I sometimes wonder, if Easter is the greatest Christian feast – and it
certainly is – why is so much about it a little superficial. We dress up
a bit, go to church, take in the decorations, sing the hymns, listen to
the homily (or not!), share the peace with family and neighbors, receive
Communion, and then head home for brunch or maybe an Easter egg hunt,
but basically for business as usual.
If Easter really is our
greatest feast, is that enough? Don’t get me wrong: all those things
I’ve just mentioned are important; they’re just not enough. Easter needs
to be more than a passing moment in church or a family get-together.
Easter needs to be more than a moment, more even than a day: Easter is a
wake-up call, a great awakening, a way of looking at life - all of life.
In the end, Easter is really a revolution!
But we’ve kind of tamed
Easter, haven’t we – reducing it to a feel-good moment, to a social
event, to bunnies and baskets! We’ve sanded down the hard edges of
Easter – its bold faith, its demanding discipleship, its countercultural
values, its explosive possibilities. The result is an Easter that is
anything but a revolution.
For Mary Magdalene, the
resurrection of Jesus changed everything. The very first to encounter
the risen Christ, she became not only a witness to the resurrection, she
became an apostle - sent by the risen Christ to announce the amazing
news of his resurrection to Peter and John, and the other apostles. Talk
about a revolution! In the ancient world the testimony of women counted
for nothing, and here the prime witness is Mary Magdalene! Small wonder
the early Church Fathers called her “the apostle to the apostles!”
Easter changed everything for her and for all the apostles. Before long,
they were on fire and they unleashed a firestorm that swept through the
ancient world!
A question: what does
Easter do for you? Does it set you on fire? I’d have to give myself
mixed reviews. I don’t always live my faith in a way that speaks of
Easter, of Christ’s victory over death. But I should, because here’s the
thing: the resurrection of Jesus is God’s definitive pronouncement,
God’s divine assurance that life is infinitely stronger than death, that
life, not death, will always get the last word. And that has
implications for everything under the sun. Everything! Our personal
lives, our faith lives, and our lives as citizens of this world: our
principles, our priorities, even our politics.
If life has the last
word, then love must overcome hatred, forgiveness must overcome
bitterness, and generosity must overcome greed. And in the world out
there, if life is to overcome death, then poor people must be clothed,
housed and fed, the unborn must be protected, refugees must be harbored
and immigrants welcomed, swords must be turned into plowshares, and
God’s magnificent creation must be treated with the greatest awe and
wonder and care. The resurrection of Jesus is about life and each of
those is a ‘life issue,’ – life overcoming death in all its ugly forms.
That, my friends, is the
Easter revolution I’m talking about. Easter, Christ’s resurrection, puts
us squarely on the side of life, not death. It should make us champions
– vocal, impassioned, outspoken advocates - for life however, and
whenever, and wherever it is threatened by the forces of death.
On Easter, God did not
just roll back a stone and raise a dead body to life. God did that, for
sure, but God raised up Jesus so that his gospel would not be a dead
letter but a living force. And, my friends, the only way the gospel of
Jesus lives is if we live it. Not just on Easter Sunday, but every day.
Think of it this way: Easter is as much an agenda as it is an event.
That means we have our work cut out for us because we are surrounded by
so much death!
And I know: it’s hard to
hold onto hope when we’re dealing with the many ways death comes at us -
illness, the loss of a loved one, the loss of a job, the break-up of a
marriage, war, terrorism. These, and so many more.
Where are we to find
hope and life in all of that? It’s challenging, but we must not let our
fears or our defeats get the last word. Our faith needs to get the last
word: our Easter faith.
Years ago, the Jesuit
theologian and paleontologist, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin gave a lecture
about his Easter faith. He painted this vision of unity and peace for
the human family and for the world. Afterwards, a colleague challenged
him: “That’s a wonderful, tantalizing vision, but suppose we blow up the
world with a nuclear bomb? What happens to your great vision
then?”
“That would set things
back millions of years,” Chardin replied, “but the vision will still
come to pass, not because I say so or because the facts right now
indicate that it will, but because God promised it and in raising Jesus
from the dead God has shown that he can deliver on that promise!”
My friends, the
resurrection of Jesus assures us that our world and our lives will make
sense in the long run, even if our world and our lives sometimes seem to
be spinning out of control. The march of history will not end in some
cruel joke even if along the way there are difficult detours. The final
word in our personal pilgrimage and in the story of the human family
will not be death, but life, because Christ is risen. That’s the Easter
faith we need to take out there when we leave the Cathedral today.
My friends, Christ
is risen! He is risen indeed! Let the revolution begin!
Father Michael G. Ryan
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