Easter Sunday, April 20, 2025

Sunday Homilies

2025 Apr 20 SUN: EASTER SUNDAY. The Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Acts 10: 34a. 37-43/ Ps 118: 1-2. 16-17. 22-23/ Col 3: 1-4 or 1 Cor 5: 6b-8/ Sequence Victimae Paschali Laudes/ Jn 20: 1-9 or Mk 16: 1-7 or, at an afternoon or evening Mass, Lk 24: 13-35

On this day of resurrection, we remember how we came here. We remember that it was through a remembrance during the weeks of Lent, a remembrance of how the Son of God [had] taken on our human nature and be[come] truly human, as well as truly God.

Submitted to all the sufferings which every human being encounters in this world which is twisted by sin, he offered his life. He accepted the cross, and he said, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit." And then the incredibly surprising thing occurred. It was something that even those closest to him were not grasping and did not grasp until it occurred.

When he rose victorious from death, he conquered all the griefs of this world. We may want to question how he did it. We may want to say, "Well, in an instant at the time that you rise from death, why didn't you banish all suffering?" One partial answer to that is the fact that we have to turn our hearts over to him.

We read at the Easter Vigil last night Ezekiel's words about a new heart and a new spirit, exchanging our stony hearts for truly living responsive hearts of flesh. And we must remember that the resurrection is not some otherworldly thing.

As Peter told Cornelius in the Acts of the Apostles, "We ate and drank with him after his resurrection." We profess every Sunday that we believe in the resurrection of the body. Our God loves us as we are, body and soul.

And as we turn our hearts over to him, and as we recognize the meaning of the baptism by which we ourselves have died and are risen with Jesus, so we are called, as Colossians says today, to live out that baptism, and we can do so because, in fact, we have died with Jesus.

If the resurrection is something that we find we have a hard time with, we have to remember that those closest to Jesus did not dare to ask him what he meant. When he said, "I must be put to death and then rise from the dead," they never pressed him on that question.

The news of his death stopped them in their tracks. It was something that it seemed impossible to believe. They would not dare to believe it.

But in our baptism, in our conversion, as our stony hearts become hearts of flesh, we discover that we are willing to bear the griefs of this world in witness to Jesus' resurrection. So this is our great joy and promise this day, and throughout all the Sundays of the Easter season leading up to Pentecost.

We have before us a world which obviously has not been rid of suffering. We look at the human family across the world, and we see wars, and we see policies of government which in no way speak of the inheritance of all the people of God, an inheritance into resurrection and eternity.

We must, as we witness to resurrection, witness to the human dignity which leaves wars behind as something curious and cruel, things that we cannot abide. This resurrection is for the sake of our changing and of the world changing.

Jesus has given us his death and his resurrection. We are called to act with courage, to witness to truth and goodness and love in this world of sorrows.