THE RESURRECTION, A MYSTERY TO BE BELIEVED.

April 12 2020: Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord - A



A Senegalese proverb says, “He who waits for the moon waits for darkness.” Another Latin proverb adds, “After darkness comes light.”
Before all and above all, the resurrection of Christ is a mystery not to be questioned, but simply, to be believed as St. John the beloved disciple did, “he saw and believed.”
Some people’s life is made of so many obscurities, so much dark, and sad happenings. All that they seem to hear and see around is bad news, thus, they end up not believing anymore in light and a better tomorrow. Many have lost hope in life and the future. Amid this frenzy of darkness, sounds a piece of beautiful advice, “do not forget in the darkness what you have learned in the light.” As to say, there is always a great hope. There will always be a better tomorrow. Light will always come forth from darkness and life from the grave.
We can appose these optimistic words to the present situation in which the world is immersed and say, our world will rise again. Corona won’t keep it forever into the grave of sorrows and death. Christ is risen, the world will rise with him! Alleluia!
We are celebrating today the mystery of all mysteries, the center of our faith; the Resurrection of Christ. The Catechism of the Catholic Church summarizes beautifully what we are living today in these words: “The Paschal mystery has two aspects: by his death, Christ liberates us from sin; by his Resurrection, he opens for us the way to a new life. This new life is above all justification that reinstates us in God's grace, "so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life." Justification consists in both victory over the death caused by sin and a new participation in grace. It brings about filial adoption so that men become Christ's brethren, as Jesus himself called his disciples after his Resurrection: "Go and tell my brethren." We are brethren not by nature, but by the gift of grace, because that adoptive filiation gains us a real share in the life of the only Son, which was fully revealed in his Resurrection” (CCC.654). Here is said our faith. That is what we believe and that is what gives reason and meaning to our being. We live because Christ for us died and is risen.
The mystery of the resurrection, for some people, could seem like a dream or a mere story. Thereof, the readings, today, come to give evidence that we are not in a utopia. In the first reading, we have an account of the event by the apostles. Peter, the head of the group of the Twelves speaks of what has happened, and how the one who was crucified revealed himself to them, three days after his death. Peter uses a beautiful expression to prove that the Risen Lord was not a ghost: “This man God raised on the third day and granted that he be visible, not to all the people, but to us, the witnesses chosen by God in advance, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.”
People who have the ghost mindset and those addicted to horror and fiction movies know that ghosts are ethereal, incorporeal. Therefore, they need no food nor drink. The Risen Lord, however, ate and drunk with his disciples after he rose from the dead. And he commissioned them to witness of this mystery.
The Gospel shares another encounter or evidence of the resurrection, that of Mary Magdala and the empty tomb. Here the emptiness stands as one of the greatest evidences that death and the tomb were unable to hold captive the Lord. He is not in the tomb, not because his body had been taken away, but simply because he has overcome the prince of death. Great joy for us, sing the psalmist. “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.” Christ is risen!
Then, what could be the implications of the Lord’s resurrection in our lives today? Here come the exhortations of St. Paul in the second reading. With Christ, we have been raised from death. Our focus, consequently, should not be on this earth and its realities, but on heaven: “seek what is above.” For, with Jesus, we have died unto sin. With him, now, we are alive, restored into purity. We, therefore, should break all links with sin, disconnect from all kinds of evilness. The Light of the Lord’s resurrection shed its rays on all the darkness of our lives to expel from us all those dark sides. It is now up to each of us to evaluate his own life and see where he will like the light of Christ to impact the more. This Easter is the time for you and me to “Clear out the old yeast” from our heart and embrace the newness Jesus brings through his resurrection. We are all urged to live in sincerity and truth.
One thing is sure, Christ, today, has taken away from us our sorrows. Life is an offer of God to us. Happy Easter! Happy New Life! Let's not go back to our darkness. “Let us no longer away from the Spirit that regenerates: The Lord is risen! New blood flows through the veins of the entire body. The night of time turns into light: The man was dead, he is alive.”



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