Homily for Easter Sunday, 2013

Fr. Michael J. Woolley
The Lord is Risen, Alleluia! This is the Church’s message to our troubled world tonight (this Day) and for the next 50 days: He is truly Risen!

He is Risen, despite the treacherous greed of Judas which stripped Him of all He had,
He is Risen, despite the cowardice of His Apostles who in the hour of darkness found themselves powerless to aid Him,

He is Risen, despite the blindness of His own people who preferred the sham Barabbas to the true Messiah,

He is truly Risen, in spite of the excessive beating the Romans gave Him,

He is truly Risen, in spite of the four sharp nails that were driven into His Sacred Flesh,

He is truly Risen, in spite of the death He truly underwent as a man, in spite of the three days His cold and lifeless Body spent in the tomb.

No, not greed, nor cowardice, nor rejection, nor beating, nor crucifixion, nor death itself could overcome Jesus Christ. He has overcome them all, He has trampled them underHis pierced Feet.

The Third Day has dawned. His Body rises from this fallen world, glorified, incorruptible, no more to die.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, may this Easter celebration impress deeply upon our hearts and minds and bodies and souls that Jesus our Lord is truly Risen from the Dead.

And as St. Paul reminds us, if then, we have died with Christ in Baptism, we believe that we shall also live with our Glorified and Risen Jesus.

The greedy of this world may rob us of all we have,

We may be abandoned in our time of need,

We may find the world to be against us as Christians,

We may be beaten down by our past sins and by the world and the devil,

But no earthly trials, not even crucifixion or any other earthly death is able to crush our Hope for Resurrection in Christ Jesus our Lord.

May Christ fill you with Resurrection Faith this Easter Day, and all the 50 days of this Easter Season, and may the Joy of the Resurrection renew your family, our parish, and the whole world, for the tomb is really Empty, and Our Lord has truly Risen!

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