Good morning everyone and welcome to Saint Aloysius where we are all gathered to celebrate Easter Sunday and the two tremendous and life saving truths of our faith: He is risen and He reigns.
He is Risen! What a glorious truth of our faith indeed! But on what basis do we believe? Or do we believe? Do we really believe? During these next few weeks we will hear several eyewitness accounts who saw Jesus after His death but there are no such reports here on Easter Sunday. In today’s gospel Mary Magdalen did not see Jesus and it never entered her mind that He rose from the dead. She saw an empty tomb. Peter saw exactly the same thing and a resurrection did not occur to him either. John, however, witnessed the very same scene as did Peter and Mary but he saw and “believed” that Jesus was alive. Why? Because he saw two neatly placed burial cloths. His faith told him that if thieves had stolen Jesus’ body they would not have gone through the trouble of tearing the cloths, which would have adhered to the body because of the burial oils, and neatly folded them. And, undoubtedly, the cloths would have had to have been ripped into many pieces and could not have remained in two singular pieces. We can believe in Jesus’ Resurrection today because in the midst of the “messiness” of our regular ordinary lives Jesus leaves signs, i.e. his neatly folded burial cloths, every where and primarily in the love and goodness that we receive from others. For us though, we need to believe so that we can see. I actually believe that is how it happened with John as well. I think that it is because he believed already that He “saw” that Jesus was alive even though he did not see Jesus in the flesh. Once we believe that Jesus is alive we can truly rejoice and strive through our joy and holiness of life to allow others to believe. But there is more to it than that. This is not the ending, this is only the beginning. There is no ‘happily ever after” because this is not a fairy tale. And thank God it isn’t. “Happily-ever-afters” are so very boring, and if there is one thing Jesus is not He is not boring. After His resurrection, He doesn’t just live happily ever after He reigns over heaven and earth. He judges us based on our lives on earth. So, the good news is that because Jesus conquers death we will all live eternally. But it is also true that we will face a judgment. Truly, it might have been easier for Lazarus to have remained in the tomb. Sometimes the thought of a judgment which has eternal implications is pretty scary to me. Because I just know I wouldn’t make the grade of my own accord. And I hate to tell you this but I don’t know if any of you would make the grade either. But, don’t fret, there is more good news. In the First Reading, St. Peter says this: “everyone who believes in Him will receive forgiveness of sins through His name.” This means that those who believe in Him will be judged by God the Father in Jesus Christ. So, because Jesus is alive, we have eternal life, and He becomes our judge. That’s why we’re all here today, folks. So, the question is do we believe and live as we believe or do we take a chance at being judged, not in Jesus Christ, but on our own merits? I know where I stand on that one, I can tell you that! Remember, He is Risen and He reigns! Alleluia!