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[Greetings to those who have not been to Church each Sunday, invite them back again later. Tell about the many baptisms, etc., at last night’s Easter vigil: let’s find more for next year!]

Do you remember what it’s like the day after a loved one died? How much time we spend in memories, trying to figure out what words describe our feelings. There’s the hard assessment of the fact that, well, I will never, ever, ever see this person alive again, as I always knew and love them. Now everything is different, and I miss them and will always miss them terribly. Nothing I can do can ever change that, nothing. Depending on how deeply we love that person, we feel greater or less heart broken.

A question arises in our hearts, why do people have to die? And if we don’t find an answer to that question, cynicism slowly surfaces, as bubbles in boiling milk. We might even find ourselves cursing life, regretting we ever saw the sun, condemning the day we were born, and regretting ever having loved in the first place.

Then we turn to the revelation of God in the Gospel, that Jesus rose from the dead. And in our cynicism, we say, “Oh, good for Jesus. I hope he enjoys his new life,” turning our steps, after a short pause, back down the dark trails of despair. So what if Jesus rose? My spouse died, he didn’t rise. My daughter died, she didn’t rise. My high school sweetheart died, she didn’t rise. My dad died, he didn’t rise. Well, if Jesus rose, good for him. It’s too bad he forgot to come back for the rest of us. And on we go down the road of despair.

The Easter homily is the hardest homily of the year, because so few really believe. The resurrection, thinks the unbeliever, stands as a great mythical, inspirational story. But all of us know how few of us believe, because of how few lives on the face of the earth live as resurrected people. So let us review what today’s Gospel says to us, and see whether or not it’s time for me to start believing, or believing better, or whether when I walk out of Mass today, it’s back to the same-ol’ same-ol’.

For on that morning, the day after Passover, Mary Magdalene, whose pure and chaste love for the Lord brought her back to the tomb where she could cry for him, discovered nothing but an empty tomb. Peter and John entered the cave, and found his clothes just as they narrated. How important are the details which they report.

They did not find the clothing pushed aside, but sitting there. The cloth that covered his body, a cloth kept by the Church to this very day,[1] stayed where it was when Jesus rose from the dead. It was as if he passed through the sheets, or simply found himself standing next to his former burial place. Furthermore, the cloth that was wrapped around his head did not cling to him, as happened in the case of the resurrection of Lazarus, requiring others to come and unbind him. It simply did not cling to him. For unlike the resurrection of Lazarus, Jesus did not simply come back to life, returning to the life he had given up when he died. He was risen to a new life. He was not limited to space or time, and his appearance was completely under his control.[2]

In order to understand the victory of Christ that first Easter morning, we must understand where death came from in the first place. Be sure of this and know for certain that death came from sin. This does not mean that God punishes us for our sins by killing us; for sin is not a consequence of our actual sins, the ones we commit – unless it is so by accident – but it is a consequence of original sin.

In light of this, do you realize what the resurrection means? It is awesome, and true, and powerful: now that Jesus has risen from the dead, everything is different.

Sin has been defeated. Death no longer has the final word on all flesh. And if Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has defeated sin, no longer must we remain slaves to sin. There is no habit of sin you can’t break. There’s no consequence of sin you can’t shake off. But to do so, you need to be united by grace to Jesus Christ. The theory of Plato and many others that our souls are prisoners in the jail of flesh no longer holds: the body is good, our bodies at the end of time will raise up. Discouragement does not come from God.

I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out – those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.[3]

The resurrection is the end of sin. It is the promise that we will be raised in the flesh, either in heaven or in hell, at the end of time. It is a proof of the divinity of the Christ, and the meaning of suffering.

Let us live accordingly. Let us strive to put an end to sin in our lives: with Christ we can. Let us strive to suffer with love instead of selfishness and bitterness. Let us hope in the resurrection that awaits each one of us.[4] Let us believe that Jesus Christ is God, and that Christianity is the one religion of the one God, not just some equal among other religions.[5] Let us live an intensely Eucharistic life, receiving communion worthily and frequently, spending time in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, mindful of the promise of Jesus, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”[6]

Let us walk in the newness of life, with the courage of the martyrs, the wisdom of the doctors, the purity of the virgins, the perseverance of the confessors, and with the holiness of all the saints. For the Lord did not rise for us to live in mediocrity, but to live in the life and the fullness of the children of God.

[1] His burial shroud is held in Turin, Italy.

[2] Cf. CCC 646.

[3] Jn 5:25-29, passim.

[4] CCC 655.

[5] CCC 651-653.

[6] Jn 6:54.