Easter Sermon – April 19, 2025
Christ has Risen, He has truly Risen! Happy Easter everyone!
Resurrection is the victory over death and the beginning of another kind of life in which death no longer has a place, but a life in fullness, in beatitude. Resurrection is the celebration of a living presence, a life with God. The Resurrection appears as a revolution within evolution. Says the South American Theologian, Leonardo Boff. We are in a new place in the human experience. Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the Son of God – The Risen One.
For St. Paul, Romans 8: 29, he states that the Risen Christ is the first among many brother and sisters who participate in it. We do not live to die, we die in order to rise. The resurrection has been kept alive in celebrations and liturgies, especially through the Eucharist, in which the sacramental and real presence of the living and risen Christ among us is reaffirmed. For us also, this spiritual presence, this new reality continues in the life of the Spirit we led day by day. A life in the Risen Christ.
Without faith in the resurrection, there would not have been the emergence of Christian communities, nor would the way of Jesus have been followed, nor would the four Gospels and all the other new Testament texts exist. What happened was the apostles were challenged to interpret the death on the cross and the resurrection as an amazing event after the Crucifixion. They searched the scriptures and filled the gospels with quotations to find meaning for all these events.
We stand in faith celebrating Easter because of the disciples experience of the risen Christ and the deep faith it brought them to live. We now follow in their footsteps of faith and proclaim our faith in the risen Christ. And as for them, so for us, everything is changed.
The challenge for us is how do we proclaim Christ in a world so desperately needing him today, but not really listening to the truth of Christ and his message of love, mercy and forgiveness? Not listening to what we heard tonight in the scriptures. That clear word that started it all in Genesis: “In the Beginning.” The readings that followed traced salvation history for us and brought us to Luke, and his words: “At daybreak on the first day of the week”, in other words: In the beginning. Just as God ordered at the beginning of time, he tells the universe, “Let there be light’. We have the light of Christ. A new beginning for us all. An evolutionary leap for humanity. Something between mystery and mysticism happened for us through Christ. That affects us in every way. And I sense we want to live in that space between heaven and earth. The gift is: Easter makes it all possible. So we keep Eastering in our lives. Experiencing Christ’s new life in us, as we live Christ!
Thomas Merton tells us, a true encounter with Christ liberates something in us, a power we did not know we had, as hope, a capacity for life, a resilience, an ability to bounce back when we thought we were completely defeated, a capacity to grow and change, a power of creative transformation. The Risen Christ opened up a new life for us, a revival of love, of justice, of mercy, of grace. All things are possible with Him and in Him. There is hope, love does win out. God’s love for us and God’s love in us now extended to all by how we live.
That means the total giving of self, a surrender to God in disinterested love, in abandonment to God’s love and mercy is now part of our life journey, if we choose Christ and all he offers us.
We heard the word during lent – the greatest commandment is love God with all your heart and all your mind and all your strength and your neighbor as yourself. It is this recognition that we are all one and so we promote unity, compassion, forgiveness, respect and peace for everyone. That’s how we meet the challenge of today – just live Christ, live life in him.
Wouldn’t this be the gift we give back to God for the great gift of the risen Christ for us? Pope Francis in his encyclical on the Divine and Human love of the Sacred Heart, writes that the knowledge that we are loved and the complete confidence in that love, bring us to respond generously to love others. It really does works that way, doesn’t it.
The Holy Father goes on to invite us to recognize that the words in John’s gospel – “out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.” Those rivers of living waters of God’s love and mercy continue to flow from us, when we live Christ.
Let us embrace Easter’s blessings, the world desperately needs this living water refreshing all of humanity again and again.
My brothers and friends, let us be bold in faith, courageous in proclaiming Christ, Not Afraid to act with his love: after all, it’s true – Christ is Risen – He has truly Risen. Amen and Alleluia
