Audio: https://sites.google.com/site/sktdeaconed/home/mp3/150331_001.mp3?attredirects=0&d=1
Think
back, for a moment, to when you were a small child. A little kid. For the children among us, you don’t have to
think back very far at all! Now assuming
you had a happy, safe childhood, you were full of optimism. Life was full of promise, of unlimited
possibilities. Children usually have a
hopeful, positive outlook on life. And
an unmistakable innocence. We love – we
are drawn to - the innocence of little kids, huh? That’s why those AT&T Wireless
commercials are so popular – you know, with the man interviewing the four
little kids – I especially like the little guy who can do two things at once –
can wave his hands while he shakes his head.
In
their innocence, little kids read fanciful stories and fairy tales, all with
happily ever after endings. And in their
innocence, little children believe in things that older and wiser and more
worldly people might find impossible, they believe the unbelievable. Little children have great expectations of
life – big dreams, and important plans, and unbounded hope and optimism.
But
then what? We all grow up, and
inevitably, “life” gets in the way.
Dreams may be shattered. People
and institutions let us down. I don’t
care how much of a “charmed life” you’ve lived, inevitably it doesn’t turn out
the way you thought it would. We live in
a fallen world, one that has great goodness and beauty, to be sure, but also that
has hatred, violence and depravity. Suffering
and illness. Hopelessness. Sin. And
death. We grow up and think we’ve grown
wiser, but all our knowledge, all our wisdom, is often simply cynicism or even
sarcasm. And many stop really believing
in anything, much less believing the unbelievable.
Into
that fallen world God sent His Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Who by His life taught us, His disciples, how
we are to live and love. And who invites
us to join our suffering to His, to take up our crosses and follow Him to Calvary,
in our own suffering and death.
And
in the most important event in the history of the world, in the history of the
Universe, was raised this day, from the dead!
He overcame death, completely defeated it. Jesus, without whose gruesome death and glorious
Resurrection, “our birth would have been no gain,” as was sung last night in
the Easter Vigol proclamation, comes to save this fallen world. Jesus Christ died but lives once more! Alleluia!
And
Jesus invites us, His disciples, to be like little children again. He calls us to believe the unbelievable, as
we would as children, as the disciple whom Jesus loved believed at the empty
tomb in today’s Gospel. Our rational brains tell us that dead people don’t
come back from the dead. And a great
many people, and a growing number of people, I’m sad to say, find the stories
in this book to be nothing more than fairy tales.
But
you and I, my sisters and brothers, have been given the gift of grace, the gift
to believe the unbelievable. For
we gather here this morning, as Christ’s disciples have gathered for 2,000
years, to celebrate, to rejoice, to proclaim our belief that Jesus Christ Is
Risen! That the Father rolled away the
stone, opened the tomb and raised His only Son to new life! Our cynical world laughs at us, but here we
are 2000 years later, out of the thousands crucified by the Romans, we and a
billion or so others around the globe are remembering and celebrating just one
– Jesus Christ Our Lord! He lives!
But
this was not simply something that happened 2000 years ago. No. He
lives still. He lives and brings light
and newness of life into the darkness, pain and suffering of our world, now. In his Easter homily last evening, Our Holy
Father, Pope Francis, asks:
Are
we often weary, disheartened and sad? Do we feel weighed down by our sins? Do
we think that we won’t be able to cope? Let us not close our hearts, let us not
lose confidence, let us never give up: there are no situations which God cannot
change, there is no sin which he cannot forgive if only we open ourselves to
him.
The Holy Father goes on to invite us
to “Let the risen Jesus enter your life, welcome him as a friend, with trust:
he is life!” Yes, He is life, and He is
alive! He lives!
He
lives! - in the hearts of all who in faith accept His friendship.
He
lives! - in the radically changed lives, and always changing lives, of those of
us blessed to be called His disciples, all of us He invites into His
friendship.
He
lives! - in the new life He pours into our hearts.
He
lives! - in this assembly of the Faithful, here in this Most Holy Church, in
all of us, you and me, who have gathered together this morning to worship the
Father and rejoice in His Risen Son, Our Lord.
He
lives! - right here at this altar in the community gathered around it and in
His Most Sacred Body and Blood, the Eucharist, which we will soon share!
He
lives! - as our Church carries out the
mission which the Risen Christ entrusted to us – to love Him in our neighbor, especially
in the poor and most vulnerable, and to go forth to make disciples of all
nations. To go forth from here,
nourished and strengthened by His word and Sacrament, and by our deeds, our
words and the example of our lives, to bring the Risen Christ to a world so
desperately in need of Him. A fallen
world in need of its Savior. A world thirsting
for the living water that only Jesus Christ can give.
And
our greatest expectation, our greatest hope is this:
He
lives! – in His promise of life eternal for all who confess belief in Christ Jesus
crucified and raised from the dead!
He
lives! Alleluia! Alleluia!
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