Homilies

March 23, 2008
Easter Sunday
Acts 10:34, 37-43; Colossians 3:1-4; John 20:1-9
Fr. Jerome Machar, OCSO

Today we stand in the light of the Paschal Candle to celebrate Christ's victory over sin and death. Through the observance of Holy Week we accompanied our Savior from the triumphal entry into Jerusalem to the entombment of His lifeless, tortured body. We watched as the anointing oil was poured on His head and ran down His beard until it soaked into the collar of His robe. Then we stood idly by as the playful soldiers pressed the crown of thorns into His scalp. We were in the Upper Room where Jesus blessed and broke the bread that He had changed into His Sacred Body. The next day, we stood outside the praetorium as the Romans tied Him to the pillar with the intention of breaking Him under the lash. Alongside with the disciples, we drank from the Cup of Salvation that Jesus had poured and blessed. Then we stood beneath the cross in the shadows as the soldier thrust the lance into His side and opened the fountain of love and mercy. We watched and prayed outside the garden as Jesus underwent His agony. Then, last night we kept sacred vigil in the garden, watching and waiting for the Morning Star to rise from the tomb.

During those long hours of sadness and grief, while the body of the Lord of Life was confined within the tomb, He Who is Light from Light descended into the depths of death and darkness. There, in the land of the shades, life and death engaged mortal combat. There, the Giver of Life put to death the power of death by dying once for all. Christ vanquished hell by entering it. Today, the universe was shaken to its very foundations. The Light from Light dispelled the darkness that had tried to overpower Him. St. John Chrysostom put it this way:

Hades was in turmoil having been eclipsed.
Hades was in turmoil having been mocked.
Hades was in turmoil having been destroyed.
Hades was in turmoil having been abolished.
Hades was in turmoil having been made captive.

Hades grasped a dead body, and encountered God.
Hades seized earth, and encountered heaven.
Hades took what it saw, and was pillaged by what it did not see.

Today, we stand in amazement as we peers into the empty tomb. Like Mary Magdalen and the other women, who came to anoint the body of the Crucified One, like the Apostles Peter and John who came running at the word of the women, all Christians bow before the tomb in which Jesus' body had been placed after His crucifixion. The time for tears and sadness is ended. As we hear in the Sequence for Easter: "Death and life have contended in that stupendous combat: The Prince of life, who died, reigns immortal." The Lamb that was slain has transformed the instrument of death in to the Pathway to Life.

By His death and resurrection, Jesus has become the life of all who had died. In His meekness, Christ has humbled Satan's pride. In His humility, Christ has destroyed the tyranny of death. The grave had closed its mouth on the dead body of the Savior only to be burst asunder by the living God. Christ descended into the realms of darkness and death and called out to all those who had been held captive: "Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and [I] will give you light". The Father has made Him who handed Himself over to death the Lord and giver of eternal life. Yes, life and death were locked in combat and Life and Love was victorious. In Jesus all is once again oriented to life - everlasting life.

Through Baptism we have been united to Christ in His death and resurrection. If we have been raised with Christ, let us seek what He seeks: to bring about the glorious reign of His Father. With the weapons of love, God defeated sin and death. The Eternal Son, who emptied himself to become the obedient servant to the point of dying on the Cross (cf. Phil 2:7-8), has conquered evil at its roots. By so doing He has laid open the path of return to the Father. Jesus is the Gate of Life who this day has burst the gates of hell. He is the Door of salvation, opened wide for all, the Door of divine mercy, who sheds the light of glory on the human race. The Risen Christ is the path of hope along which we can advance towards a world that is more just and mutually supportive, in which the blind egoism of the few will no longer prevail over the desperate cries of the many. Recall the words of St. Paul. "Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (1 Cor. 5:8).

Since we have died and been buried with Christ, our life is hidden with Christ in God (Cf. Col. 3:3). May the mystery of Christ's victory soften the hardness of our hearts so that we might see all men and women as God sees them. It is the Father's desire that we enter into the glory of His risen Son. The whole of creation is filled with the splendor of the Resurrection because "the brightness of the eternal King has vanquished the darkness of the world" (Easter Proclamation). Gathered around the Table of the Lord, may we enter into the joy of the Kingdom and enjoy the bounty of the Lord's goodness. The victory of Christ gives us courage to build pathways of reconciliation with God and with one another. Today there is no need for feelings of guilt or resentment because forgiveness has risen from the grave. May the joy of today's feast resonate in every Christian heart, and let the message be heard from East to West:

Christ is risen!
Because Christ is risen Satan is defeated.