Homily for Easter Sunday Mass
April 5, 2026; St. Mary’s Cathedral
Introduction
Many years ago when I was a young priest doing chancery work and in residence in a parish, one of the couples of the parish invited me over one day for coffee. They were delightful company, a good bit older than I and somewhat Bohemian in their lifestyle. They were very interested in the world of arts and culture. They told me that when they were starting out in their marriage they lived in New York and used to write off-Broadway plays. I asked them what sort of plays they wrote. They responded, “You know, the usual storyline: boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back.”
The Movement of Salvation History
I was appreciative to gain some insight into a world about which I knew very little. I returned to that thought from time to time, pondering over it, and then at one point it dawned on me: this is the story of the Bible. The Bible narrates for us the whole history of salvation, and it all begins with Adam and Eve. God created the human race, male and female, to share His life and love forever. And so He gave Adam and Eve to each other in the covenant of marriage, likewise a communion of life and love so that we might learn the life that God designed us for with Him. But of course, we know the story doesn’t end there.
He placed them in a garden, what in the ancient Near East was considered to be the place for love, which in the Bible becomes a symbol of paradise. But God cast them out of the garden, and paradise was lost, because of original sin, the fall from grace of our human nature. When God presented Eve to Adam after creating her from his side Adam called her, “woman,” recognizing his equal complementary half and helpmate. Now, after the fall, he gives her, not a noun, but a name, “Eve,” which means “the mother of the living.” Adam realizes now that he has lost immortality, and the only way he can attempt to recuperate it is by establishing a progeny – the closest approximation to immortality in this world. And that can only happen through his equal counterpart; with her cooperation, she can give him the progeny that will extend his history in this world.
God worked out a long plan of salvation, first calling the people of Israel into a covenant, a marriage covenant, espousing them to Himself. But human nature being what it is, the people were weak and often violated the covenant by turning to the false gods of their pagan neighbors. Prophets continually called them to repentance, and to return to fidelity to the covenant, excoriating them as an adulterous bride.
The Fulfillment of Salvation History
Today we celebrate God’s fulfillment of that plan. Christ’s Resurrection from the dead restores immortality to human nature. The eternal Son of God took on our human nature, entered this world with a true human body, and in that body suffered an excruciating death, was buried, and then rose gloriously triumphant over death in that same body. St. John is very clear about this in his description of the discovery of the empty tomb. When he and his fellow apostle Peter enter into the tomb they see the cloth that lay over Jesus’s body in its place, undisturbed. This would not have happened if Jesus had come back to life as we know it in this world and threw
off his shroud and stood up. Nor would it make sense that it was left that way if thieves had entered in to look for treasures to steal. It is as if the body just evaporated.
This could only have happened by a supernatural intervention, which, by the way, does not exclude a scientific explanation for how it happened. Recent studies on the Shroud of Turin reveal fascinating evidence of this, discovering phenomena that have a scientific explanation but would be impossible to happen in the world as we know it. The story begins with Mary Magdalene discovering the tomb empty. She goes to tell the apostles, who then run to the tomb and she follows. But she stays outside the tomb.
As the story continues, she peers in after Peter and John leave and then that’s when Jesus in his resurrected state appears to her. He first addresses her as woman – as did Adam when God first presented his helpmate to him – and she does not recognize him. Then he calls her by name, “Mary.” Then she does recognize him, the first witness to the restored immortality of human nature. And this happens right at the moment when Jesus calls her by name. As Adam discovered the possibility of his approximation of immortality in this world through his wife, Eve, Mary recognizes restored true immortality to human nature upon hearing her name uttered by Jesus, the bridegroom of the Church, his bride. So God wins His bride back, and it happens in a garden, the place of love, paradise.
Learning from the Key Players
We can gain further insights into this story, and how we fit into it, by reflecting on these three key figures involved in the first discovery of Christ’s Resurrection from the dead. St. John is the one referred to as “the beloved disciple.” He had an especially close relationship to the Lord, his Master. Maybe something like a teacher’s pet. They had a certain special confidence. John was the one who sat next to Jesus at the Last Supper, and placed his head on his breast. And he was the one disciple who did not abandon Jesus at the end, the only one who stood at the foot of the Cross as he died. But he also knew his place. Peter was the one whom our Lord singled out for headship in the College of Apostles, and John, although younger and quicker and more agile, waited after arriving at the tomb before Peter so that Peter could walk in first. He did not leverage his special trusting relationship with the Lord to justify entering the tomb first, but respected the lines of authority our Lord had established. He was a disciple of great love, and so was the one given the special grace to be the first to believe in the Resurrection, as is clear in today’s Gospel: “Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed.”
Mary Magdalene was a very troubled soul, afflicted by the dark world who, as the Gospel tells us, was possessed by seven demons (cf. Lk 8:2; Mk 16:9). But she also had great love, and our Lord had a special affection for her, casting out her demons and healing her of her afflictions. It is no surprise that she was the one to be the first to go to the tomb early in the morning the day after the Sabbath, to complete the ritual anointings of the body. And she, too, was given a special grace: she was the first to see our Lord risen from the dead.
And then there’s St. Peter. We know his foibles and weaknesses well, but perhaps we do not pay enough attention to his virtues. He was clearly a man of great resilience. Even having to bear the shame of denying our Lord, even being terrified at the prospect of crucifixion, he nonetheless steps up into the role to which our Lord had called him. He overcomes his fears and weaknesses, to the point of sharing our Lord’s death with him, being crucified himself out of witness to his Master.
Great love, resilience, courage to face our fears and weaknesses and overcome them and to be ready to suffer loss for fidelity to our Lord, respecting the equal dignity of all in accordance with the hierarchical structure the Lord has willed for his Church: these are all virtues that we need to pursue if we ourselves wish to be witnesses to the Resurrection. And this is the implication of the meaning of Easter.
Easter and Pentecost Intertwined
The Easter season ends with Pentecost Sunday, the Lord giving his disciples the Great Commission, to go into all the world and teach what he has taught and make disciples of all nations. But Pentecost is intertwined with Easter from the start, which is why all throughout this Easter season we hear from the Acts of the Apostles, the accounts of the evangelizing activity of that first generation of Christians. Even beginning today, Easter Sunday: the speech Peter gave that we heard in our first reading was in the presence of Cornelius and his household. Cornelius was a Roman soldier, a pagan, but who had a vision that led him to Christian faith. In his vision he received the instruction to call for Peter, so that he could be admitted to the Christian community.
The question had arisen in those early days of the Church whether people from outside the Jewish race could be admitted to fellowship with Christ. Peter and the Church’s response was a resounding “yes”: “everyone who believes in [Jesus of Nazareth] will receive forgiveness of sins through his name.” This proclamation of St. Peter’s follows upon Cornelius’ request made directly to Peter, where Peter responded: “You know that it is unlawful for a Jewish man to associate with, or visit, a Gentile, but God has shown me that I should not call any person profane or unclean. And that is why I came without objection when sent for” (Acts 10:28-29).
In other words, there is plenty of room in heaven! God wants you in heaven, and He wants you to help others get there, too. No one is so unclean that God cannot purify them to make them fit for heaven, so we should not consider anyone so. God wants to win you back to Himself, and this great feast of our salvation is at the same time a call to proclaim this Good News to the world. Remember how Mary Magdalene, upon discovering the empty tomb, immediately went to the apostles. And all three, when they finally figured out what had happened, went to tell the others. This is the common theme in the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ post-Resurrectional encounters with his followers: they immediately go to tell others. This is what it is like when you receive some really good news: you can’t hold it in, you are naturally moved and want to go out and tell it to the whole world.
Conclusion
We rejoiced last night at the Easter Vigil here at our Cathedral, along with Catholic churches all throughout the world, to welcome new life into the Church, receiving dozens of new fellow believers here with the Sacraments of Initiation. They heard the Good News and received it and now live it because someone was there to tell them, someone who walked with them along the way. We are witnessing in our time growing numbers of people, and especially young people, interested in religion and wishing to know Jesus Christ. The harvest is ripe, and it is our call to be the faithful harvesters to introduce Jesus to souls yearning to know him.
Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, and God has now restored our immortality and won us back to Himself. Let us live in keeping with this Christian dignity of ours, so as to be witnesses of this Good News to all the world and cast Christ’s light where darkness reigns. May God grant us this grace. Amen.
