Homily (Reflection) for Easter Sunday (27th
March, 2016) on the Gospel and the celebration
Acts 10:34.37-43;
Ps 117:1-2.16-17.22-23. (R.v. 24);Col 3:1-4 or 1Cor 5:6-8;
Jn 20:1-9 or Lk 24:1-12.
There is a story of a man who was
picked up in a gutter on Good Friday. He left his house very early in the
morning. His wife, children, and friends found it very difficult to believe
that it was the man that they saw in such a state. Although he was notorious
for taking alcohol more than his body could carry but all through the period of
Lent he was a different man. He did not test alcohol at all the whole period of
Lent. When he regained consciousness they asked him why he took to drinking
again. And he told them that the joy in his heart was unimaginable when the
priest said on Maundy (Holy) Thursday that the forty (40) days of Lent were
over. He went on to tell them that he needed to refill because his body lacks
liquid (alcohol). According to him, his body was badly dehydrated all the
period of Lent that at a point he was thinking if the Lent would never end.
Topic: After Lent,
What Next?
Mary had gone to the tomb on the
first day of the week may be to meditate on the passion and death of Christ.
When she saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb the gospel reads:
“... she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus
loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do
not know where they have laid him’” (Jn
20:2). Mary Magdalene like others thought that the story had ended. But our
salvation story did not end with the suffering and death of Christ Jesus.
Hence, St. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians writes:
If there is no resurrection of the
dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then
our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain. If Christ
has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then
those also who have died in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have
hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1Cor 15:13-14, 17-19).
For forty
days, we were in the period of Lent. All these while, not even alleluia did
come out of our mouths consciously. It is during the period of Lent that one
will come to know that alleluia is not all that common. But now that it is over
what is the next thing? Hence, our topic: After Lent, What Next? The answer to this depends on the
meaning or one’s understanding of Lent. I know that some might wonder what on
earth led us to discuss Lent on Easter day after having just spent forty (40)
days excluding Sundays in it. Easter comes after Lenten period. And during the
period of Lent, many people did a lot of good deeds – almsgiving, abstaining
from vices, devotions, among others. Some even denied themselves many things
that are not sinful just for God.
Every Christian who took part in the Lenten season can be
better seen as a graduate although without any paper-certificate. The period of
Lent is a school, a period of training. In this school just like in every other
form of school, the students gather as much skills as possible for the life
after school. Graduates come out with new skills and in the same vein Christians
must have gathered a lot of skills (virtues) during Lent. We should not allow
any of these virtues to leave otherwise we risk spending forty days in the
wilderness without anything to show for it just like the man we saw in the
introductory part of this homily who waited for the Lent to be over so as to go
back to drinking.
Christ suffered, died and resurrected for us to benefit as
well as to imitate, cf. 1Pt 2:21. We
all are to resurrect cf. Acts 24:15,
but the destination is determined by the quality of lives we live now: “those
who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil,
to the resurrection of judgment” (Jn. 5:29). Do not celebrate
the end of Lent by going back to your old ways of life. We are to witness
to the resurrection of Christ with our lives and perhaps our words if it is
necessary. The struggle is not yet over until it is over. We are still in the battle
field (world).
Bible Reading: 1Cor 15:12-34; Heb 4:1-13.
Thought for today:
Prepare now for your resurrection (cf. Jn.
5:29).
Let us pray: Risen Christ, help us live the life that will lead
us to the resurrection of life and not to judgement – Amen.
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