DAILY HOMILIES #rise

This is the night that, even now, throughout the world, sets Christian believers apart from worldly vices and the gloom of sin, leading them to grace and joining them with his holy ones. This is the night Christ broke the prison bars of death and rose victorious from the underworld…

If we all chose to return to our old ways after today, if nothing changes about our lives, if we do not start seeking things above rather than engage in the blind pursuit of money, power and pleasure, then all our Lenten observances would have been in vain. If we do not rise from a life of sin, then it would seem that Christ has not risen from the dead and our proclamation would be empty words.

Like these women who were not expecting to see Jesus alive, many of us are not expecting to rise with Jesus from a life of sin. Many of us here are not expecting we would shine like this Pascal Candle. That notwithstanding, we must go to the tomb in faith not to anoint the dead body of Christ but to become witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus.

At the conclusion of the Bible Study with the apostles, Jesus said: “… that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.” (Luke 24:46-48). Peter says the same thing in our first reading: “… To this, we are witnesses.” (Acts 3:15)