Homily for Easter Sunday

“Exult, let them exult! Let this holy building shake with joy, filled with the mighty voices of the peoples!”

With these words, the Church comes forth from its Lenten sacrifice to the joyous and exultant celebration of the Resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ. This is a day of rejoicing. This is a day of glory for God. This is a day when the promise of redemption is shown to us in all its glory and splendor.

We have spent the past several weeks looking deep into our hearts and souls, searching out those areas we have closed off from the transforming power of God. We have sought to open up our hearts and our souls to the grace of God and to cleanse ourselves of our sin. Through this annual observance we have, we pray, witnessed and experienced some transformation within ourselves. We have shared in the meal that Jesus gave us. We have walked the way of the Cross and laid our Messiah in His tomb. Today we witness the power of God, when the light of Christ re-entered the darkness of our world and brought light to all people living in that darkness. Indeed, we have reason to rejoice!

For the past several months, the catechumens and candidates of the Church have been dismissed from Mass in many parishes with the sung antiphon, Perhaps, “Glory, we glory, in the Cross of Christ.” It is a common expression among people today to speak of different crosses or burdens that we have to carry. Jesus tells us that if we truly want to be His disciples, then we must deny our very selves, take up His Cross, and follow Him. Taking up the Cross can be a very difficult thing for us to do. For taking up the Cross means facing disagreement, ridicule, sacrifice, and tremendous, tremendous risk.

But what we celebrate today is that the Cross is not the end. It is not the defeat of Jesus. It is not the squelching of the Good News that Jesus came to bring. It is not the end of the marvels of the wisdom and power of God. Instead, it is the instrument that showed the world the true glory of God. For through the degradation of the Cross, Jesus died just as we will die and Jesus rose just as we will rise on the last day. And so, we do glory in the Cross of Christ. We glory in that our Savior humbled Himself to suffer as we suffer, that He died as we die, and that He rose from the dead as we will rise.

On August 30, 1996, in Chicago, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin announced during a press conference that he had just been diagnosed with terminal cancer. In the course of his announcement, the cardinal spoke the following words, paraphrasing Fr. Henri Nouwen: “We can look at death in two ways, as an enemy or a friend. If it’s an enemy, we try to avoid it, we go into a state of denial, we become very fearful. But if we see death as a friend, our attitude toward it is different. As a person of faith,” he said, “I see death as a friend, as the transition from an earthly life to life eternal.”

 

         From this perspective, we can, indeed, glory in the Cross of Christ. That Cross has gained for us so much. And so, to paraphrase St. Paul in his letter to the Galatians, “May [we] never boast [of anything] except in the cross of our LORD Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to [us], and [us] to the world.” 

As we move forward from this celebration, as we go forth to face the world, may we carry the Cross of Christ confidently, knowing the glory that follows the Cross and trusting that we will share in that glory at the end of time. This is, indeed, the day when "Jesus Christ broke the chains of death and rose triumphant from the grave." May our rejoicing echo forth to all those we meet and be a call to all people to open their hearts to the saving power of God.+