Alleluia! Alleluia!
Jesus our Lord is risen!
Alleluia!
After six long weeks of an arduous pilgrimage through Lent,
we have arrived at Easter, the greatest Feast of our liturgical year. We come to Mass full of hope and
expectation. We sing joyous hymns of
praise and thanksgiving because Christ our Lord is risen! The celebration of
Easter brings us the joy of new life, the promise of victory over death, and
the belief that we will be "united with [Christ Jesus] in the
resurrection" (Romans 6: 5). Alleluia!
However, the narratives we hear in our Easter gospels, Luke
24: 1 - 12 for the Easter Vigil and John 20: 1 - 9 for Easter Sunday present
quite a different experience. On that
first Easter morning, the faithful and not so faithful disciples were in shock. On Good Friday they watched as Jesus, their
teacher and friend suffered a brutal and humiliating death. They saw their hopes and dreams for a
glorious kingdom crushed. So it is not
surprising that when Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Mary the mother of James tried
to explain what they saw at the tomb, their announcement was met with
skepticism.
We experience the joy of Easter because the disciples did
come to believe and because they had the courage to preach, testify and write
about the joyous experience they had with their risen Lord. Jesus was visible to them and they "ate
and drank with him after he rose from the dead" (Acts 10: 41). We too can experience the living presence of
the Risen Jesus; we eat and drink with him every time we participate in the
Eucharist. We experience the living
presence of the Risen Jesus in scripture, in sacrament, in our families, in our
parish and in our communities. For us,
like the disciples, the resurrection of Christ is something we believe in and
something we live. And like the disciples, we should feel compelled to share
this great news of Easter joy with as many people as possible. We should join with Peter and all the
disciples shouting out to all, who will hear,
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Jesus our Lord is risen!
Alleluia!
Lord God, this is the day that you have made!
Raising Jesus from the dead,
and raising us with him,
you have fashioned for yourself a new people,
washed in the waters of baptism,
sealed with the gift of the Spirit,
and invited to the banquet of the Lamb!
Continue in us the work of resurrection;
lift us above our faults,
to joy and unselfish love
as we serve you in one another.
We ask this through your Son,
our Passover and our Peace,
who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God for ever and ever.
AMEN.
