Sunday of the Resurrection
Fr Dominic’s Homily
Christ is risen! Alleluia! What a joy we have today as we celebrate Jesus’ Resurrection.
Jesus is the Lord of all! And we all need Him! On a regular basis, we need to receive the Sacrament of Confession and we need to receive the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist which is the Living Bread that feeds our souls.
Mary Magdalene needed Jesus. She wept when she realized that His body was gone, believing that someone had stolen it. She was not the only one to have these feelings. All the disciples of Jesus felt that way.
The words, "Jesus is alive!" were enough to instantly create a great spiritual hunger in the souls of the disciples of Jesus where emptiness existed because of His death.
Through these words, there was a new hope.
It is the will of God that we all experience spiritual hunger for the presence of Jesus. Our hearts are restless until they rest in him. We live in this world but we are really living for the next world.
We are so accustomed to hearing of Jesus risen from the dead that we could say we know all about it and miss the grace of this season of Easter.
But when we think about it Jesus really did rise from the dead! Death is not the end. Let Jesus’ death and resurrection be the centre of our lives.
We had been waiting for this moment for thousands of years. The highpoint in God’s plan for us was the resurrection.
Easter is the greatest celebration of the Church. Jesus’ resurrection reminds us that there is life beyond the grave.
It also reminds us that there is so much more to each of us and that we have an immortal soul. Although our body will return to dust, our soul will live forever with God.
What is the purpose of life? What is our goal in life? Where is our heart in life? Life has only one ultimate goal, to prepare for the next life, and if we are not preparing for our own resurrection we are like trains that have become derailed. And what happens to a train that gets derailed? It goes nowhere.
We have a wonderful future ahead of us. We will be resurrected like Jesus. We will be transformed to become glorious like Jesus.
Do we live like someone who believes in such a glorious future? If we do, surely everything in this world takes on a new perspective, so that we do not become possessed by our possessions.
And if we are looking ahead to our new life in Christ we need to pray. It is a contradiction to say that you believe in God if you don’t pray. Actually the reason we have so many problems is simply because we don’t pray enough.
Who did Jesus appear first to after he rose from the dead? The Gospels give different accounts but Pope John Paul II suggests that Jesus’ mother, Mary, is the first person who saw Jesus after his Resurrection.
We know from St. Paul that the Gospels do not record all the appearances of the risen Jesus. The reason why Jesus’ mother Mary did not accompany the women to the tomb early on Easter Sunday morning is probably because she had already seen the risen Jesus.
And doesn’t this make sense? After everything she had endured. She had given everything she had to God’s plan of redemption. So I am sure that the first person Jesus wanted to console was his blessed Mother.
For many, the participation in the celebration of the Holy Mass on Easter Day is a stepping stone towards returning to their living faith. It is a sincere resolution... but it shouldn’t end there.
Let us make a resolution to follow Christ with all our hearts and to say a yes to Christ that like Mary that we can sustain throughout our lives.
Where Christ has gone we hope to follow, to enjoy true and lasting happiness with God and his angels and saints forever.
Isn’t that a reason to rejoice on this Easter Sunday?