The Change Christ’s Resurrection Is Supposed to Make in Our Life, Easter Sunday, April 9, 2023

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Columbia Campus Ministry, Notre Dame Church, Manhattan
Easter Sunday
April 9, 2023
Acts 10:34.37-43, Ps 118, Col 3:1-4, Jn 20:1-9

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

The text that guided today’s homily was: 

• “This is the day the Lord has made,” we Christians sing throughout the world. “Let us rejoice and be glad!” What we celebrate today on Easter is far more than a liturgical rite. It’s more than the commemoration of something that happened one early Sunday morning. It is the most consequential event in the history of the world. It is the triumph of resurrection over crucifixion, life over death, light over darkness, love over hatred, faith over fear. By his resurrection Jesus has made every day a day of the Risen Lord in which each of us is able to say confidently with him what we prayed in the Psalm, “I shall not die, but live and declare the works of the Lord!” It’s a day on which, as we sang in the Sequence, we offer our thankful praises to the Paschal Victim, the Lamb who redeems us Sheep, the sinless Messiah who reconciles sinners, the Prince of Life who now reigns immortal and obtains for us new life.
• The transformation that Christ’s resurrection is supposed to bring about in us ought to be truly profound, like what happened in the first disciples of Jesus that early Sunday morning. To call Mary Magdalene, Peter John and the rest of his disciples dejected, lost and profoundly saddened only begins to describe what they were going through. Their whole universe had been turned upside down. Not only had they witnessed Jesus, their friend, brutally tortured and massacred, stripped and nailed to a cross as a common criminal, but they also had believed that he was the long-awaited Messiah, that he was God. Therefore, not only were they mourning the death of a loved one — which is already hard enough, as any of us who has lost a loved one recognizes — but they were also trying to come to grips with whether their friend, in whom they trusted, was, despite all his gifts, ultimately an imposter, or, if he was whom they believed him to be, whether God himself indeed had died. Even though he had at least three times announced what would occur, which meant they should have been counting down the seconds to the “third day” on which he said he would be raised, they remained disheartened and disconsolate.
• When Mary Magdalene, Salome and Mary, the mother of James, went to the tomb on Sunday morning, they were going reverently to anoint Jesus’ corpse. Little did they realize what a great metamorphosis had already occurred and what a great personal transformation awaited them. The stone had already been rolled away. The tomb was empty. A dazzling angel or two told them that Jesus had been raised. Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene in the Garden and filled her with exhilarating goose bumps when he called her name! He appeared to the ten in the Upper Room, filled them with his joy and peace, and entrusted to them the continuation of his own mission. He appeared to the disciples on the Road to Emmaus and made their hearts burn as he described how the Son of Man’s crucifixion was not a contradiction but a confirmation of the messianic prophecies, and then revealed himself to them in the “breaking of the bread.” Their whole universe, which had been turned upside down two days before, was now turned right-side up again. And what incredible joy must have raced through every cell of their body, the type of joy to which words cannot even do justice! Everything for them changed … forever. The resurrection was the answer to their questions, the resolution to their doubts, the definitive peace to their angst, the joy to their sadness, God’s ultimate response to the mystery of suffering and death. Life in general — and their life in particular — not only was no longer a tragedy but now had immeasurable meaning. They were the disciples and intimate friends of the one who had conquered even sin and death — and they were now empowered and emboldened by him to take that greatest news ever told to the ends of the earth. No amount of disdain, threats, persecutions, torture or even death could dissuade them, because the resurrection taught them, unmistakably and unforgettably, that the Lord of Life wins and makes good on his promises.
• Jesus wants to bring about a similar revolution in us today. He wants to give us the same joy he gave his first disciples on the first Easter. He who is the “Resurrection and the Life” wants us to experience in the present the full meaning of that resurrection and that life, but for that to happen, we have to recognize and structure our lives in correspondence to the fact that Jesus truly is alive. Almost every Christian knows that Jesus is alive theoretically, but many Christians do not behave as if Jesus is alive practically. We can treat Jesus like a distant relative, someone whom we respect and care for, but whom for the most part in our day-to-day lives we ignore. Or we can regard him like our best high school teacher, who has obviously had an impact in making us who we are today, but who is no longer practically involved in guiding our decision making. Or we can related to Jesus like a good doctor, to whom we go when we have problems, but, outside of those times, with whom we really have no relationship at all. The point is this: while few Christians treat the Risen Jesus as if he is dead, many do not relate to him as if he is really alive. Today, on this Easter, Jesus wants to change that. He came, as he himself said, “so that [we] might have life and have it to the full” (Jn 10:10), but for us to have that more abundant life, we need first to structure our life in communion with the Risen Jesus. We need to rise with him and live a resurrected life with him! St. Paul talks about this in his Letter to the Romans, which we heard last night at the Easter Vigil: “Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we, too, [must] live in newness of life. … Consequently, you too must think of yourselves as being dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus” (Rom 6:4,11). We need to stop treating Jesus basically as a concept, or as someone we turn to at our convenience at times of great inconvenience, but rather base our whole lives on him. For the first disciples, the joy of that first Easter didn’t end the day after Easter, because they knew that Jesus, risen from the dead, would be with them “until the end of time” (Mt 28:20). And they built their whole life on a deep personal relationship with him risen from the dead, grounding all of the aspects of their life on the basis of this living communion of love.
• How is our life supposed to change? Today we can ponder five different ways.
• The fact of Jesus’ triumph should first make us courageous. We see the dramatic metamorphosis the resurrection had on the apostles. It changed them from those who would leave the Cenacle on Holy Thursday to betray and abandon Jesus to those who would leave the same room 53 days later intrepidly to bear witness to him. When the same Sanhedrin who had gotten Jesus crucified had Peter and John scourged and had 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, as we see with St. Peter as he intrepidly the risen Jesus in today’s first reading as the “one appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead.” The resurrection of Jesus should fill us with similar courage.
• The second great consequence of Jesus’ resurrection is a vibrant faith in eternal life. Like St. John at the empty tomb, we’re called to see, understand and believe. Each of us is meant to 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). Even on a college campus, we are regularly touched by the sudden death of those we know, not to mention receive news of the death of family and friends back home. The resurrection of Jesus reminds us that an imperishable crown awaits for those who believe, live and die in him (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 have eternal life (Jn 3:16). God the Father 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 we are never alone. The same risen Jesus who walked through the closed doors of the Upper Room, who appeared to the disciples heading to Emmaus, wants to accompany us, join our conversation, and make our hearts burn by relating whatever we’re going through to what God has revealed (Lk 24). He 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 his programmatic exhortation “The Joy of the Gospel,” 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 wanting to strengthen us.
• The fourth consequence of Jesus’ resurrection is that our minds and hearts must be uplifted. “If you were raised with Christ,” St. Paul proclaims to us this morning in the second reading, “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 cares and anxieties 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 in the long term and we learn how to place our treasure, 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. We live what we proclaim in the Preface dialogue of each Mass, that we have lifted our hearts to the Lord!
• The final consequence is that we should be filled with joy, even in the midst of whatever hardships we have to endure. Joy is meant to be our fundamental response to the reality of Easter. Last night, in the Exsultet of the Easter Vigil, we prayed, “Let this holy building shake with joy, filled with the mighty voices of the peoples.” In the hymns we sing, we burst with that building-shaking gladness. In The Strife is Over we sing, “O let us swell the joyful strain.” In Christ the Lord is Risen Today, we tell each other, “Raise your joys and triumphs high.” In the great Easter Marian antiphon, the Regina Caeli, we chant, “Be Joyful, Mary, Heavenly Queen!” The entire season is an Ode to Joy given to God at the gift he gives us today. The Eucharistic Preface of the Easter Mass most effectively summarizes this Easter attitude. We pray, “Overcome with paschal joy, every land, every people exults in your praise” as with all the angels and heavenly powers we praise and thank God “yet more gloriously” on this day “above all.” Jesus came into the world, as he told us on Holy Thursday, so that “my joy may be in you and your joy be complete!” Today is the day in which he wants to restore us to that fullness and help us keep it throughout the Easter season and beyond.
• Pope Francis reminded us in Evangelii Gaudium (EG 276), “Christ’s resurrection is not an event of the past but contains a vital power that has permeated this world.” That life-giving power is meant to permeate our day-to-day, giving us courage, reinforcing our faith in eternal life, strengthening our awareness of God, filling us with joy, and renewing our entire life. It’s meant to make us ultimately what St. John Paul II called “living signs of the resurrection,” burning tapers bringing the light of Christ’s resurrection to the darkness in which so many are sadly enveloped.
• The way that we live and deepen the transformation that the Risen Lord Jesus wants to work in us is by living with him in the Sacraments. We’re about to renew our baptismal promises and profess publicly that we renounce Satan, all his evil works and empty lies, and choose to live by faith in God the Father, God the Risen Son, and God the Holy Spirit who gives life to our mortal bodies; to believe in the holy Catholic Church in which we meet Christ, the communion of the saints who teach us who to live with our hearts set above, the forgiveness of the sins that separate us from life, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. And after that we head to the altar, where we prepare to receive within us Jesus’ risen Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, as the foretaste of eternal life. Entering into communion with Jesus makes us courageous, strengthens our faith and hope, reminds us that he is with us always, lifts up our hearts even on the humanly darkest of days and fills us with joy because we are united with the cause of our joy. Today the Risen Jesus who left the empty tomb comes to make us his tabernacle and fill us with his life-giving power. He comes to work in us a metamorphosis just as powerful as he worked in his first disciples. Let us rejoice like they did and go out to the whole world overcome with that paschal joy! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

The readings for today’s Mass were: 

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