Practical Consequences of the Resurrection, Choral Vespers of the School of Sacred Music, April 9, 2024

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Chapel of the Good Shepherd, Manhattan
Worship and Wisdom: Choral Vespers with the School of Sacred Music
April 9, 2024

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The following text guided the reflection: 

• Introduction on April 9
  • Grateful to Thomas Wilson and the School of Sacred Music for this invitation tonight to preside at Vespers and to share some thoughts.
  • Before I get into the practical consequences of the resurrection that I’m supposed to address tonight, I would like to say something about the importance of April 9 in our calendar.
  • If Matthew, Mark and Luke are right about the Last Supper taking place during the Passover meal on the 14^th of the month of Nisan, then the resurrection of Jesus took place 1994 years ago today, on April 9, 30 AD.
  • If St. John is right on the other hand, that the Last Supper were not a Passover meal and that Jesus’ crucifixion took place at the hour of the killing of the Passover Lamb in the temple on the day of preparation, then Jesus would have risen from the dead April 3, 33 AD.
  • For multiple scholarly reasons we don’t have the time or the setting to get into tonight, I am partial to the synoptic sequence. And so one practical consequence of the resurrection would be to celebrate April 9 every year with particular joy. Another is that six years from tonight, even though because of a late Easter, it will be Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent, the traditional Friday of Sorrows in pious remembrance of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we should asking heaven for an exception and be making plans to thank the Lord in a particular way for the 2000^th anniversary of his triumph!
• Practical Consequences
  • The practical consequences I intend to speak on tonight, however, have to do with the Paschal metamorphosis all four evangelists, the Acts of the Apostles, St. Paul and St. Peter underline in their passages on Easter.
    • Paul tells us — which we hear during the Easter Vigil — “We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life. … Consequently, you too must think of yourselves as [being] dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus.”
    • We see that there was a dramatic change in the life of the first apostles, Mary Magdalene, the disciples of Emmaus on the day Jesus rose from the dead, turning their lives right-side-up. The living memorial of Christ’s resurrection should similarly change us. It should lead to newness of life.
    • I would like to consider briefly ten different ways we can think about this change.
  • First, Faith
    • John, “He saw and believed.”
    • Jesus to St. Thomas: “Blessed are those who have not seen but believe.”
    • Faith is a belief in something (fides quae) on the basis of a trust in someone (fides qua).
      • It’s not just faith in an event — Jesus’ resurrection — but, more importantly, trust in Jesus who predicted and fulfilled his promise to rise on the third day.
      • Faith in the event: empty tomb, appearances, credible proclamation.
      • Faith in the person: this was the fulfillment of the sign of Jonah!
    • Second, Conversion
      • Peter on Pentecost called the people to conversion when they asked, “What are we to do?” in response to the Resurrection. He said, “Repent and be baptized … for the forgiveness of your sins” (Acts 2:37-38)
      • Conversion is not about a minor course correction in our life or the eradication of a sinful habit. It’s about a death and resurrection. It’s about a new life.
      • Divine Mercy Sunday is for a reason the culmination of the Easter octave!
      • Jesus founded the Sacrament of Penance on Easter Sunday evening (Jn 20).
      • Parable of the Prodigal Son teaches us that every reconciliation is supposed to be a resurrection: “My son was dead and has been brought to life again.”
    • Third, the Sursum Corda Effect
      • Our first antiphon tonight was, “Seek the things of heaven, not those that are of earth, alleluia!”
      • We hear from St. Paul on Easter morning: “If you were raised with Christ, 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 place our treasure in God and our heart goes to where our treasure is (Mt 6:21).
      • In the heart of the Mass, the priest invites and commands us, “Lift up your hearts”: Sursum Corda. This means we strive prioritize prayer, worship, Sacred Scripture, adult educational resources, and charity. Jesus wants to make our hearts burn just like he made the two disciples’ hearts on the road to Emmaus, about which we focused in the Magnificat antiphon.
    • Fourth, Living in the Presence of God
      • Risen from the dead, Jesus is no longer bound by the limits of the humanity he assumed. He can be with us always.
      • The same risen Jesus who walked through the closed doors of the Upper Room can traverse the doors of our apartment, our bedroom, our closets, our offices, our automobiles and subway cars and beyond.
      • He wants to enter our life and accompany us like he accompanied the disciples on the Road to Emmaus, to join our conversation and make our hearts burn by relating present events to what he has revealed.
      • He is very much alive and with us, as Pope Francis likes to say, “living at your side every day to enlighten, strengthen and free you” (EG 164).
    • Fifth, Joy
      • Joy is meant to be our fundamental response to the reality of Easter.
      • Luke tells us, “While [the disciples] were still incredulous for joy and were amazed…” (Lk 24:41). Incredulous for joy.
      • Eucharistic preface: “Overcome with paschal joy…”
      • Psalm, Lauds and Vespers responsory and the Gospel versicle throughout the Easter Octave: “This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it!” (Ps 118:24).
      • Exultet: “Let this holy building shake with joy!”
      • As we prayed in the hymn tonight, “O Jesus, be for mind and heart our everlasting paschal joy”
      • The joy of Mary in the Regina Caeli, that the son whom she merited to bear has risen just as he said.
      • The Strife is O’er: “Let us swell the joyful strain.”
      • Easter season is an ode to joy!
      • Bloy: “Joy is the most infallible sign of God’s presence.”
    • Sixth, Charity
      • Jesus’ dialogue with Simon Peter after the Resurrection: “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
      • After Peter’s affirmative response, Jesus says, “Feed my sheep. … Feed my lambs. … Tend my sheep.” Peter’s love for Jesus would be shown in his care for the Good Shepherd’s sheep and lambs.
      • Jesus didn’t say, “Love me as I have loved you.” Rather: “Love one another as I have loved you.”
      • Love is sacrifice. It’s a willingness to die for the sake of others.
      • That’s why St. Peter will tell us in the reading tonight at Vespers, “Come to Jesus, a living stone, rejected by men but approved nonetheless, and precious in God’s eyes. You, too, are living stones, built as an edifice of spirit, into a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
      • The resurrection helps us to see that when we give our life for others, we don’t lose it, but gain it!
    • Seven, Courage
      • First disciples were totally changed by the Resurrection.
      • They would not leave the Upper Room to betray and abandon Jesus anew, but to proclaim him.
      • Even when those who had crucified Jesus had Peter and John scourged and commanded them never to speak again of Jesus, they continued, knowing that if Jesus were raised, not even death, not even crucifixion, could hold them down. This is what gives courage to the martyrs.
      • We prayed in Ps 49 earlier, “Why should I fear in evil days, the malice of the foes who surround me?”
      • Courage is not the lack of fear but of doing what we ought despite our fears. The risen Jesus says, “Be not afraid!”
    • Eighth, Vibrant Hope in Eternal Life
      • We prayed in the Psalm 49, “But God will ransom me from death and take myself to himself!”
      • 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).
      • 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 know that 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).
      • We prayed in the intercessions: Jesus, the new Adam and life-giving spirit, transform the dead into your own likeness, that the fullness of your joy may be theirs.”
      • The resurrection gives us that indomitable hope.
    • Ninth, Desire to Share the Faith
      • In the Collect at Vespers tonight, we prayed, “ENABLE us, we pray, almighty God, to proclaim the power of the risen Lord, that we, who have received the pledge of his gift, may come to possess all he gives when it is fully revealed.”
      • Jesus risen from the dead gives us the commission to share that great news and what it means.
      • To Mary Magdalene: “Go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
      • We sang about this in the Motet earlier, “DIC nobis, Maria, quid vidisti in via? Sepulchrum Christi viventis, et gloria. Vidi resurgentis, angelicos testes, sudarium et vestes. Surrexit Christus spes mea, præcedet vos in Galileam.” “Tell us, Mary: say what you saw on the way. The tomb the Living did enclose; I saw Christ’s glory as he rose! The angels there attesting, shroud with grave clothes resting. Christ, my hope, has risen: he goes before you into Galilee, alleluia.”
      • To the Apostles:
        • “…You are witnesses of these things.”
        • At the Ascension, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the world.”
      • Pope Francis: “What kind of love would not feel the need to speak of the beloved, to point him out, to make him known?” (EG 264).
    • Tenth, Life according to the Holy Spirit
      • Jesus during the Last Supper:
        • “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth.”
        • “The Advocate, the holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name — he will teach you everything and remind you of all that [I] told you.”
        • “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth that proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me. And you also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.”
        • “I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go. For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.”
      • Jesus before the Ascension:
        • “I am sending the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
        • “He enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for ‘the promise of the Father about which you have heard me speak; for John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the holy Spirit.”
        • “You will receive power when the holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
      • Pentecost
        • Holy Spirit came as a “strong driving wind” and descended upon each of them as “tongues as of fire.”
      • The Holy Spirit helps us:
        • Grow in faith (piety, gift of the Holy Spirit)
        • Convert and live newness of life (Sequence: “Cleanse that which is unclean, water that which is dry, heal that which is wounded. Bend that which is inflexible, fire that which is chilled, correct what goes astray”)
        • Seek the things that are above (Rom 8:5)
        • Recognize God’s indwelling (1 Cor 16:9)
        • Burst with joy (second fruit of the Holy Spirit, Gal 5:22)
        • Love (first fruit, Gal 5:22)
        • Grow in Courage (gift of the Holy Spirit, Is 11:2)
        • Have vibrant hope in eternal life (Rom 8:11: “If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also”)
        • Share the Faith (Acts 5:32: “We are witnesses of these things, as is the holy Spirit that God has given”)
      • Conclusion
        • To celebrate the resurrection on the 10^th day of Easter this year, and, I believe, on the 1994^th of the day of the resurrection itself, it cannot remain superficial. If a crucified carpenter rose from the dead by his own power on the third day and is still alive, that is one of the most astonishing and life-changing realities of all time. It would validate everything he said, not just about his being betrayed, crucified, and rising, but everything else, too, including about his summons to follow him all the way to the place he has gone to prepare for us. If Christ has not been raised, St. Paul says, our faith would be in vain. But if Christ has been raised, then this is meant to change everything in our life, just like it changed the lives of the first apostles. And Christ has been raised, resurrexit sicut dixit. Alleluia.

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