Weekly HOMILY for April 24, 2011: What will it take for us to have Easter change our lives?

Easter Sunday, Cycle A
Chestnut Hill College, Philadelphia
April 24, 2011

What will it take for us to have Easter change our lives?
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato


CHRISTMAS VERSUS EASTER

Easter is different from Christmas. Christmas is an event that took place once and for all.

Easter ends with two men and a woman standing before an empty tomb.

In a nutshell, Easter stands in stark witness to the meaning of what it is to go on despite death, to go on in the face of death, to go on because of death.

I am suggesting that for us to celebrate Easter means to stand in the light of the empty tomb and decide what to do next with our lives.

There are two men and a woman who were touched deeply, people whose lives were transformed by standing before the empty tomb and who they were before the tomb is different from who they are after it.

Their transformation can show us the effect the empty tomb of Easter can have on us, as we stand there as well.


MARY MAGDALENE: FROM CLINGING BELIEVER TO PROCLAIMING WOMAN

The first person to look at is Mary of Magdala. Mary is the one who has followed Jesus all her life; she’s never doubted him; she’s with him all the way to the cross.

She is a woman with great insight and a great commitment, but she is more of a believer than a proclaimer.

Mary sees the tomb open, but she doesn’t go in. she is afraid or perhaps she knows that whatever is going on in that tomb is going to demand even more than she’s already given. Perhaps the idea of doing more or doing it differently is what stops her where she stands.

Mary comes to the place where it was clear that failure lays; Jesus evidently failed in his mission and his life has ended in disgrace. She comes in the faith, of course, that what had come to life in her because of Jesus would not die. Not in her. Faith would be enough for her.

She is the part of us that takes pride in our “Catholicity.” We’re faithful to our religious order, to our parish; we join committees; we support our church by giving regularly. Like Mary Magdalene we cling to Jesus and his church.

But clinging to him is precisely what Jesus doesn’t want of us. He wants us to speak out about him, to witness to his presence among the ill and the needy, the frail elderly, and the physically and mentally challenged.

He wants us to speak out against sexism wherever we find it. To give voice to those who have little of no voice.

He wants more than passive belief. He wants her and us to be his living voice, risen from the grave.


PETER: FROM REALIST TO RISK-TAKER

Peter is also at the empty tomb. Remember, he is one who makes great promises and then breaks them. His words to Jesus are, “I will never betray you” and then proceeds to do so three times.

He is the great with statements and actions that save his own status, like slipping away when others begin associating him with Jesus.

Peter is the part of us that know how to be a Catholic without a cross. He loves everything Jesus stands for as lon as the crowds love what Jesus stands for.

However, when the crowd’s mood changes, so too does Peter. Clearly Peter values what people think of him more than he values his integrity, more than he values his own truth.

The Peter in us is such a realist. We don’t want to rock the boat.

No need to speak out against abuses where we find them. No reason to mix work and religion. No gain to be had by upsetting the chapter meeting or the wine and cheese party or the family reunion with delicate subjects.

At the empty tomb, Peter learns that he is going to have to stand publicly with those who believe what Jesus believed and risk our own reputation to bring it about.


JOHN FROM CONTEMPLATION TO ACTION

Finally, John, “the one whom Jesus loved,” also stands before the empty tomb.

Scripture tells us he outruns the other two disciples, but stops at the entrance. We’re told he did it out of deference to Peter so he could go in first. Of course, he may have stopped for reasons of his own.

Why would John, who has been there every step of the with Jesus right to the cross, stoop down, peer in and not go all the way in?

Perhaps it was for the same reason you and I don’t go all the way in to anything that has to do with our faith life or religious practice.

Maybe he knew it was one thing to reflect on the scene and another thing to act. To go into the tomb, John must have known would be to challenge his stance of being a safe observer.

It there is a temptation in the spiritual life it is to use prayer as an excuse for not doing anything. It helps us float above the fray of life. That is not prayer.

Real prayer breaks open the heart of the world in the very center of our own lives. To really pray is to hear the cry of the poor, respond to the call of the oppressed, do the will of God in my world.

If Jesus is risen from the tomb, we have to keep looking for him in the faces of those who oppose us, in our enemies, in our neighbor, in those in need.


CONCLUSION

Today we all come to the empty tomb and must leave to return to our living life in community, at work, and at play.

Mary Magdalene came to the tomb as a clinging believer; she leaves a woman ready to proclaim good news to anyone who will listen to her.

Peter came as a realist; he leaves as a risk-taker and in the end he is martyred for his faith.

John came as a contemplative; he leaves knowing it could all end right here but he chooses to act our of his prayer to bring others to faith.

And you? How have you come and facing a seeming tragedy, how do you leave? Easter demands as much of us today as it did of the disciples then.