Easter Sunday

Father Brian Christensen
Homily from the Televised Mass, NewsCenter1
Easter Sunday, March 31, 2024

He saw and he believed. Christ is risen, is risen indeed.

After this Holy Week, we arrive today at the empty tomb. We have journeyed with Jesus from his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, hearing the hosannas of the crowd, “hosanna in the highest.”

We went to the upper room with him in the institution of the Holy Eucharist. We heard him say, “Do this in memory of me.”

We prayed with him in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Father not my will, but your will be done.”

We watched as our Lord was betrayed by a kiss. 

We heard, with sorrow, Peter’s denial, “I do not know the man.” 

We stood helplessly as Jesus was falsely accused, mocked, spat upon, whipped, and crowned with thorns. We heard, with deep sadness, of the crowds, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”

We watched as they laid the heavy cross upon his shoulders and forced him through the crowds, up the streets to Calvary. They threw Jesus to the ground. Pounded nails into his hands and into his feet. Raised up the cross and left him to die in agony. 

The world is filled with so much injustice, violence, hatred, and its ugly effects are all around us. The innocent are victimized, the stranger is cast out, the sick and the elderly are ignored. The pursuit of the earthly and the passing overcome our quest for the eternal and the lasting, and we are witnesses to all of these things. All these horrible terrible awful atrocities and our hearts are moved with profound sorrow and sadness and our spirits are often shaken by these realities, these cruel consequences of sin. 

Finally, after all these horrors, we see Jesus’s body laid in the rocky tomb covered with linen clothes neatly arranged by the tender hands of his own mother. And then the entrance of the tomb is closed by a great rock, and we depart death has claimed another victim. Death has once again had his day. Death, the final consequence of sin seems to have won again. 

Then there’s that eerie, mysterious quiet and sadness of Holy Saturday. We wait in silent hope with Mary and the apostles. 

But today, today the third day, we awake with Mary Magdalene and we make our way to the tomb. We are ready to visit, to pray to give honor to our Jesus, and we are struck with astonishment. That great rock that sealed the tomb is rolled away. The linens are neatly folded up in the corner and an angel asks us, “Why are you looking for the living among the dead?”

Christ is risen. He is risen indeed, and we are witnesses to this truth. Like Peter and John who ran to the tomb on that first Easter morning, you and I come on this Easter morning,  are at the tomb of Jesus and we find ourselves peering into that tomb. We find it empty.

Jesus by his love has passed through hatred, abuse, and violence, and even death. Love is stronger than death. Divine life is stronger than sin. Jesus has faced the menace of sin and death and he took upon himself all the indignities, all the horrors, all the pain of this world, this fallen world, can throw at us. Jesus was not overcome. Jesus was not defeated, Jesus came through all of these terrors and he triumphed. 

Jesus was victorious and that victory is ours. Jesus’ triumph is our triumph. In Christ Jesus we face the horrors of sin, hatred, violence, justice with steadfast determination in the victory of the cross. The glorious triumph over the grave. 

This victory is ours by Baptism. We have been baptized into the death and the resurrection of Jesus. In Baptism we die to our old selves, marked by sin and death, and we rise victorious into abundant and everlasting life in Christ. We pass through death to life. We rise from the tomb with Jesus. We are a new creation in Christ. 

On this Easter day, as we renew our baptismal promises, we are reminded of our new life in Christ, and we celebrate his victory and our victory. We peer into that empty tomb, and we are witnesses of all these things. We see and we believe Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia!