Homily for Easter Sunday

Homily for Easter Sunday

March 31, 2024
John 20: 1-9
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx

“The other disciple … saw and believed” (John 20: 8).

All 4 gospels tell us that Mary of Magdala and several other women went to Jesus’ tomb at the crack of dawn on the Sunday after his crucifixion.  St. John, whom we just read, doesn’t mention the other women, including them only when Mary reports, “We don’t know where they put him” (20:2).

St. John also doesn’t tell us why they went, nor does St. Matthew.  According to Sts. Mark and Luke, the women went to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ dead body, which they hadn’t had time to do on Friday, because the Sabbath rest was about to begin at dusk.  They hardly expected to find the tomb open and empty.  Their 1st thought was that someone had removed Jesus’ corpse.  Neither the women nor the apostles had a thought that Jesus had been raised.  As we’ll hear next Sunday, even after seeing Jesus alive and speaking with him, the apostles couldn’t convince Thomas, doubting Thomas, that yes, he had come to life again in a new, wonderful way, very much different from 3 people whom Jesus had revived from death during his earthly ministry—the daughter of Jairus, the son of a widow at Naim, and Lazarus.

St. John and St. Peter at Christ's Tomb.
Painting by Giovanni Francesco Romanelli (Italy, Viterbo, circa 1640)

The disciple whom Jesus loved best, usually thought to be St. John, witnessed what the gospel narrates.  He was next to Jesus at the Last Supper, he was with our Blessed Mother on Calvary, and later he’ll meet risen Jesus on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.  Now he comes to the empty tomb.  Altho he arrives ahead of Peter—evidently he’s a faster runner or has more stamina—he defers to Peter by waiting for him and letting him enter 1st.  Peter is the leader of the apostles.  Similarly, today we defer to Peter’s successor, the Pope, and respect his authority and leadership of Christ’s Church.

Both Peter and the beloved disciple see the burial cloths lying separately in the tomb, on the shelf where the disciples had laid Jesus’ body 2 nites earlier.  The burial shroud and the face covering have both been carefully folded or rolled up—a 1st clue that grave robbers hadn’t removed the body.  In fact, both cloths were valuable linen, so durable that they’ve lasted 20 centuries, preserved as precious relics of our Savior—the shroud in the cathedral of Turin, Italy, and the face cloth in the cathedral of Oviedo, Spain.  You wouldn’t leave them behind, much less carefully roll them up.

Both Peter and the beloved disciple see the empty tomb and the burial cloths.  But for the moment only the beloved “sees and believes.”  Neither Peter nor Mary Magdalene nor the other disciples have yet understood the prophecies of the Jewish Scriptures, nor Jesus own predictions of his passion, death, and resurrection.  “They didn’t yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead” (20:9).

And he was dead.  Roman soldiers were expert executioners, and in Jesus’ case—as John’s gospel assures us—they made doubly sure he was dead on the cross by jabbing a lance so deeply thru his ribs that his heart was pierced and pericardial fluid poured out with blood.

He’d died.  Now he lives.  The beloved disciple probably is just beginning to grasp what that means—not only for Jesus but also for us who believe that the tomb was empty because Jesus had burst out of it—figuratively speaking, had blasted the big stone off the doorway (20:1).

What does the life of Jesus—that he’s alive now, that he’s with us now—mean?  Another way of asking is, Why are we celebrating Easter?  What’s its significance?  It’s not simply a historical commemoration like remembering July 4, 1776.  Jesus alive connects us to God his Father.  Jesus alive is our way to his Father.  Jesus alive is the truth that frees us from the lies, deceptions, and tricks of the Devil, that frees us from our sins.  He “descended into hell,” i.e., into the underworld, the place of the dead, and he rose out of that place.  Jesus alive is the source of our own life—life in our souls now, and on the Last Day, life in our flesh and bones too, just like him.  On the Last Day, the dirt of our graves and the waters of the sea will open up, burst asunder like the stone off the door of the tomb, and our graves too will be empty.  “When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory” (Col 3:4).