HE IS RISEN

 RISING WITH JESUS TO THE NEW LIFE OF EASTER ( John 20: 1-9)

When my father died quite suddenly when I was in Belgium studying, my mother wrote that she was devastated. and that her life would never be, and could never be, the same again. All of us, facing the death of someone we love face a horrible and indescribable loss, along with feelings of absence and emptiness. One sometimes hears grieving people say: “I’m simply gutted.”

For some persons, their feelings of loss are so great that they actually deny what has happened. They think they hear the footsteps of their loved one on the path outside or coming down the stairs, or turning the key in the front door.

When Mary Magdalene goes to visit the tomb of Jesus, it’s very early on Sunday, the first day of the week. It’s still dark but there’s enough light to see that the stone has already been moved from the entrance to the tomb. But she is not in any kind of denial. She expects to come face to face with death. Not for a moment does she kid herself that Jesus is no longer dead. Instead, surely persons unknown have stolen and hidden his body, and will not let him rest in peace.

She talks about her experience to Simon Peter and the anonymous Beloved Disciple. Together they race to the tomb. When Peter enters the tomb, he sees at first only the burial clothes. But when the disciple Jesus particularly loved enters the tomb he sees more. He sees what faith sees. Jesus is not dead but alive. Maybe he has figured out that if people had stolen the body they would not have taken the trouble to roll up the burial clothes. More likely, it’s simply his belief in the greatness, goodness and uniqueness of Jesus that leaves him convinced that God would not and could not leave him for dead. In any case we are told simply that “he saw and he believed”.

What we are celebrating today in the resurrection, then, is first of all the power of God’s liberating love for his dear Son. His resurrection is God the Father’s answer to all those wicked men who murdered Jesus on the cross, and expected him to stay dead and buried forever.

In raising Jesus from the dead, God raised and revived every story Jesus told, every truth Jesus taught, every value Jesus stood for, every choice Jesus made, and every purpose he pursued. Everything about him and his history was given new life, new meaning, and new relevance.

So the resurrection of Jesus is not an hysterical invention by people who refused to accept the death of their Leader. After all, his first followers were simply not expecting it. So much so that when they caught sight of him alive again they were gobsmacked. They could hardly believe their eyes and ears. But they had to accept the plain fact that there was Jesus, raised in his body, alive and well before their very eyes, and that all this had happened through the unbounded power of God’s love for his Son.

What we are also celebrating today is our resurrection from the dead, our resurrection from deadly deeds, or at least our resurrection from anything less than the best, the most honest, the most authentic, the most generous, and the most loving ways of living our lives. We are recognising, in fact, that not only is Jesus Christ alive now in himself, but he is also alive in us - alive in us through the presence, power and action of the Holy Spirit, his second self.

After all, It was through the Spirit within him that Jesus “went about doing good and curing all who were in the power [of evil]” (Acts 10:38). It is through that same Spirit, coming from our Risen Lord, that you and I can hope and expect to think like him, act like him, live like him, die like him, and rise like him.

So, here and now on this Easter Day, let us encourage one another to respond to the power of the Holy Spirit among us by renewing our baptismal promises and renewing them sincerely and enthusiastically. Let us reject darkness, evil and sin in every shape and form. Let us promise to follow Jesus in a life of light, goodness and love, a life shaped by his own example. So, with trust in the mighty Spirit of Jesus within us and among us, let us here and now renew our Baptismal Promises, and renew them loudly and clearly!

Fr Brian Gleeson

He is Risen Easter Song with Lyrics:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQerrJKkPak

         AND WE ARE RAISED WITH HIM