Homily for the Second Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday)

Easter Is A Revolution

Fr. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Second Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday)

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center, MN

Sunday, April 7, 2024

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is a revolution. It’s an earthquake that turned everything upside down. It is the cornerstone of Christianity. Without the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, there is no Christmas, no Pentecost, no saints of the Church, no Church, no Christianity, no New Testament with its four Gospels that all bear witness to Jesus’ life, ministry, death and resurrection. One of the worst things we can do is to domesticate this game-changing event and turn it into a nice little Spring Festival. On Easter Sunday, we heard world leaders say things like Easter is about sacrifice, courage, integrity. Easter is about handwork, community building, helping the poor, being patient, tolerating one another. Easter is about peace. I am not against any of those. In fact, understanding the true meaning of Easter can motivate a Christian to imbibe those virtues. However, none of those is the true meaning of Easter. They are not what Easter is truly about. Easter means Jesus Christ who was put to death in the most brutal way possible by the powers of hatred, cruelty, violence and oppression, has been raised from the dead by God. Easter means the tomb where Jesus was buried was empty. Death could not hold him. The grave did not keep him. The stone did not prevent him from rising and getting out. Easter means the Triumphant Warrior is Jesus and not Pontus Pilate or Caesar. 

What is the implication of this great act of God? First, it means that God’s love is more powerful than anything that is in the world. Anyone who has relied upon threatening others with bodily pains and death, take notice. Anyone who wants to use violence, lies, betrayal, divide and conquer, hatred, injustice, etc. be warned. In a clearly definitive way, God has shown his opposition to that manner of living and conducting your life and business. Desist from acts of cruelty! If you don’t, may God who disempowered the enemies of Jesus by raising him from death, disempower you. Amen.

Second implication, in the Resurrection of Jesus from death, God opens up something new and fresh to the world. After the conversion of Paul, he refers to Jesus over and over again as the Lord— Jesus is Lord. Today, when we hear that phrase— Jesus is Lord, some of us interpret it in a spiritualized way; some say, that’s a nice spiritual talk. Others say, of course, Jesus is Lord. But at the time when Paul made such a declaration, what everyone said was “Kaiser kyrios” “Caesar is the Lord,” which means that Caesar is in charge of the world. He has the greatest army, he has a sprawling bureaucracy, and if you cross him, he will cross you out by putting you to death. But right in the Roman Empire, Paul and fellow first Christians, over and over again courageously announced, “Yesus Kyrios,” “Jesus is the Lord,” which means Caesar is no longer the lord; Caesar is no longer in-charge. Caesar’s reign and dominance are over. The true Lord now is someone that Caesar put to death. He is now in-charge. Now, did the Romans know what Paul meant? You betcha! That’s why Paul spent a lot of his time in jail and eventually he was put to death. How did Paul know that Jesus is Lord and Caesar is not? Because Caesar killed Jesus but God raised him up. Because of the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead, Paul knew that God’s love and mercy are more powerful than anything that is in the world, including that awful Roman cross that terrified the whole world. Paul knew that God’s love proved more powerful than that cross. This is the revolutionary quality of the Christian message. If Jesus is risen from the dead, all the powers of the world that relied upon hatred and violence, oppression, exclusion, have been conquered. There is now a new Lord. And our job is to announce it. This is what we mean by evangelization. 

Third implication, the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead teaches that injustice will never win. Wickedness will never win. Lies and deceit will never win. Hatred will never win. In the final analysis, evil will never win. In the here and now, it might seem evil is winning. It might seem that corrupt people, lying people, divisive people etc. are having their way. It might seem that those who mock Jesus and deride religion are winning. But when all is said and done, they will end up losers. They will be on the losing end. Where are those who executed Jesus now? Where are the Pharisees, the scribes and the elders of the people? Where is Pontus Pilate now? The reason why they are even remembered is because of Jesus. Don’t give up hope. Now, it might seem might is right. It might seem the end justifies the means. It might seem there is no objective truth— you have your truth, I have my truth, everyone has his or her own truth. There is actually nothing like the truth. Now, it might seem appealing, it might appear smart to simply deny the existence of God. But in the final analysis, truth will win. Easter tells me that what is wrong will never ever win. So, always stay with the truth, and we know that Jesus is the truth.

Fourth, the bodily Resurrection of Jesus tells us we have an Advocate in heaven. In fact, the path of salvation has been opened to everyone. Jesus went all the way down, journeying into excruciating pain, despair, abandonment, betrayal and even godforsakenness. In principle, there is no sin that God cannot forgive. There is finally nothing that can separate us from the love of God. In our Gospel for today, the Risen Jesus, after greeting his Apostles  Shalom for the second time, breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” In other words, after offering mercy to his disciples, Jesus commissions and sends them to communicate the same mercy to the world. This is the foundation of the sacrament of Penance, and it has existed in the Church from that very moment till this day as the privilege vehicle of Divine Mercy. This sacrament is not a burden but the grace of reconciliation, the restoration of divine friendship, and the forgiveness of our sins. The greatest damage caused by secularism and secularist ideology is the insistence that each of us is okay without God. Going to confession is not a burden but precisely as a privilege expression of Divine Mercy. On this Feast Day of Divine Mercy, I enjoin you to feast in Divine Mercy but don’t just feast in it and entertain it intellectually, I strongly recommend you use the sacrament of Penance, for it is the best way to bask in the Divine Mercy.