Happy Easter Sunday, Christ is Risen Alleluia! Congratulations to Greg and Carolyn, Kevin and Max for receiving the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation.
During the Easter Vigil, we have the blessing of fire and water, reception of the sacraments for the catechumens and the renewal of our baptismal promises. We need to recognize this mystery which we celebrate, the mystery in which we have been incorporated into Christ, and we have made that choice. That Cross has been driven deep into our hearts, the Cross with the Word of God right on it. That Cross becomes the symbol of victory over death and sin; Jesus has conquered it in order to save us.
In just a moment, as we renew our baptismal vows, we will once again renounce Satan and all his works and all his empty promises, and we will once again profess our faith in God the Father, in Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Spirit. Just as this church, which this morning was like a void and empty waste, is now once again filled with beauty and will once again be filled with our Resurrected Lord, so too will this temple of our body be restored to its beauty and will also be filled with Our Resurrected Lord in whom we profess our Easter faith.
The epistle today is taken from the first letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians 5:7-8. According to God’s design, the blood of Jesus is necessary for Him to institute the New Covenant to save the chosen people and the rest of humanity. That offering of Jesus restores the whole Body of Christ, the Church. Therefore, all the members of the Church, as His body, receive a new identity in Christ. It means that brethren who are falling into misbehaving and sins are deceivers. Christ died to deliver us from our sins. Sin does not belong in our lives, and so we deny it access. We remember that we ourselves died unto sin, but we are alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. If Christ Jesus saved us from our sins, and He did, then we have no reason to continue living in them! We have new life in Him, a life that Father God wants to fill with good works rather than sins (Ephesians 2:10) and to grasp these simple grace teachings from this epistle, (1 Corinthians 5:8), “Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” This is a metaphorical, symbolic, or figurative usage. The “leaven” here is “malice and wickedness”—that which jeopardizes/infects our Christian true identity.
The gospel today is taken from Mark 16:1-7 where we notice the time when some of the apostles discovered that Jesus was not anymore in the tomb. The evangelist mentioned Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome, who brought spices to anoint the body of Jesus.
How do we understand this episode in the light of Jesus’ resurrection?
First, St. Mark 16:2 reads, “And very early in the morning, on the first day of the by week, they came to the sepulcher, the sun being now risen.” It implies clearly that we are drawn to the story as participants in the action of coming to the tomb.
Second, as the women were on their way, they were discussing the difficulty to remove the stone, which was very large, but then they discovered it had already been rolled back. “And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were amazed.” They were startled. We are drawn into the presence of this “young man”telling them not to be astonished, saying, “Be not affrighted, ye Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.” The message we hear is the heart of the Easter proclamation then and now: “He is risen; he is not here. Behold, (Look) the place where they laid him” (16:6b).
Third, “But go and tell His disciples.” These two imperative verbs, Go and Tell, convey an ongoing action and immediacy to the commissioning. Jesus is already going on ahead of them to the place of his early ministry in Galilee. The disciples are the sheep who have been scattered in the traumatic events that led up to and followed Jesus’ crucifixion. The crucified and risen Lord comes among his followers as the shepherd who goes before the sheep (16:7).
With the events that we have witnessed at the tomb, we have been drawn into the early dawn hours of a new day. With the women, we have come to the tomb and the discovery of the large stone rolled away. The message of the young man is addressed to us. We too have received the commission to go and tell.
In so many biblical passages from the book of Genesis up to the New Testament stories, God manifests His living presence. Today we stand in awe and ecstasy of God’s presence among us in the crucified and risen Lord who goes before us,
We, too, become witnesses, even participants with the women, in the action of coming to the empty tomb.
Alleluia! Praise the Lord.
Fr. Arlon, osa
