Homily for Easter Sunday
April 20, 2025
Hope Triumphs Over Despair
When I
was applying to seminary, I had to meet with the Vocations Director for an
interview. As part of the interview, he asked me, “What would you do if
archeologists found the Body of Jesus, beyond the shadow of a doubt?” That
question struck me as odd, but I recalled a quote I heard somewhere, “If Christ
is not raised, then our faith is in vain.” It was only later that I realized I
had been quoting St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians.
Our
Catholic Faith is based upon a historical fact that Jesus Christ got up from
the tomb. In Medina, Saudia Arabia, Muslims often go on pilgrimage to visit the
tomb of Mohammed, whose body is encased beneath a green dome in a marble sarcophagus.
After his death, the body of Buddha was cremated and his relics have been
stored in eight locations across India. But no reputable person has ever
claimed to have the Body of Jesus – despite the fact that such a find would
bring great fame and fortune to the one who would find it!
The
Resurrection of Jesus is historical, but it is an event that reverberates
throughout history. We don’t say that Jesus was risen, but that Jesus is
risen – present tense. This makes his resurrection unique in human history.
Many
great saints performed miracles that raised people from the dead. For example,
there is a delightful story in Acts of the Apostles where St. Paul is preaching
in a house on the third floor. His sermon was going on and on, late into the
night, and people were getting drowsy. A young boy happened to be sitting in
the windowsill to catch the breeze, but he fell asleep and fell right out the
window, hitting the ground and dying from the fall! St. Paul went down, prayed
over the body of the boy, and then took him by the hand and raised him back to
life. Must be the first case of someone dying from boredom in church!
But
there are two major differences between these “raising the dead miracles” and
Christ’s Resurrection. First, only Jesus Christ could raise Himself from
the dead – the many other stories of people coming back from the dead require
another person to perform the miracle on them. Secondly, everyone else received
a resuscitation, not a resurrection. The difference is that this boy would
resume his normal life, live for a while, and then die again. Jesus Christ,
once raised, will never die again. He did not merely resume His ordinary daily
life – His Body was so utterly transformed that it was glorious. His Apostles
did not recognize Him, so much did His Body change, and He was not limited by
time or space, as he was able to walk through locked doors and vanish whenever
he wanted. As Pope Benedict XVI puts it, “The Resurrection opens up a new
dimension of human existence” – one that we hope to share in.
And
herein lies the practical takeaway to this most remarkable historical event
that is not merely in the past but in the present too – we have the opportunity
to participate in it, and this colors everything we do. Imagine for a moment two
people walking down the road. Same action, same road. But one person is on the
way to be crowned king, while another is walking to his execution. What a
difference, although the externals are the same! The difference is that one
walks with hope and eager expectation, the other walks with dread and despair.
Although
Christians and those without faith do the same actions, we do it with hope and
confidence in the final victory of Christ over the grave. We eat and drink, go
to work and school, recreate and enjoy life, suffering and struggle – but to
people without faith, those actions are just buying time until the ultimate
annihilation of the human person. However, people with faith in the
Resurrection see these same daily actions as a journey to our ultimate
fulfillment when we shall join the Resurrected Christ in a life that never
ends.
It’s the
difference between hope and despair – Christians know that life and love win in
the end. So we can look at the chaos of our modern world with peace, and take
it all in stride – just as the crucifixion wasn’t the end of the story, so our
broken world isn’t the end of the story, either. In the Resurrection, Christ is
victorious…even over our broken world.
Two
centuries ago, there was a German noblewoman who firmly disbelieved in the
Resurrection. She gave orders that her grave was to be sealed shut with a slab
of granite on top of it, for large stones on the corners, and iron clamps
holding it all together, with an inscription on top that read, “This burial place
will never be opened for all eternity.” She wanted to make a bold statement
that she did not believe in life’s triumph over death.
But a
little birch tree seed found its way between the side stone and upper slab, and
it started to grow…and grow…and force its way under the iron clamps and the
granite slab. Over time, the tree’s growth tore the solid grave apart, so that
all of the iron and granite are resting upon the trunk of that solid tree,
which is large and flourishing. Life triumphs!
We don’t
say that Jesus was risen, but that He is risen. His death is not
a mere resuscitation, but a new way of being human – a way that shows the final
victory of hope over despair, the final victory of life over death.
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