“The Love from the Encounter with the Risen Christ that Changes Everything”

Homily for Easter Sunday
April 20, 2025; St. Mary’s Cathedral

Introduction

If you were the first one to discover some really big news, who would you first share it with?  It’s logical that you would want to share it with those who are in charge.  We can see that reaction in what Mary Magdalene did when she discovered that the tomb of her Lord was empty, as St. John recounts for us in our gospel reading for this Easter Sunday Mass.

The Primacy of Love

Now, the big news that Mary had to share was not that the Lord had risen from the dead.  She did not go inside the tomb, she stood outside noticing that the stone had been rolled back and that the body of Jesus was not there.  It’s clear she thought that someone had come and stolen the body, and this is why she went to the two apostles, Peter and John, to report this news to them.

It is understandable that Mary was the first one at the tomb early that morning when Jesus rose.  She loved him more than the other disciples, and he had granted her so much healing and peace in her very troubled life.  But she was not the first to go inside the tomb.  When they heard the news from Mary, Peter and John immediately ran to it to see for themselves.  John, too, had a special love for Jesus, the one who is called the “beloved disciple.”  Being younger and more agile, it’s no surprise that he arrived at the tomb first, but out of respect for Peter, the head of the College of Apostles, he waited for him to arrive so Peter could enter the tomb first.

After this, John stepped inside.  They are still in wonderment, trying to figure out what has happened.  Then John is the first one to see the signs and understand what they meant: he noticed that the burial cloth and the cloth that covered Jesus’ head were left undisturbed, staying in exactly the same place they were when they covered his body when it was laid in the tomb.  It was as if the body had just evaporated.  In that instant he made the connection, recalling the things that Jesus had taught them, and so was the first to believe in the Resurrection.

These two disciples, Mary Magdalene and John, were those who loved Jesus more than any others, and along with his Mother were the ones to remain with him to the very bitter end, standing next to him at the cross, present the moment that he died.  And so these are the two disciples who received these great privileges: Mary Magdalene was the first at the tomb, and, as we read a few verses later in St. John’s Gospel, the first one to whom Christ appears after his Resurrection from the dead; John is the first to believe in the Resurrection, before any of the others come to that faith.

Sharing the News

This means, then, that if we love as Christ loves, and truly love him, we will understand, and so believe.  This is the power of love, the love of Jesus himself: that is, love for Jesus, and loving others as he loves us.  The power of this kind of love gives us spiritual eyes to see things that the physical eyes cannot; they give us the power to see, to understand, and so to believe.

The other disciples were slower to believe, they were hesitant, doubting.  Yes, they did love their Lord, too, but their love wasn’t as earnest and faithful as Mary’s and John’s.  This lack of ardent, loyal love slowed them down, like Peter being slower to arrive at the tomb before John.  After all, they had abandoned him during his time of trial, when it became dangerous for them to be associated with him.  But then something changed: they didn’t give in, they persevered, and they did have enough love to be able to begin to see things that they hadn’t seen before, to understand that their Lord was alive, that he had come back from the dead, and that his Resurrection was a promise to us of our own resurrection, to live with him in glory.

And now everything has changed: they have really big news to share, the biggest news of all, the Good News that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, that he has conquered death and gives us the possibility of eternal life.  This is news that they cannot help but go forth and share, not just with authorities, but with the whole world, even in the face of danger and persecution and, for most of them, eventually ending even in death.  They encounter the risen Christ, their love was kindled, and then all was changed, and they went forth into a hostile world so that people of all nations and races of the world would know that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world.

To make this point clear to us, the Church always gives us as the first reading for Mass in the Easter season a passage from the Acts of the Apostles, the book of the Bible that tells us about the evangelizing activity of those first disciples.  Beginning from day one, this Easter Sunday, all the way to Pentecost Sunday fifty days from now, we hear about the exploits of these first believers, their courage in the face of danger and their conviction in the victory of Christ, their Lord, over death, a victory that he shares with them.  And with us.

The Encounter in Our Lives

Do we really believe the message that they first proclaimed, and that the Church has proclaimed in every generation since for the last 2000 years?  If we do, we will likewise want to share this with everyone, we will want them to know that there is a better way to live their lives, a way that brings authentic happiness in this life and perfect happiness forever in the next.

Unfortunately, we have come to think of living as a Christian as simply observing basic rules of morality and religious practice.  We have fond Easter traditions, and it is good to practice them and it is good to come to church, especially on this day, but if it is simply a matter of routine, nothing will change.  The late Pope Benedict the XVI put it very powerfully when he said, “Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction” (DCE, 1).

The real Christian will have such a new horizon in life; it will be noticeable to those who do not believe.  After all, there must be something different about the way we live our lives from those who do not believe, otherwise we will not show the world that there is a better way to live.  And that better way begins with love for Jesus Christ and faith in him.  With that, we will naturally want to please him, no matter what.  And others will take notice.

Conclusion

We are living in unpredictable, unstable and, for many, threatening times, in many different ways.  But the power of the love of Jesus Christ can overcome any fear or anxiety.  This is the Good News.  Whatever harm threatens, whatever danger we think may be lurking, when we come together with the love of Jesus Christ, nothing can take us away from the life he has given us in his Resurrection from the dead.  The message of Easter is one of triumph: Jesus Christ has overcome, and he shares that triumph with all those who believe in him, the great and the lowly alike.  To him be all power and glory, now and ever and forever.  Amen.