus is innocent.  But he is afraid to act on that truth.  He could care less about the charges brought by the religious leaders that Jesus had made himself the Son of God.  However, he is terrified when the crowd accuses Jesus of making himself a king.  Pilate wants to remain in Caesar’s good graces.  For that reason, Pilate hands him over to be crucified to protect his status as a provincial Roman governor.  He even has the inscription written over the cross, “the king of the Jews.”

            In Pilate’s world, Jesus is on trial.  However, the truth is that Pilate is on trial.  He does not understand what Jesus means when he tells him that his kingdom is not of this world.  The first chapter of Saint John’s Gospel tell us that Jesus was present at the creation of the world, that he emptied himself of the privileges of divinity, and that he took on human flesh.  We know from reading the Gospels that the kingdom of Jesus is not at all like the kingdom of Pontius Pilate.  His kingdom is a kingdom of peace and justice, of love and mercy, and of compassion and kindness.  That is not Pilate’s kingdom:  one of power, cruelty, and violence against enemies.

            We live in a world which makes it difficult to know truth from fiction.  We have trouble discerning truth from our own world of alternative facts, misinformation, spin, propaganda, and fake news.  Our world says that truth is subjective, that truth is relative, that we can make up our own truth, and that there is no such thing as absolute truth.  Good Friday reveals the ultimate truth to us.  Jesus Christ, true God and true human, willingly accepted the unjust sentence of death to free us from the power of sin and death.  Jesus became the ultimate suffering servant of the Prophet Isaiah to demonstrate the truth that his righteous suffering has redeemed us, and that his life of humble service is a model for all of us seeking the truth.

            At the wedding feast of Cana, Jesus worked the first of his miracles, or signs.  He changed the ordinary water of human love into the divine wine of God’s love.  In the Gospel today, a soldier pierces his side with a spear.  Blood and water poured out, prefiguring the waters of baptism and the Blood of the Eucharist.  As Eve was formed from the side of Adam, the Church is formed from the pierced side of Jesus Christ.  The Mother of God is at the cross, not wailing in agony, but standing in a grieving faith.  The dying Jesus entrusts the beloved disciple to the care of his mother.  Since that disciple is never named in Saint John’s Gospel, you and I are the beloved disciple.  We are entrusted to the care of the Mother of God.  We are strengthened by the Sacramental life of the Church to remain faithful disciples, no matter what.

            Peter is also put on trial in today’s Gospel.  He is convicted of cowardice when he protects himself three times by denying that he is a disciple.  Peter passionately regrets this failure and accepts the forgiveness of the risen Christ.  We too can be convicted of denying the truth that we are disciples of Jesus Christ when we respond to challenges to our faith with fear.  We can be convicted when we regard the crosses we encounter in our lives as failures and punishments from God.  But the Mother of God encourages us, as beloved disciples, to stand by the cross of Jesus Christ as our victory, not our defeat or humiliation.  After we pray the Intercessions, we will be invited to come forward to venerate the cross.  We bring our own crosses, our own failures, and our own denials as we reverence the cross of Jesus Christ.  By dying on the cross, Jesus Christ has won the victory over sin and death.  By carrying our crosses with him, we can share in that victory, sealed for us at Easter.