EASTER SUNDAY
1 APRIL 2018
Mary Magdalene could not go to the tomb of
Jesus on the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week. The law forbade her from performing the work
of properly anointing his dead body on the day of rest. So she waits in horrible agony until the
eighth day, the first day of the week, to approach the tomb in the
darkness. That huge stone, the permanent
barrier between life and death, had been removed. The tomb is empty. In distress, she runs to Simon Peter and the
Beloved Disciple to tell them the news.
It is the Beloved Disciple who makes
the connection between what had happened to Lazarus on the Fifth Sunday of Lent
and what is happening on Easter Sunday.
Jesus had called Lazarus out of the tomb and ordered that his burial cloths
be removed. Now, the Beloved Disciple sees
the burial cloths that had bound the dead body of Jesus laid aside carefully. He believes the impossible – that Jesus
Christ has been raised from the dead, and that the power of death could never
touch him again. Later that day, the
risen Christ himself would break through the locked doors and reveal himself, transformed
through the resurrection. This eighth
day now becomes the first day of the new creation.
Last night at the Easter Vigil, ten people
walked to our 8-sided Baptismal Font, as we asked the intercession of the
saints. They entered into that watery
tomb and died to an old way of living.
They emerged from those waters with all their sins forgiven, one with
Jesus Christ. Sealed with the Holy
Spirit in Confirmation and fed by the Body and Blood of Christ in the
Eucharist, they will share in Christ’s dying every time they keep their
baptismal promises, so they can share in his risen life.
That is what Saint Paul says when he
writes to the Colossians. Like those
people baptized last night, we too have been buried with Christ in baptism and
rose with him to share a new life. He
advises us to seek what is above and to think of what is above. He is not telling us to walk around looking up
at the sky. Rather, he is telling us
that our connection with Christ through Baptism should affect the way we act in
our daily lives. If we look at life from
the lens of our connection with Christ, we will behave differently. We will be much more willing to forgive and
let go of hurts. We will be quicker to
avoid judgment and condemnation. We will
let go of our own ego, our own insistence on doing things our way, and our own
disordered passions.
On this eighth day, the first day of
the new creation in Christ, we renew our own baptismal promises. Baptism is always about death, because
baptism is about entering into the tomb with Christ. But Baptism is always about life, because
Jesus emerged victorious from the tomb.
That is why we renew our baptismal promises on Easter Sunday. We renew our promise to die to our selfish
interests and desires. We renew our
trust that the Lord keeps his promise that those who die with Christ will rise
with him. Simon Peter trusted those
promises. After encountering the risen
Christ and listening to him, Peter has been transformed. He is no longer the bungling Peter who keeps
putting his foot into his mouth. He no
longer denies knowing Jesus three times out of fear. At the house of Cornelius, he now understands
the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead. He speaks with confidence and authority about
the power of the risen Christ in his life.
The Lord will speak to us during this Easter Season, so that we too can increase
our faith in the Mystery of the resurrection.
We are the Beloved Disciple. We
listen to the Lord, so that we too may be transformed during this Easter Season.
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