What a joyful day it is today! The darkness of the winter is gone and the gloom of Good Friday is behind us. Today is a wonderful day to spend celebrating Christ’s love for us. Jesus Christ is risen from the dead! This is our Easter joy. Pope John Paul II once said that, “We are an Easter people and Hallelujah is our song!”
Let us go forth from mass today with a song in our hearts. After you leave mass, do you ever have a few lines of a hymn stick with you the rest of the day? The song resonates in your heart so much that you keep wanting to sing it the rest of the day, or carry the tune in your heart the rest of the day. That’s joy. Joy is contagious. Joyful music is contagious, but so is our Easter joy. Let’s share it! That could be our challenge today. To share the joy with everyone we encounter today. We don’t have to go overboard or anything, just smile, be happy, look people in the eye, greet strangers, go out of our way to be nice to people, just enjoy being alive. We should slow down long enough to experience small moments of joy today, and then share it with others.
That’s the first thing Mary Magdalene did when she saw the empty tomb. She was so excited that she ran back and told Peter and the other disciple that the tomb was empty, Jesus wasn’t in the tomb. She didn’t walk, she ran! Easter morning was a personal encounter with the risen Christ and the first thing Mary Magdalene did, was share the good news with other people. Why do we have such a hard time with that? Are we afraid of what people might say if we talk about Jesus in public? Is it hard to talk to people of other Christian denominations? Are we afraid of our differences? Or do we celebrate our common belief in the risen Christ?
Each one of the gospel stories about the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a little different. They each tell a slightly different version of the resurrection of Christ on Easter morning, but the one thing the gospels do agree on, is that Jesus Christ rose from the dead and the tomb was empty on Easter morning. We need to remember that when we talk about our faith with other Christians. We have more in common with one another, than we do differences.
Mary Magdalene was not the only one running on Easter morning. Peter and the other disciple ran as fast as they could to see the empty tomb too. The other disciple beat Peter to the tomb, but did you notice he wasn’t brave enough to go in? Saint Peter had no such qualms. He walked right in the tomb and saw Christ’s burial clothes and the cloth that covered his head laying off to the side. Peter wasn’t one bit afraid of facing the unknown, of facing death itself, because of his great love for Jesus. His love for Jesus overruled all fear and uncertainty. Peter’s love for Jesus was the rock, the entire Catholic church was founded on and in today’s readings, we can see why. No one else actually entered the empty tomb, until after Saint Peter did.
What do you think Saint Peter felt as he stood there looking at the empty burial cloths inside Christ’s tomb? Shock? Disbelief? The gospel said that they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead. This was surely something he would need some time to digest. At that moment, Peter did not have all the facts. He didn’t understand anything. But, that was ok. He didn’t have to. Saint Peter simply loved the Lord Jesus enough to follow him anywhere. Remember this verse?
“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.” ~ 1 Jn 4:18
Saint Peter’s love for Jesus reached perfection the moment he stepped into the empty tomb. Out of fear, Saint Peter may have initially denied Jesus three times, but that was in the past. Peter’s love for Jesus conquered his fear when he stepped into the empty tomb. Easter morning was a new beginning for him, and for the whole world. It’s a new beginning for us today as well. The past is the past. Our sins have been forgiven by Jesus Christ’s death on the cross and we need to be like Saint Peter, and let them go. The last sentence of today’s first reading for mass today says that, “To him all the prophets bear witness, that everyone who believes in him will receive forgiveness of sins through his name.”
We also need to let go of our fear of death. Jesus defeated death. He rose from the dead, to eternal life and we will too if we believe in him. The second reading today says that, “When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory.”
We were created for eternal life, and there really is no such thing as death. Death is simply a door through which we pass, into eternal life. We have nothing to fear. Jesus loves us, forgives us, and journeys with us throughout our lives, and into eternal life as well. This is the good news of Easter. This is our Easter joy!
Easter Sunday Readings for Mass:
Acts 10: 34a, 37-43 / Psalm 118 1-2, 16-17, 22-23 / Colossians 3: 1-4 or 1 Corinthians 5: 6b-8 / John 20: 1-9
