April 21, 2025

 

HE HAS RISEN!

I am currently resting this week while spending time with family. On this First Monday within the Octave of  Easter I present to you a couple of points from my Easter Sunday homily.

 

Our Easter Octave Readings will speak of EYEWITNESSES.

-The early Christians who saw the empty tomb, and then the many who saw the risen Christ proclaimed the Holy Name of Jesus – Acts of the Apostles said they added to the numbers of the early Catholic Church - Thousands were Baptized and Confirmed. Road to Emmaus Story... So are we to believe they all experienced mass Hallucinations – hmmmmm! I don’t think so.

 

So awed were the Apostles and disciples by the resurrection - you can sense it in every book and letter of the New Testament - These timid Apostles are transformed to men of great strength and courage – enough that most imitated Christ by the giving of their lives. Yet this began by their running from the Cross and hiding in the upper room.

 

-Once we understand the Resurrection claim itself, we begin to see why it really matters. If the Resurrection is only a bland symbol or a projection of our desires, then tyrants have nothing to fear from it. But because it is a fact of history, an act of the living God in space and time, then we sinners have real cause to repent. And to know this world is not our end.

 

-Though we rarely admit it, we live in a death-haunted space. The fear of death broods over us like a cloud and conditions all of our thoughts and actions. What if we really believed, deep down, that death did not have the final word? Would we then live in fear?

 

-That stone, blocking entrance to the tomb of Jesus, stands for the finality of death. When someone that we love dies, it is as though a great stone is rolled across them, permanently blocking our access to them. And this is why we weep at death, as Jesus wept over the death of His friend Lazarus.

 

-But for Jesus the stone HAS been rolled away. Undoubtedly, the first disciples must have thought a grave robber had been at work. But the irony is that the greatest of grave robbers has indeed been at work. The Lord says to the prophet Ezekiel, “I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves / And I am going to give you Life, Purpose, and Hope!

 

Vivat Jesus,

Father Vic Gournas

With assistance from Bishop Barron