31 March 2024 – Easter Sunday (Year B)

by Fr Fabian Dicom

There was a little girl who, one day, told her mother, “Mummy, I have a stomachache.”

And mummy told her, “It is because it is empty. You have to put something inside.”

So that night, a priest assigned to the parish, just like me, went for a visit. And because of the work in the parish, he went there he said, “I have a headache.”

The little girl said, “Yes, it is because it is empty. You have to put something inside.”

Anyway, we were talking about an empty tomb. That is our focus. The good news is there is nothing inside.

So in the Gospel passage today, we have three persons, with three different reactions to the empty tomb. While Mary Magdalene, Peter and the Beloved Disciple all saw the empty tomb, only the response of the Beloved Disciple is one of faith. John 20:8:-

He saw and believed.

This loved and loving disciple saw only the minimum. Yet, believed. He comes to faith in the resurrection through the mere sight of the empty tomb. Clearly he believed that in the Risen Christ himself, even before any physical appearance of the Risen Lord. The fact of the matter is that while the Beloved Disciple is the real person and the source of John’s tradition, he also represents the Christian disciple who is sensitive in faith and love to the presence of the Risen Jesus. I believe he represents all of us. If not, we would not be here this morning.

We, like the Beloved Disciple, believe the Good News which we so badly want to experience. And that is the Good News that He is risen, He is alive. He truly is, my dear brothers and sisters. He lives in us and He is amongst us.

Now the testimony of Peter in the First Reading highlights the centrality of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection in the Christian faith. It reminds us of the foundational truth of Easter, that through Christ’s sacrificial death and victorious resurrection, humanity is offered forgiveness of sins and the hope of eternal life.

Further, Peter preaching to Cornelius, a gentile, embodies the Easter message of inclusivity and universality, emphasising that salvation is for all. For all.

This serves as a source of encouragement, an assurance for believers today, reminding us of the liberating power of Christ’s resurrection in our lives. This is the message that sustains our hope and turns it into concrete gestures of charity. The whole inspiration to live the mandate of Jesus, to be in service of everyone.

How greatly we need to let our frailty be anointed by this experience.
How great we need to let our faith be revived.
How greatly we need our narrowmindedness and prejudice horizons to be challenged and renewed by this message.

And that was what Saint Paul was addressing and challenging the Colossians as they were plagued by false teachings and false piety, and legalism. And Paul absolves the Colossians believers to live in light of their identity in Christ, focusing on heavenly realities rather than earthly distractions and embracing the transformative power of Christ’s resurrection in their daily lives.

Jesus Christ is risen and the Risen Christ is our identity. And with him, he makes our hope and creativity rise so that we can face our present challenges, our limitations, our problems in the knowledge that we are not alone. 

So my dear brothers and sisters, to celebrate Easter is to believe once more that God constantly breaks into our personal histories, challenging our conventions, those fixed ways of thinking and acting that end up paralysing us. To celebrate Easter is to allow Jesus to triumph over the cowardly fear that so often assails us and tries to bury every kind of hope.

We are invited today to break out of our routines and to renew are lives, our decisions, our very existence. An invitation that must be directed to where we stand right now, what we are doing and what we are with the balance of power. And you believe this. You better do. The balance of power is in our favour.

Do we want to share in this message of life?
Or do we prefer simply to continue standing speechless before the events as they happen? Indifferent to all that?

What is my response to the resurrection of our Lord?
What is the significance in my life?

The seven weeks of the Easter Season that begins today provide us with the lovely opportunity to encounter the Risen Lord in an intimate way. Perhaps our intimacy with Jesus will lead us to see that resurrection experience is happening in our lives all the time.

• Each time we love again, after having our love rejected, we share in the power of the resurrection.
• Each time we trust again after having our trust betrayed, we share in the resurrection.
• Each time we fail and try again, we share in the resurrection.
• Each time we hope again after having our hope smashed into pieces, we share in the resurrection.
• Each time we pick up the pieces, wipe our tears, face the sun and start again, we share in the power of the resurrection.
• Each time we stand up against corruption despite being complacent about it in the past, we share in the power of the resurrection.
• Each time we stop the pandemic of racism around us after being culprits or victims of it, we share in the power of the resurrection.
• Each time we are inclusive and invite everybody in our families, especially in the parish and in society after being exclusive or being isolated, we share in the power of the resurrection.
• And finally, each time we live the truth in thought, word and deed without fear, without favour, we share in the resurrection.

The message of Easter is that nothing, absolutely nothing, can destroy us anymore, not pain, not sin, not rejection, not death. Our share in the resurrection begins here and now, in this life, at this moment, in this Mass.

Let our lives be a celebration of that resurrection, the celebration of Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ our Lord and our love.

This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad. Alleluia.

Click below to listen to homily and watch video:-

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