HOLY TRINITY: Dt 4:32-34, 39-40; Rom 8:14-17; Mt 28:16-20

The first Sunday after Pentecost is Holy Trinity Sunday. We may not completely understand the doctrine of the Most Holy Trinity, but we believe. The words of the Athanasian Creed says: "the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, and yet there are not three Gods but one God." Jesus knew very well that the disciples and his listeners were not able to understand the meaning of his message. Jesus expressed it in today's Gospel: "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now." Jesus revealed himself to the people gradually and as understandable to them. First He taught them to recognize in Himself the Eternal Son of God. When His ministry was drawing to a close, He promised that the Father would send another Divine Person, the Holy Spirit, in His place. Finally after His resurrection, He revealed the doctrine in explicit terms, bidding them "go and teach all  nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" (Mt 28:18).

 

With this doctrine, God has revealed to us that he is not infinite loneliness, but infinite love, infinite relationship of self-giving. If God was only one person how would God be infinite love before He created the world? Because, there was nobody else other than the God who exists in one person. This is where we can say the Islamic concept of one God in one person is not sensible. Such a God existing in one person cannot be Love. He had no one to love other than Himself. He would have been infinite loneliness and infinite monoteness. But if He is one God in three persons he would be a community and be infinite love. Richard of St. Victor said: If God is Good he has to be one. (There is only one Good, i.e. God.  Jesus said to the young man who asked Him: Good teacher what shall I do to inherit eternal life. Why do you call me Good. There is only one who is Good).

If God is LOVE he has to be two. Because love has to go out of oneself to another. If God is joy he has to be three. Joy is what originates when two people share love each other. Just like when a loving couple share their love, a new child is born. Father and the Son love so intensely each other that their love becomes a Person, Holy Spirit. They love each other and give each other.

We say that the Son and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father: We can think of this as light and heat two different things coming from the one source : a flame. But all the three are different things, not one thing. Flame is not heat, heat is not light and vice versa. The same way Father is not the Son, not the Son the Holy Spirit or the Father. God's eternal dynamic happiness flows from that communion of love. The one divine nature exists fully and simultaneously in three divine Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

 

The Trinitarian doctrine says that the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit are different from each other yet one God. Just think of one molecule of water that is composed of two Hydrogen atoms and one Oxygen atom. Hydrogen is not Oxygen, nor oxygen the same as hydrogen. But when they come together it becomes one molecule of water. Same way Father is not the Son nor the Son the Father or the Holy Spirit. But all the three are one God.

The Trinity is actually the most practical of all divine concepts, because it reveals the meaning of our life. We are created in God's image. God does not exist in isolated individualism but in a community of relationships.  Therefore man can live, grow and find fulfillment only in and through society. St. Paul tells us that God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the indwelling Holy Spirit. The celebration of the mystery of Holy Trinity reminds us that we have to grow in unity like the perfect Unity that exists in Trinity.

 

The importance of this doctrine lies in this:  we are made in the image of God, therefore, the more we understand God the more we can understand ourselves.  

Just as God is God only in a Trinitarian relationship, so we can be fully human only as one member of a relationship of three partners.  The self needs to be in a horizontal relationship with all other people and in a vertical relationship with God.  In that way our life is Trinitarian like that of God. 

We belong to the Family of the Triune God.  The love, unity, and joy in the relationship among the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit should be the supreme model of our relationships within our Christian families.  Our families become truly Christian when we live in a relationship of love with God and with others.

May God, The Father, Son and Holy Spirit shower their blessings on us and help us to strengthen our bond of unity, love and peace.

 

Pentecost Acts 2:1-11; I Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13; Jn 20:19-23

An old beggar lay on his deathbed.  His last words were to his young son who had been his constant companion during his begging trips.  “Dear son,” he said, “I have nothing to give you except a cotton bag and a dirty bronze bowl which I got in my younger days from the junk yard of a rich lady.”  After his father’s death, the boy continued begging, using the bowl his father had given him.  One day a gold merchant dropped a coin in the boy’s bowl and he was surprised to hear a familiar ring.  “Let me check your bowl,” the merchant said.  To his great surprise, he found that the beggar’s bowl was made of pure gold.  “My dear young man,” he said, “why do you waste your time begging?  You are a rich man.  That bowl of yours is worth at least thirty thousand dollars.” —  We Christians are often like this beggar boy who failed to recognize and appreciate the value of his bowl.  We fail to appreciate the infinite worth of the Holy Spirit living within each of us, sharing His gifts and fruits and charisms with us.  On this major feast day, we are invited to experience and appreciate the transforming, sanctifying, strengthening and unifying presence of the Holy Spirit within us.  This is also a day for us to renew the promises made to God during our Baptism and Confirmation, to profess our Faith, and to practice it.

In Genesis we read the story of the Tower of Babel. The people of the earth became skilled in construction and decided to build a city with a tower that would reach to heaven. By building the tower they wanted to make a name for themselves and also prevent their city from being scattered. God came to see their city and the tower they were building.  He perceived their evil intentions, men were proud and they wanted to challenge God.  So God confused their language. They spoke to one another as they used to, but they understood differently.  On the day of Pentecost the spirit of God has re-established unity. People spoke different languages, but everyone understood in his language. Difference in language makes it difficult for people to communicate with one another.  But the early Christians were able to grasp the meaning of each other's message, because they spoke the language of love, the language of   understanding, the language of selflessness, and the language of kindness. It is the Church's mission to reunite the human family that has been torn apart by sin. That's why all the visitors in Jerusalem heard the Apostle's words in their own languages. That's why as soon as the risen Jesus breathes on his Apostles; he instructs them to forgive sins.

 

The feast of Pentecost demands from us that we should get united with God. Edmund Bruke wrote, "Whatever disunites man from God also disunites man from man."  Once we establish our unity with God we can strengthen the unity at home, in the parish, in the place of our work, and in our society; among the members of the family, among our colleagues, among the members of our parish, and among all whom we come across. 

Secondly, the Spirit brought courage. At the trial scene Peter   disowned Jesus and swore that he did not know him. But after receiving the spirit the same Peter proclaimed aloud the message of Jesus and   called the people to repentance. The Spirit blesses us too with courage. When we accept it we too will be able to make our contribution to better the world.

Thirdly, the spirit brought the light of knowledge to the Apostles. When Jesus was speaking to them of his agony and suffering the disciples were contemplating on as who would be on his right and who would be on his left.  They cherished the dreams of the kingdom where Jesus would take over the rule of the Roman Empire. But the descend of the Spirit revealed the meaning of the words of Jesus to them. They knew what their faith would demand of them. They knew what their responsibilities would be. They knew the meaning of Christian love. Their ignorance was wiped out. The Apostles knew their strength and their weakness.  And they accepted the supremacy of the Spirit in their life.

 

The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Blessed Trinity. He is the love between the Father and Son lived so intensely that he is a person himself. When we are baptized, that same Spirit takes up residence within our souls, and he brings Jesus and God the Father along with him - because where one is, all three are.

The influence and action of the Holy Spirit in our lives increases when we are confirmed. This gift surpasses all other gifts. In the Holy Spirit, the prophecy of "Emmanuel" (God-with-us) takes on unimaginable proportions: not merely God among us, as in the Incarnation, but God within us, a guest in our souls, a guide for our life's journey, a personal trainer for our spiritual fitness.

 

The feast of the Pentecost requires from to live in a new relationship with God through His spirit and in a relationship with others where everyone could understand each other everyone could help each other. May the gifts of the Holy Spirit enable us as He did the Apostles to fulfill Jesus’ commission to preach the Gospel to all nations and to live our life in a new dimension always aware that our God is within us.

 

 

EASTER V [B]: Acts 9:26-31; 1Jn 3:18-24; Jn 15:1-8

Today’s Scripture selections emphasize the need for Christians to abide in Christ as a condition for producing fruits of kindness, mercy, charity and holiness. Jesus assures his disciples, using the parable of the vine and branches, that the life-giving Spirit Whom Jesus will send to them, will be present and active within and among his disciples and their successors.

The vine was part and parcel of Jewish imagery and the very symbol of Israel. The vine was grown all over in Palestine. Therefore it was easy for the listeners to understand what Jesus was speaking about. The vine grows luxuriantly and it requires drastic pruning. A young vine is not allowed to bear fruit for the first three years and each year it is cut drastically back to develop and conserve its life and energy. Two kinds of branches grow on vine. One that bears fruit and one that does not. The branches that do not bear fruit are pruned back so that they will not drain away the plant’s strength. In order to make us useful branches constant pruning is required. This pruning takes the form of suffering.

It may be painful, physical sufferings, like sickness, disease, financial insecurity, or old-age.

It may be hidden, interior sufferings, like losing a loved one or watching a dear relative abandon their Catholic faith.

Whenever God permits these kinds of sufferings - the ones that we don't seem to have any control over - we have to let our faith remind us that they are under his control.

He is the vine-dresser. He knows how much pruning we can handle (and the amount is different for each branch).

And he knows how to use that suffering to unite us more deeply with Christ, who suffered on the cross to redeem the world.

Allowing these prunings will allow us to become more fruitful, even if we don’t understand how. We are not to be bitter or angry about those sufferings. The Lord gives, the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord – as the psalmist says.

In times of pain and hardship, God is begging us to trust in him more and more, to pray in the depths of our hearts that beautiful prayer that he himself taught us through his revelations to St Faustina of the Divine Mercy: "Jesus, I trust in you."

The first and foremost thing that stands as hindrance to our submission to Jesus is our "ego". It will turn us into a useless branch that will never produce any fruit. So, prune it; identify and cut it off.

Accepting the Cross, not rebelling when God tries to prune us, is the secret of all the saints.

As St Ignatius of Loyola put it:

"If God causes you to suffer much, it is a sign that he has great designs for you, and that he certainly intends to make you a saint. And if you wish to become a great saint, entreat him to give you much opportunity for suffering; for there is no wood better to kindle the fire of holy love than the wood of the Cross, which Christ used for his own sacrifice of boundless charity."

 

Prayer, the sacraments, loving obedience, and suffering in union with Christ are what keep the Christian sap flowing in our lives.

Staying united to the vine means constantly growing in our life of prayer. Prayer is how we expose our souls to the divine sunlight. Just as plants need exposure to sunlight for energy, so we need to expose ourselves to God's truth and love through reading and reflecting on the sacred scriptures, and through conversing with him in the quiet of our hearts.

And so, if our prayer life is the same when we are fifty as it was when we were fifteen, it could be a sign that we are stunting our spiritual growth.

For Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, listening to God in prayer was the very first link in the sacred chain of interior peace.

Here's how she put it:

The fruit of silence is prayer;
the fruit of prayer is faith;
the fruit of faith is love;
the fruit of love is service;
the fruit of service is peace...

 

When we lead a life that resounds with meaning and energy, a life that positively impacts others and exudes joy and enthusiasm, a life that changes this world for the better in a profound way as Christ's own life did, we are glorifying the Father.

"By this is my Father glorified,
that you bear much fruit and become my disciples."

Bearing such fruit makes life worth living; without it we are dry, dead branches good for nothing except the fire.

As we continue with this Mass, let's thank God from the depths of our hearts for uniting us to the vine of Christ.

And when we receive our Lord in Holy Communion, let's promise him that this week we will make a decent effort to do our part to protect and strengthen that union.

 

 

 

EASTER IV SUNDAY: Acts 4:8-12; I Jn 3:1-2; Jn 10:11-18

There is the story of a particular census taker who went to a poor home in the mountains of West Virginia to gather information. He asked the mother how many children she had. The woman began, "Well, there is Rosie, and Billy, and Susie, Harry, and Jeffrey. There's Johnny, and Harvey, and our dog, Willie. The census taker interrupted her aid said: "No, ma'am, that's not necessary. I only need the humans. "Ah," she said. And began to pronounce the names of the children. Once again, the census taker interrupted her and said, "No, ma'am, I just need the numbers." The old woman replied, "But I don't know them by numbers. I only know them by name." In today's gospel Jesus the good shepherd says that he knows his sheep by name.

 

The fourth Sunday of Easter is known as Good Shepherd Sunday. The scripture lessons are about shepherds. On this Sunday we reflect on the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd, devotedly taking care of his flock.

 

In the Old Testament, the image of the Shepherd is often applied to God as well as to the leaders of the people.  The book of Exodus several times calls Yahweh a Shepherd.  Likewise, the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel compare Yahweh’s care and protection of His people to that of a shepherd.   “He is like a shepherd feeding his flock, gathering lambs in his arms, holding them against His breast and leading the mother ewes to their rest” (Is 40:11).  Ezekiel represents God as a loving Shepherd Who searches diligently for his lost sheep.  Psalm 23 is David’s famous picture of God as The Good Shepherd:  “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want; He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters; he restores my sou.”(Ps 23: 1-2). 

Introducing himself as the Good Shepherd of his flock, Jesus makes five claims in today’s Gospel:

1) He knows his sheep and his sheep hear his voice: Just as the Palestinian shepherds knew each sheep of their flock by name, and each sheep knew its shepherd and his voice, so Jesus knows each one of us, our needs, our merits and our faults.  Of course, the knowledge talked of here is not mere intellectual knowing but the knowledge that comes from love and experience, and leads to care and concern for the other. Jesus loves us as we are, with all our limitations, and he expects us to receive and return his love by keeping his word. 

2) He gives eternal life to his sheep by receiving us into his sheepfold through Baptism. Jesus strengthens our Faith by giving us the Holy Spirit in Confirmation.  He supplies food for our souls by the Holy Eucharist and by the Divine words of the Holy Bible. He makes our society holy by the Sacraments of Matrimony and the Priesthood.

3) He protects his sheep by placing them in the loving hands of his Almighty Father.  Without Him to guide us and protect us, we are easy prey for the spiritual wolves of this world: that includes Satan, as well as the seven deadly sins of   pride, avarice, envy, gluttony, anger, lust and sloth.

4) .  He goes in search of his stray lambs and heals his sick ones. In the first part of chapter ten of John’s Gospel, Jesus adds two more roles to the work of the good shepherd. Jesus heals the wounds of our souls by the Sacrament of Reconciliation and strengthens us in illness and old age by the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick.

5) Jesus dies for his sheep:  Just as the shepherds of ancient days protected their sheep from wild animals and thieves by risking their own lives, so Jesus died in expiation for the sins of all people.

Jesus is the innocent lamb of sacrifice as well as priestly shepherd who makes the offering. Jesus offers himself rather than many of his flock. He lays down his life to save them. He came back and offers us forgiveness through his death and eternal life through his resurrection. Jesus’ shepherding unto death shows his complete dedication to his sheep.  ‘When I am raised up I shall draw all people to myself’, Jesus said. He calls all into the one flock through the power of his blood poured out on the cross, through his mercy offered to us by his outstretched arms and open heart.

Jesus’ reference to other sheep and to one flock (v. 16) points to the universality and unity of the community of believers. By “the other sheep” Jesus probably meant the poor, the tax collectors and sinners who were generally ostracized by society.

 

We are called to be receptive and trusting sheep but, whatever our specific vocation, we are also called to be shepherds. We are called to call others to know him who laid down his life for them, called to gather others into the one flock of Christ, in which Christ is recognized and embraced in his goodness so that he can lead us all to the green pastures of divine life.

Let’s pray that we become good shepherds by loving those entrusted to us, praying for them, spending our time and talents for their welfare, and guarding them from physical and spiritual dangers. 

 

Easter-III-B:  Acts 3:13-15, 17-19; 1 Jn 2:1-5; Lk 24:35-48

This apparition of Jesus took place on Easter evening, after Jesus had appeared to the two disciples of Emmaus who immediately hurried back to Jerusalem to report the glad news: they had met Jesus, alive! He had seemed to be stranger who had explained to them the Sacred Scriptures, but when he “broke the bread” they had recognized Jesus.  The Emmaus disciples discovered that the apostles were already convinced of the resurrection of Jesus because Simon had seen him as well.  While they were discussing these things in the still-locked Upper Room, Jesus appeared in their midst, shocking and terrifying them.  Refuting the rumor that Jesus had not actually died on the cross but had been taken down and hidden by his friends, Luke shows that the risen Jesus could now suddenly and wondrously appear in their midst (v. 36).This story was told and retold and recorded by Luke for at least three reasons: (1) Jesus’ death and Resurrection fit God’s purpose as revealed in Scripture; (2) the risen Jesus is present in the breaking of bread; and (3) the risen Jesus is also physically absent from the disciples.

The Risen lord became a reality experienced by his disciples. Our daily lives should be the means of experiencing and sharing the risen Lord with others. Just as the disciples experienced the risen Lord in their community we should be able to feel the presence of Jesus in our own homes, our parish and our community.

In his preaching Peter says: God raised Jesus from the dead; of this we are witnesses." When he said this he was certainly thinking of those times, when Jesus appeared to them, letting them see and touch his wounds, proving that he was no ghost or illusion stemming from wishful thinking.

 

Jesus wanted his disciples to be authentic witnesses to the reality of his life as their risen Lord with his glorified soul and body. He wanted them to go out into the world with the offer of forgiveness. Accepting the command of Jesus they reached the ends of the then known world. Peter and Paul went all the way to Rome. Thomas went as far as India. If the United States was existing at that time one of them would have been here too. Today, Jesus needs us as witnesses to continue his mission. Jesus needs Spirit-filled followers to be his eyes, ears and hands and to bear witness to his love, mercy and forgiveness. The church badly needs dedicated witnesses. The essence of bearing witness is to testify by our lives that the power of the risen Jesus has touched and transformed us. In other words, Jesus is to speak to other people through us. In Calcutta, a dying old woman with her head in the lap of Mother Teresa, looked at her, and, in a feeble voice, asked: "Are you the God Jesus who loves the poor and the sick"?

There is a story of a group of salesmen who went to a regional sales convention. But the convention overran the time and they rushed to the airport and to the boarding gate. With boarding passes and briefcases and other stuff, one of the men accidently knocked over a table which held a display of apples. Apples flew everywhere. Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to reach the plane just in time … all but one.

That man paused, took a deep breath, got in touch with his feelings and experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apple stand had been overturned. He told his colleagues to go on without him, waved good-bye, told one of them to call his wife when they arrived at their home destination and explain his taking a later flight. 

Then he returned to the terminal where the apples were all over the terminal floor. The girl selling the apples was blind! She was softly crying, tears running down her cheeks in frustration, and at the same time helplessly groping for her spilled produce as people rushed around her. The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them back on the table and helped organize her display. 

As he did this, he noticed that many of them had become battered and bruised; these he set aside in another basket. When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, “Here, please take this money for the damage we did. As the salesman started to walk away, the blind girl called out to him, “Sir ….”  “Are you Jesus?” He stopped in mid-stride … and he wondered. He went back and said, “No, I am nothing like Jesus – He is good, kind, caring, loving and would never have bumped into your display in the first place.”

The girl gently nodded: “I only asked because I prayed for Jesus to help me gather the apples. He sent you to help me, so you are like Him – only He knows who will do His will. Thank you for hearing His call, Sir.”

Then slowly he made his way to catch the later flight, with that question burning and bouncing about in his heart: “Are you Jesus?”

We witness to Jesus by being Jesus to others. We make Jesus real for others in the ordinary acts of kindness, compassion, generosity, patience and understanding. 

Let us ponder on that question and we will experience the Risen Lord for ourselves.

 

 

 

 

EASTER II [B] (Acts 4:32-35, I John 5:1-6, John 20:19-31)

After the death of Jesus, for fear of the Jews the Apostles confined themselves to a closed room. They received the news of the resurrection of Jesus from many sources. He was seen by the women who visited the tomb. Peter saw the empty tomb. He appeared to the apostles themselves. But these testimonies did not give them enough courage to come out and proclaim the reality of resurrection. They remained behind the closed doors. Again Jesus appeared to them and shows his wounds to the disciples and says, “Peace be with you.” They’d all abandoned him when he needed them. Showing those wounds could have been to shame them, but Jesus wanted to communicate a message of mercy, not condemnation.

Sometimes we forget that we’ve been forgiven. Jesus in showing his wounds today says, in a sense, “what happened, happened, but be at peace; I forgive you.”

Every sin we commit wounds Our Lord, and if we don’t realize that, obviously we’re not going to be asking mercy from anyone, and not showing much mercy when others hurt us. Sin destroys the peace and joy of every man.

If Our Lord were merely dead and gone or ascended straight away without appearing to his disciples, we’d never truly know if he’d have forgiven us. He returned, Risen, and his first words were words of peace and a desire to share that peace with others.

 

Jesus was aware that sin destroys the peace of man. So when he wished them "peace" he also granted them the power to destroy sin. To destroy a powerful enemy we need a powerful weapon. Jesus put this weapon in the hands of the church when communicating to his Apostles the power to forgive sins through the sacrament of Reconciliation. Jesus said to the apostles "Those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven: Those whose sins you retain, they are retained."

 

Jesus knew well that the disobedience of man, the excessive desire of man for wealth, the selfishness of man, the hatred that brews up in the heart of man, causes separation from God. And this separation destroys the peace of man. Isaiah warned the Israelites, "Your iniquities have separated you from your God."(Is 59:2) And this separation from God is unbearable. David, the chosen king of Israel, experienced it when he broke the command of the Lord and he Lamented, "Do not withhold your tender mercies from me, O Lord" (Ps 40:1). God commanded Adam and Eve, "Do not eat the fruit of this tree." But when they disobeyed him they were estranged from God and they wanted to hide. This separation was miserable. And they lost their peace.

 

As sin destroys internal peace Jesus strictly commanded his disciples to love their enemies, and to return good for evil (Mt 5:44). Jesus ratified his teaching with his own example as he hung on the cross. He prayed, "Father forgive them" (Lk 23:24).

 

The estrangement that happened because of sin is bridged by Jesus (Eph 2:14) and Jesus gave the power to his Apostles to forgive sins and re-establish peace. St Paul wrote to the Romans affirming this message that God has called us to peace. God expects us to keep His commandment, and in return He gives us his peace. Proverbs tells us "When a man's ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him." (Prov.16:7)

 For peace and joy to prevail in the Christian community, unity should be maintained. That is the message of the First Reading taken from the Acts of the Apostles. The Apostles taught the early Christians that three things are necessary to foster unity.

 

So they gathered regularly in the Portico of Solomon. The early Christians came together regularly under the leadership of the apostles. And today we should gather in the church, the house of God regularly. And this communion will certainly give us power and strength to remain united, forgetting all the differences.

 

Secondly, they listened to the teaching of the Apostles. We, too, must listen to the word of God and reflect over it. It will give us courage to fight our ego.

 When the early Christians remained united under the leadership of the Apostles they worked wonders. The sick were even taken out into the streets and laid on beds and sleeping mats, in the hope that at least the shadow of Peter might fall across.

 

Today the risen Lord stands in our midst and greets us too, "Peace be with you." Let's translate this message into action and pass on to our brothers and sisters. When we take initiative in patching up an estranged relationship with our friend, when we forgive a dishonest act of our friend, when we show kindness to someone, when we appease the anger of our friend, when we find time to re-establish a broken relationship, when we persuade someone to give up some evil habits we are giving the message, "Peace be with you". And the peace that we radiate will come back to us manifold.

Today is Divine Mercy Sunday. Let’s show our appreciation for divine mercy this week by asking someone we’ve hurt or wronged for forgiveness.

 

 

 

EASTER SUNDAY: Acts 10:34a, 37-43; Col 3:1-4; John 20:1-9

When we buy a product we want to make sure that we can count on it and trust it to work the way it is supposed to work. When you go and buy a car you are looking for reliability, a car that you know will carry you and your family safely for years to come. The car company tries to earn your trust by giving you a warranty. The warranty tells you how long and to what extent you can trust them and their product. But the problem with these warranties is they eventually run out. You can trust them but only for a period of time. Our relationship with others is the same way. When looking for a husband or wife we look for someone who is trustworthy, someone we can trust, someone we know is going to be faithful to us over the course of a lifetime. I believe that it is in the heart of every person and is every person’s deepest longing to be able to completely trust someone — someone who won’t lie to us, someone who won’t let us down. If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead then we cannot trust him with our lives and we certainly cannot trust him with our eternity.  But fortunately for us, Jesus did rise from the dead. Easter does exist, it’s real not fake, it’s true, not a lie! We can trust Him with our lives and live in Him and for Him.

 

 Albert L. Roper was a prominent Virginia attorney, a graduate of the University of Virginia and its law school, who eventually became mayor of the city of Norfolk. He once began a thorough legal investigation into the evidence for the Resurrection of Christ, asking himself the question: “Can any intelligent person accept the Resurrection story?” After examining the evidence at length, he came away asking a different question: “Can any intelligent person deny the weight of this evidence?” — Even those who traveled for three years with Jesus experienced disbelief over His Resurrection, but Jesus showed Himself alive by many infallible proofs. We don’t base our Faith on legends, myths, or fairy tales. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is well-documented, and many critics have been silenced (and even converted) when they’ve carefully investigated the evidence.

The Resurrection of Christ is the basis of our Christian Faith, for it proves that Jesus is God.  Undoubtedly Easter is the most important day in the Church’s year and unquestionably the most important event in human history. That is why St. Paul writes: “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain; and your Faith is in vain.  The Resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the be-all and end-all of the Christian faith. If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, all bishops, priests, and Christian ministers should go home and get honest jobs, and all the Christian faithful should leave their churches immediately. It comes down finally to this: if Jesus was not raised from death, Christianity is a fraud and a joke. But if he did rise from death, then Christianity is the fullness of God’s revelation, and Jesus must be the absolute center of our lives. There is no third option.

All the basic doctrines of Christianity are founded on the truth of the Resurrection.  Easter is the guarantee of our own resurrection. The open tomb is our door to eternal life. Jesus assured Martha at the tomb of Lazarus: “I am the Resurrection and the Life; whoever believes in Me will live even though he die” (Jn 11:25-26).  Christ will raise us up on the last day, but it is also true, in a sense, that we have already risen with Christ.  By virtue of the Holy Spirit, our Christian life is already a participation in the death and Resurrection of Christ (CCC #1002, #1003).

How does Christ’s resurrection bring this change in the world? Well we can draw an analogy between the effects of Christ’s resurrection and what happens when a stone is dropped into a lake. Just as a stone dropped into a lake causes ripples to radiate across the lake, so also Christ’s resurrection causes divine power to radiate across creation into all times and places.

These are some of the reasons why we believe in the Resurrection of Jesus. (1) Jesus himself testified to his Resurrection from the dead (Mk 8:31; Mat 17:22; Lk 9:22). During the ministry Jesus did frequently inform His disciples about His death and resurrection. In fact Jesus made the comparison between His resurrection and the life of Jonah in the belly of the fish (Matt 12:40).

 (2) The tomb was empty on Easter Sunday (Lk 24:3). Although the guards claimed (Mat 28:13) that the disciples of Jesus had stolen the body, every sensible Jew knew that it was impossible for the terrified disciples to steal the body of Jesus from a tomb guarded by a 16-member team of armed Roman soldiers. (3) The initial disbelief of Jesus’ own disciples in his Resurrection, in spite of his repeated apparitions.  This serves as a strong proof of his Resurrection. It explains why the apostles started preaching the resurrected Christ only after receiving the anointing of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. (4) The Jews and the Romans could not disprove Jesus’ Resurrection by presenting the dead body of Jesus. (5).The apostles and early Christians would not have faced martyrdom if they were not absolutely sure of Jesus’ Resurrection. (6) The Apostle Paul’s conversion from a persecutor of Christians into a zealous apostle, preaching the Good News of Jesus throughout much of the Gentile world, supports the truth of Jesus’ Resurrection (Gal 1:11-17, Acts 9:1; 26:15-18). (7) The sheer existence of a thriving, Empire-conquering early Christian Church, bravely facing three centuries of persecution, (Unlike Islam which grew only on the edge of sword), supports the truth of the Resurrection claim.  So there are undefeatable proofs for the resurrection of Jesus. But he appeared only to those who believed in him, nor did he take up the challenge of the enemies to come down from the cross. Nor did he appear to those who tortured him, imprisoned him or executed him. Jesus didn’t immediately start appearing to the disciples, although eventually, he appeared to over five hundred of them.

 

We spent Lent praying at the foot of the Cross; now, like Mary Magdalene, we can pray at his empty tomb. He will reveal himself, just as he did to Mary, in his time, but we have to believe in him, even when we don’t understand fully.

 

Jesus appeared to his followers and, in each case, they had the opportunity to “touch and believe.” We may not be able to see him in flesh and blood, but we can see his sacramental body in the Eucharist, just like the disciples of Emmaus did. If this Easter makes any difference in my life, how am I going to share that story to others to make a difference in their lives. Let’s think about it a few moments.