Fr. Roger J. Landry
Conversations with Consequences Podcast
Homily for Easter Sunday (A), Vigil
April 11, 2020
To listen to an audio recording of this short Sunday homily, please click below:
The following text guided the homily:
- This is Fr. Roger Landry and it’s a joy for me to wish you and your family a Happy Easter as we enter into the consequential conversation the Risen Lord Jesus wants to have with each of us. It’s a conversation that should be anything but routine, especially this year, as most of us need to celebrate Easter at home. Just like Jesus entered the closed doors of the Upper Room where the apostles and Mary were living during their time in Jerusalem, just like Jesus entered the home of the disciples in Emmaus where they recognized him in the Breaking of the Bread of Life, so Jesus wants to enter our homes this Easter and help us to enter into his triumph of light over darkness, joy over sadness, love over hatred and life over death.
- There are various consequential conversations that happened on that first Easter. The angel spoke to Mary Magdalene and the other Mary at the tomb saying, “Do not be afraid. You are seeking Jesus the crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, “He has been raised from the dead!” They receive the incredible news of Jesus’ resurrection and then are called to share that news. We have Jesus’ very intimate conversation later with Magdalene in the Garden where because of her sadness she couldn’t discern the risen Lord’s presence and mistook him for the gardener before he called her by name. The same Jesus wants to call us by name and to recognize his victorious presence with us. We have the conversation of Jesus with the two crestsfallen disciples on the Road to Emmaus whose hopes that Jesus might have been the Messiah had been crushed by his death, but Jesus helped to open their minds to the meaning of the Scriptures and made their hearts burn when they began to recognize that Jesus’ crucifixion was not a contradiction of his Messianic mission but a confirmation. The same metamorphosis Jesus worked in them he wants to effect in us, helping us to understand everything, especially our greatest sadnesses, within the light of God’s words and will, so that our hearts might burn, that we might recognize him in the Eucharist, and that we might, like the Emmaus disciples, go uphill in darkness to share that light. We have the dialogue of the Risen Jesus with the apostles in the Upper Room when he asked them, “Why are you troubled? Why do questions arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and feet, that it is I,” and then he strengthened them in their Mission to bring his triumph to the ends of the earth. Jesus wants to answer our questions and to strengthen us to complete that same Mission.
- It is a huge disappointment — for priests and faithful alike — that we are not able to celebrate Jesus’ victory together in packed Churches. But even though we are not able to celebrate Easter together liturgically, even though we are not able to receive Jesus’ risen body and blood in holy Communion, even though we are not able to welcome into the Church as scheduled the new Catholics who have been preparing through baptism to enter into Jesus’ death and resurrection, the reality of what we memorialize on Easter remains. And it should impact our lives just as it impacted Mary Magdalene in the Garden, the ten apostles cowering in the Upper Room, the confused disciples on the Road to Emmaus, doubting Thomas before Jesus’ wounds, and stalking Saul of Tarsus outside the gates of Damascus.
- The fact of Jesus’ triumph should first make us courageous. We see the dramatic metamorphosis the resurrection had on the apostles, changing them from those who would leave the Cenacle to betray and abandon Jesus to those who would intrepidly bear witness to him. When the same Sanhedrin that had gotten Jesus crucified had Peter and John scourged and instructed them never to speak again about Jesus, they rejoiced at suffering on account of Jesus’ name and said they could not but speak of what they have seen and heard. They were undaunted because they realized that even should they be crucified like Jesus, they, like Jesus, would be raised. They were no longer afraid of death or suffering. The resurrection of Jesus should fill us with similar courage not just in the face of the coronavirus but in general.
- The second great consequence of Jesus’ resurrection is a vibrant faith in eternal life. Each of us can say with Job, “I know that my Redeemer lives!” (Job 19:25). Each of us can echo St. Paul, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? … God gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” (1 Cor 15:55-57). At a time when many have been stung by the sudden death of those we know and love, where it seems the coronavirus has triumphed, we know that an imperishable crown awaits for those who believe, live and die in Christ (1 Cor 9:25). That’s why Christians “do not grieve like the rest who have no hope” (1 Thes 4:13). We grieve differently, because God not only so loved the world that he gave his only Son that we might not perish, but raised his Son as the first fruits of those who have died (Jn 3:16; 1 Cor 15:20). The resurrection gives us that indomitable hope.
- The third impact is a vivid awareness that, even if we are socially isolated, even if we are solitarily hooked up to a ventilator, we are not alone. The same risen Jesus who walked through the closed doors of the Upper Room can traverse the doors of our house or the thickest hospital quarantines. The same Jesus who appeared to the disciples heading to Emmaus wants to accompany us, join our conversation, and make our hearts burn by relating present events to what God has revealed (Lk 24). The same Jesus who called Mary Magdalene by name and pierced her sorrow seeks to call each of us and transform our fear and sorrow. The essence of the Gospel, as Pope Francis wrote in Evangelii Gaudium, is, “Jesus Christ loves you, he gave his life to save you, and now he is living at your side every day to enlighten, strengthen and free you” (164). Jesus has not left us orphans or abandoned, but is present, as the Good Shepherd, to lead us through the dark valley to verdant pastures (Ps 23). He is very much alive and is with us, loving and strengthening us.
- The fourth consequence of Jesus’ resurrection is that our minds and hearts are uplifted. “If you were raised with Christ,” St. Paul proclaims to us at Mass on Easter Sunday, “seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not of what is on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col 3:1-3). The resurrection lifts us from obsessing about worldly things and helps us to view everything increasingly from God’s perspective. We recognize that certain fixations that occupy our time and attention don’t really matter and place our treasure, and our heart, in the things that truly last (Mt 6:21). We prioritize prayer and worship, charity, and growing in faith through reading Sacred Scripture and taking advantage of the great spiritual resources now available. As social distancing has made all of us, to some degree, “hidden with Christ in God,” we are all called nevertheless to “live in newness of life” (Rom 6:4) with our hearts and minds set above.
- “Christ’s resurrection is not an event of the past but contains a vital power that has permeated this world,” Pope Francis reminded us in Evangelii Gaudium (EG 276). That life-giving power is meant to permeate our day-to-day, giving us courage, strengthening our faith in eternal life, strengthening our awareness of God, and renewing our entire life. It’s meant to make us living signs of the resurrection, burning tapers bringing the light of Christ’s resurrection to the darkness that envelops so many. And the long Lent of 2020 has prepared us to recognize our need for that vital power even more. A blessed Easter to you all!
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