TEXT: Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord, April 21, 2019

April 24, 2019 Father De Celles Homily


Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord

April 21, 2019

Homily by Fr. John De Celles

St. Raymond of Peñafort Catholic Church

Springfield, VA

 

Tonight/today we celebrate the most important day in history.

Because today we celebrate the historical fact that 2000 years ago

the man known as Jesus of Nazareth,

who had been killed by the leaders of Romans and the Jews

on a Friday, rose from the dead on Sunday.

And He didn’t rise like one of the walking dead or a vampire,

but in a real living body marked by His suffering and Cross,

and perfected and glorified by His Resurrection.

And not only did He rise, He lives now forever, with His body,

at the right hand of His Father in heaven.

 

Now, we believe this to be an historic fact, not a private whimsy.

To be sure, it is a matter of personal faith

—we cannot prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt.

But it is not merely personal faith—it either happened or it didn’t.

 

If it did NOT happen, then all of us here are well-meaning,

but mistaken, and more or less wasting our time here today.

And to the extent we allow our faith in the resurrection

to effect the rest of our lives, we waste that effort too.

 

But if it DID happen…

What should that mean for us? and for the world?

If it is true, it was the most incredible and important event ever,

and the world and time and all people

should literally revolve around that event.

It should clarify once and for all what it means to be a human being.

And it would testify to the truth of all the things

Jesus of Nazareth taught in His lifetime,

and set those up as the foundational principles of all good human living.

 

Think of it.

It would mean that there really is a God who made us just to love us,

and so we could love Him and our neighbor.

That He loved us so much He really did send His only begotten, co-eternal Son,

into the world to destroy sin by His suffering and death on the Cross.

And that Divine Son really did strip Himself of His heavenly glory

to become a human being, just like you and me in all things, but sin.

 

It would mean He is looking for you,

like a Good shepherd searches for his one lost sheep.

That He calls all who are weary and find life burdensome to come to him,

and He will give you rest.

That He loves His people with all His heart, like a bridegroom loves his new bride.

 

It would mean He loves you personally—it was He who chose you.

That if you believe in Him, even though you die, you will live.

That He has gone before you to prepare a place for you

in His Father’s heavenly house.

 

But it would also mean that “unless you turn and become like children,”

and “unless you are born of water and the Holy Spirit,”

and “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood,”

“you shall not enter the kingdom of God.”

 

It also means that “if we love Him” and if we want to “inherit eternal life” with Him,

we must:

“keep the commandments…

You shall not kill, You shall not commit adultery, …

Honor your father and mother,”

and “keep holy the Sabbath”

It would mean:

“that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment”,

and “that every one who looks at a woman with lust

commits adultery with her in his heart.”

 

And while all this sometimes seems impossible,

if Christ is truly risen from the dead, then it must be true that

“With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

And that He told us all this so that:

“[his] joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.”

 

Imagine if Jesus really did rise from the dead.

It would mean that He established Simon Peter as the Rock

on which He built His Church,

giving Him the keys to the kingdom of heaven,

and promising the gates of hell would not prevail against it.

And that, as He prayed at the Last Supper,

all might be one with Him in that one Church with Peter.

 

Imagine….

…if Jesus Christ really did, in time and history,

rise from the dead and open to us the gates of paradise….

wouldn’t that make today

the most joyful glorious day of the year?

 

But wouldn’t that mean we’d have to change a lot of the way we live?

 

Some say, well, it’s just what I believe, not what I know to be true.

Friends, I do not know how man ever landed on the moon.

And I don’t even know for a fact that man ever did land on the moon.

But I believe it to be true.

Partly because I’ve heard and read about it;

partly because I have confidence in the people who told me about it.

Heck, I believe it partly because so many other people seem to believe it,

and I believe it though there are, apparently,

a lot of people around the world who do not believe it.

But I believe, even though I don’t know it perfectly as an eyewitness.

 

Regardless of how we came to believe, if we believe in the Resurrection

we believe that it is a fact, not a myth,

historical not whimsical,

real not hypothetical.

 

And if we believe it really happened, why don’t we act like it really happened?

Sure, tonight/today we do, at least for a couple of hours.

But what about tomorrow and the rest of the year?

Why don’t we act like Jesus

has realigned everything man understands and lives for,

that we understand and live for?

 

And why are we so timid to talk about it with others?

Why do we act like it’s some sort of fairy tale we should be ashamed of?

 

Alright, maybe it is a little hard for some to believe

—but if you believe it why can’t they?

I mean, after all, if it’s true, it’s the best news they’ll ever hear—

it will bring them happiness and peace they’ve never known to be possible,

yet have been searching for all their lives.

 

Maybe it’s because we’re afraid we’ll lose a friend.

So what?

Maybe you’ll change their lives and you’ll gain the best friend you ever had!

 

Or maybe it’s because we don’t believe as much as we think we do.

But why not, when Christ has done all He has for us?

Think of all the times you’ve prayed to Him and He’s come to your aid.

Think of the times you’ve gone crying to His side, and He gave you peace.

The times you prayed for a miracle and—voila–it happened.

 

Then again, maybe you don’t recall these things happening in your life.

Maybe you haven’t had the experience of Christ

that you wish you could have.

Or maybe you don’t understand or know much about Him

—or maybe you don’t agree with some of the things the Church

says about Him.

Okay.

Then let’s change that.

Don’t settle for lukewarm Catholicism—who would want that?

Certainly not Christ, who said if we were lukewarm He would “spit us out.”

 

[In tomorrow’s Gospel, St. John tells us that He didn’t understand]

[Today, St. John tells us in his Gospel that he didn’t understand]

what Jesus had meant when He had told them

He would rise on the third day;

John didn’t understand until he saw the empty tomb

—notice, not the risen body, just the empty tomb.

But when he sees the empty tomb: “he saw and believed.”

 

We also read that St. Mary Magdalene,

didn’t believe at first either.

Scripture tells us:

“she ran and …told them,

‘They have taken the Lord from the tomb,

and we don’t know where they put Him.’”

But if we read on in the next few verses

we see that Magdalene stayed behind at the tomb

and after awhile saw a man there she thought was a gardener.

So she said to him: “Sir, if you carried him away,

tell me where you laid him, and I will take him.”
And then:

“Jesus said to her, “Mary!”

She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni,” …Teacher.”

And she believed.

 

Here are 2 of Jesus’ most devout followers.

And yet at first they didn’t believe.

But when John opened his eyes to what Jesus had told him,

“he saw and believed.”

And when Magdalene finally asked Jesus

He called out to her, and she believed.

 

Some today would like to think that belief in Christ and His resurrection

and the effect they have on individual lives is coming to an end.

But we know otherwise.

You are here because you believe.

Maybe not as fervently as you should or would like to.

Maybe you don’t allow that belief to permeate your life,

to change the way you live.

Maybe you don’t share your faith with others nearly enough.

But you believe, or you wouldn’t be here.

You believe, even as you want to believe even more deeply.

 

Tonight/Today, hear our Risen Lord calling out to in His word,

and in whatever truth resonates in my words.

See Him in the believers assembled here today

members of His Church, united with millions more throughout the world.

And see Him most especially in His body and blood in the Eucharist.

Hear. See. And believe.

 

And may your faith and the joy and the power of the Risen Christ

change your life today,

tomorrow and in eternity.