Easter Sunday, March 31, 2013

Easter Sunday, March 31, 2013

                                        Epistle, 1 Corinthians 5: 7, 8            Gospel,  Mark 16: 1 - 8

Resurrection of Jesus Christ

We are now in Paschal Time, the Lenten fast having ended yesterday at noon. Jesus told us, (John 10: 10) “I have come that [you] may have life and may have it more abundantly.” Those who fasted during Lent have received a growth in God’s grace and will show this more abundant life by the way they live.

 During Easter season no fasting is permitted in the Church. It’s a time of celebration. Everything in the Church’s Liturgy has been a preparation for Easter. Even Christmas is celebrated in anticipation of the Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth from the dead. His resurrection is the link between the Old Covenant with its promise of a Messiah, and the New Covenant established by the Messiah for all peoples. Easter is called the Feast of Feasts in the same manner that the most sacred part of the old Temple was called the Holy of Holies.

Yesterday, Saturday, was the Sabbath day under the Old Covenant. It was the day set aside for rest from our labors, and it was right that our Lord should rest in the tomb from the labor of our Redemption. But we Christians seek the eight day, the day beyond the measure of time, the day of eternity. Easter is that day. It is on Easter Sunday that the Son of God attains His goal – mankind is raised up from his fall and regains eternal life that he had lost by Adam’s sin. As St. Paul describes it: (1 Corinthians: 15: 21, 22) “By a man came death, and by a Man the Resurrection of the dead [that] as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.” We have good reason to rejoice today!

We can continue to rejoice throughout the year and throughout our lives. The Collect Prayer from this coming Tuesday tells us how: “Grant to thy servants, O God, that they may keep up, by their manner of living, the Mystery they have received by believing” in Christ and His Resurrection. So it is by the way we live that we continue to rejoice in Easter. Jesus ascended to Heaven but left upon us the impress of His Resurrection, and why should we not keep this in our lives? As Dom Guéranger asked: “Are not all the mysteries of our divine Master ours also?” From His very first coming in the Flesh, He has made us sharers in everything He has done.” He was born a man, we were also born. He was crucified: our ‘old man was crucified with Him.’ (Romans 6: 6) He was buried: ‘we were buried with Him.’ (Romans 6: 4) And therefore, when He rose from the grave, we also received the grace that we should ‘walk in the newness of life.’ (Romans 6: 4)

How can we illustrate life before Christ came and life after He came? One small example is found in John 9:7. Jesus told a man who was blind from birth to go wash in the pool of Siloe, or Siloam as some interpret it. The fountain of Siloe was at the walls of Jerusalem and the water collected in a pool or reservoir for the use of those who lived there. At certain times the sick would gather at the pool and an angel would come down from heaven and move the still waters. When that happened, the first person that stepped into the pool was cured of his or her infirmity.  In the Old Covenant, one person only,  stepping into the pool of Siloe, exhausted the grace from Heaven. Under the New Covenant, all people can step into the pool of Baptism and never exhaust Heaven’s grace.

 The rolling back of the stone in today’s Gospel suggests the unlocking of the Mysteries of Christ, which were concealed by the covering of the Law of Moses.  The Law of Moses was written on stone. The stone of this Law of Moses was great enough in size to shut in and cover the body of the Creator of the world. But Christ rolled the Law of Moses aside to establish the New Covenant for all people, with Himself as the cornerstone of His one and true Church.

Let us thank God this Easter for our lives, our families, our friends and our faith. Especially let us thank our Lord for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, where every day at altars around the world priests recreate in an unbloody manner the Passion and Death of our Lord, Jesus Christ.  +++

We Celebrate the Traditional Tridentine Latin Mass