Homily for Easter Sunday

Today’s celebration is the most important feast day of the whole of the

Christian calendar. It is the biggest feast day, the most triumphal, with Christ

rising from the dead. In the account in Luke, you can note the hint of triumph

as the two men, who might be two angels, say to the women at the tomb:

“Why do you seek the living among the dead?” The women go to the Eleven to

tell them the news. After Peter gets to the tomb and sees the linen cloths lying

by themselves, it says: “he went home marvelling at what had happened”.

Meanwhile in John it says: “for as yet they did not understand the Scripture,

that he must rise from the dead”.

Our Lord went through so much for us! St Paul wrote in Romans 5: “For one

will scarcely die for a righteous person – though perhaps for a good person one

would dare even to die – but God shows his love for us in that whilst we were

still sinners, Christ died for us” (vs 7-8). We were of such value to God that He

was prepared to undergo all of that for us.

In the six-day creation account in Genesis, whilst everything else in the

universe is simply created, humanity is instead created in the image and

likeness of God. We are the pinnacle of creation. We may not be the biggest

things around – trees may be taller, elephants might be bigger, and even have

larger brains – but only human beings are made in the image and likeness of

God. And when they go wrong and sin, God doesn’t decide just to leave us and

to face the consequences. Without our turning away from Him, He would still

have gradually revealed Himself to us more and more over the centuries, and

even become one of us as Jesus, but now there is also the rescue plan, for

Christ to die a shameful death on the Cross and then rise on the third day. And

just as Christ rises to new life, so we too can share in new life, reconciled with

God and filled with the Holy Spirit, firstly possible through baptism and

confirmation, and then we can grow in that life through the Eucharist and the

other prayers and sacraments of the Church.

We were made for so much better than the secular world can offer. There is

good out in the world – it’s not all bad. But the natural world can’t offer us the

supernatural. Only God can do that. Hence why in Isaiah 55 it says:

“Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,

and your labour for that which does not satisfy?

Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,

and delight yourselves in rich food.

Incline your ear, and come to me;

hear, that your soul may live.”

For so many people, they live their lives, and things seem fine on the outside,

but inside there is still something missing. It’s like trying to live off sweets

when you need meat and potatoes and all those healthy fruits and vegetables.

And if we are to be truly human beings, we need more than just to satisfy the

basic things of food and drink and so on. We are spiritual, and our souls need

nourishing as well. Just as a car might need both oil and petrol, we need both

the material and the spiritual. Do we wonder why there are so many problems

in society? It’s like a form of deficiency disease. We need Christ. We need the

Gospel. Otherwise, humanity becomes more beast-like, going back to the days

when someone once said that life was “nasty, brutish and short”. God calls us

to Him, and in Ezekiel He says: “And I will remove the heart of stone from

your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you,

and cause you to walk in my statues and be careful to obey my rules.” We may

have the desire to live good lives, but without God, our natural gifts and talents

will only carry us so far. Why run when you can fly?

So today’s feast is a celebration for the whole of humanity. Our God is

victorious over sin and death, and all those things that hold us back. A new

way of life can now be ours. As Pope Francis put it:

“Let us celebrate Easter with Christ! He is alive! Today, too, He walks in our

midst, changes us and sets us free. Thanks to Him, evil has been robbed of its

power; failure can no longer hold us back from starting anew.”

Or as the Easter Sequence puts it:

“Christ, my hope, has risen: he goes before you into Galilee.

That Christ is truly risen from the dead we know.

Victorious king, thy mercy show!”

Curious about exploring things further?  If you would like to ask further questions about the topics raised in these homilies (or maybe think it wasn’t explained too well!), please feel free to e-mail Fr Michael at stjoseph.thame@rcaob.org.uk