To watch Fr. Joe’s homily for Easter Sunday: CLICK HERE!
Today’s Gospel is pretty interesting… We hear of Mary of Magdala going to the Tomb of Jesus and then running back to Simon Peter and the other disciple and telling them: “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.” And the other disciple and Peter run to the Tomb. And when they arrive, at the empty tomb, they “see and believe” but did not yet understand the scripture that “He had to rise from the Dead”.
Their faith was shaken by the events of the past Days, and now this… Yet, they had faith, even if it was a glimmer of faith…
And in the days ahead – today we call them the EASTER SEASON – the Disciples would have time to think, to reflect, to experience what really happened these past days, including that early morning some 2000 years ago.
We are no different than the disciples of the scriptures. Yes, we know Jesus; Yes, we know what he said and taught and did when He was with us… but, we too are called to ponder, to reflect, to remember, and to grow in understanding and in living our faith in Jesus, our Lord and Savior; as the Disciples of Jesus have done over the past 2000 years.
It took more than one day, one Sunday morning 2000 years ago, but the Disciples, eventually came to understand what it not only meant to be a Disciple of Jesus; but what to rise from the dead, really meant.
Peter, in time was able to witness to all that Jesus was and is to us and all people he has risen; he is alive!
Maybe the message of Easter, the message of the resurrection of Jesus is more than a simple one-day celebration. Maybe it is an invitation to make the TRUTH of Easter a way of life each of us in our own way striving to bring: light where there is darkness; hope where there is despair; and community building where there is division.
Finally let me end with a story:
An 11 year old boy named Philip, who had Down’s Syndrome, was in a religion class with 8 other children. On Easter Sunday the teacher gave each child an empty plastic egg. The children were told to go outside and find something to put into the egg that would remind them of the meaning of Easter.
They came back excited and happy. As each egg was opened there were exclamation of delight at a butterfly, a twig, a flower, a blade of grass. Then the last egg was opened. It was Philip’s and it was empty. Some of the children laughed at Philip.
“But teacher,” Philip said, “Teacher, the tomb was empty!”