Homily for Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord, Year A

Game-changing Event Of The Resurrection Of Jesus Christ

Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord

Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, April 9, 2023

Too many contemporary scholars have tried to explain away the Resurrection. They say it’s a myth, a fairy tale, a symbol, a sign meant to prolong the cause of Jesus. But  nobody in the first century would have found such an argument convincing. Can you imagine, for instance, Paul going to Athens or Rome and declaring, “I am here to proclaim an inspiring dead man.” No one would have taken him seriously. But what St. Paul and other first century Christians said over and over again was “Anastasis!” “Anastasis!” (Resurrection! Resurrection!) And it was the first great Christian  message. 

Listen everybody! The Resurrection of Jesus is the one and the only reason for the Christian faith. If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, close all the churches. If he remained dead after he died, all bishops, priests, religious sisters and brothers, lay ministers in the Catholic Church and other churches should go home and get other jobs; and all the Christian faithfuls should leave their churches immediately. If Jesus didn’t conquer death, if the grave held him down, if he didn’t triumphantly rise from the dead, then what the heck? If he didn’t rise from the dead, then he was a lunatic and a liar who made wild and outlandish claims about himself that weren’t completely justified. In his Letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul says, “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is in vain… your faith is in vain; you are still in your sins…we are the most pitiable people of all” (15:17-19). If Jesus is not raised from the dead, Christianity is a fraud and a joke taken too far. But if he did rise from the dead, then he is who he said he was. He is the incarnate Son of God. He is the fullness of revelation. He is the full manifestation of God. So, he must be the center of our lives; and no one should be surprised to hear that Jesus compels a choice. It’s either you are with him or you are against him.

In the light of all I have said, I would like to look at the four enduring lessons of the reality of the Resurrection. First lesson: in the end, injustice and wickedness will never win. In the densely Passion narratives, we saw all forms of human dysfunction on full display. Jesus is met by hatred, by denial, by betrayal, by violence, by stupidity, by institutional injustice and by incomparable cruelty. It is as though all of human darkness comes out to meet him. When Jesus was dragging his wounded and battered body to Golgotha, it seemed he was finished. Jesus was scourged at the pillar. He was undeservedly slapped by a soldier. They made a caricature of him. When he said, “I thirst!” he was fed with expired wine. All manners of wickedness and injustice were unleashed on him. And when he cried, “It is finished!” his executioners rejoiced and thought they had finished him off. When Jesus finally bowed his head “and gave up his spirit,” his enemies thought they had won. They thought their injustice and wickedness had triumphed. But Easter gives us a different message. It tells us that in the end, evil will not win and will never win.  

The second lesson that the Resurrection of Jesus teaches is that this world is not it. By this I don’t mean that this world is evil. I don’t mean we should flee from it. The world was created good by God to be inhabited by his people and other created things. But the problem is that we are so attached to the goods of this world. So, on this Easter Sunday morning, it is appropriate to hear it once again that this world is not the ultimate place. It is not our final home. Yes, our senses, perceptions, minds, and science tell us that this world is real. We also know that the world is good and beautiful. I’m not denying any of that. This world is indeed great, amazing and beautiful. However, as we enjoy the gifts of the world, as we enjoy the beauty and the greatness of this world, we shouldn’t be beguiled by it. We shouldn’t be enslaved by the things this world provides. Why? Because everything in this world is passing. Things come and go. Think of all the plants, insects and animals from time immemorial. What happened to them? They came into being for a short time, and then go out of existence. Even the stars and planets, after a long time, they go out of being. What about us fragile human beings? The Psalmist says that our span is seventy years or eighty for those who are strong. We come and we go. So, if this world is all there is, I tell you, we would suffer despair that nothing lasts. There would be a general mood of despair at the pointlessness of existence. But what if this world is not all there is? What if in fact, there is a reality that goes beyond this one? In the creed, we profess faith in God who made the visible and the invisible. That means there is another reality, another existence that does not pass away that everyone should yearn and aspire to go to after earthly life. The world we live in now is good and beautiful, but the other world has supreme goodness, truth and beauty. The Resurrection of Jesus from the dead opens the door to that world and invites us to look into it and be attracted to it. The Resurrection therefore gives us a new focus and a new higher purpose. It teaches us that death does not have the final word. Speaking of death, St. Paul asks the question, “Death, where is your sting?” What prompted Paul to ask the question? The realization that there is something beyond this world. 

The third lesson of the Resurrection is that tyrants know that their time is up. The cross was invented by the Persians but only perfected by the Romans. It was the most humiliating and vicious means used by the Roman Empire to assert its authority, frighten its opponents and bring them to submission. At the time, the Roman army was the greatest fighting force in the world. It conquered lots of nations and put people to death by various means. But the cross was the worst means of killing people. And guess what? It was mostly reserved for slaves, the lowest and the most despised people. Imagine now how the people who loved Jesus and thought he was the Messiah of the Jews felt on Good Friday. The feeling must have been that of deep disappointment. What would disqualify someone as the Messiah of the Jews was that he was put to death on a Roman cross. On Good Friday, it seemed the tyrants had won. Lovers and admirers of the Lord felt so disappointed that after those amazing words and actions of Jesus, in the end, might made right. At the end of the day, the tyrants won. As disciples of Jesus licked their wounds of disappointment, the game-changer happened. Jesus rises from the dead. With that they realized that the tyrants do not have the final word. They realized that the tyrant’s weapon— threat of violence, oppression and death on the cross etc. is insurmountable. And from the beginning of Christianity to this present day, this makes the tyrants tremble. They tremble because the weapon they have is the fear of death, the oppression of their enemies. But God’s love is more powerful than the worst the tyrants can throw at us. This opens a new world to us. Look at the way the first Christians preached. They had nothing; they were not part of a political organization, they had no army behind them. They were just a handful of people. But the boldness with which they preached shaken things up. And the fact that Caesar put most of the first preachers to death tells us that he knew exactly what they were saying. He knew what their proclamation meant, that there is a new King in town. Despite the threat of Caesar, the first Christians proclaimed with boldness that Jesus is Risen. Preaching Christ crucified and risen from the dead reveals that tyrants no longer have power.

The fourth great lesson of the Resurrection is that salvation has in principle been won for everybody. Writing to the Philippians, St. Paul says, “Though he (Jesus) was in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather he emptied himself, took the form of a slave, coming in human likeness, and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of the God the Father (Phil. 2:6-11). What’s Paul talking about in those words? It’s the downward trajectory of the Incarnation. Jesus begins with the Father in the form of God, but then empties himself, taking human form, being born in the likeness of men. And then going even further by accepting death, and even further, death on a  cross. Death on a cross, at that time and place, was the most humiliating death. But in the Resurrection, God highly exalted him and bestowed upon him the name that is above every other name. So that at the mention of Jesus’ name, every knee in heaven, earth and under the earth must bend and every tongue must proclaim to the glory of God the Father, that Jesus Christ is Lord. So, the Father sends the Son all the way down so as to embrace in principle, everybody. As we run away from the Father through sin, we are running into the arms of the Son. There is no place that we can escape the invitation of the Divine Mercy. So, the Resurrection is not a one-off miraculous thing that happened a long time ago. It is describing a present activity of the spiritual life. If we accept the mercy of the Son, then in the Son we can arise and return to the Father. The Resurrection of Jesus is the be-all and the end-all of the Christian faith. If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is in vain. But the Good News is that he has been raised. Therefore our preaching is not in vain and may this  great truth continue to energize us till the end of our life.