CHRIST IS RISEN! HE HAS RISEN INDEED!
Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, but she discovered that the stone was removed from the tomb. She expected to find a dead body, but what she instead found was the hope of life everlasting. The very fact that through the burial cloths and the cloth that covered His head being cast to the side signaled the great reality that the Lord had risen from the dead. As the apostles heard of this news they came to the tomb and there they “saw and believed.”
The past year has been very difficult for many. This time last year we were not having the public celebration of Masses. For some of you this Easter Mass may be your first Mass back in over a year, we welcome each of you back to our parish! With all of this isolation and other unknowns we have maybe despaired what the future will hold for us. Nevertheless, we continue to gather here on this day and realize with the confidence of faith that the stone was removed from the tomb.
Easter is about allowing the Lord to remove the stones which we have put up in our life. The ways in which we have turned away from Him through sin. The ways in which we have become too busy for the life giving reality of the Gospel. The ways in which Christ and the hope that He brings into our life has been doubted.
Christ does not leave us in a perpetual period of darkness for the light of the Resurrection always springs forth. We must allow the Lord to remove the stones which are present within our life. We must come to develop and foster true faith in Him and His saving Gospel. We must maintain the virtue of hope because no matter the struggle or difficulty we are a beloved child of God. There is always the hope of conversion and the of the Lord’s mercy if we so desire to receive it.
What is the stone that remains present in your life that causes you to be unable to allow the Lord into your life? What needs to be taken away in order that you may come to more perfectly rejoice with Him on this Easter Day? Why are you so afraid to let go and to trust in the Lord? We do not have to remain sealed in the tomb, but through Christ our Lord we are able to be liberated from all that holds us a slave if we so desire.
Each and every time that we gather for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass on a Sunday we participate in the reality of the Lord’s Resurrection. No matter the difficulties that we encounter in the course of the week we should always be consoled by this reality. Let us flock towards the Lord and the hope of His Resurrection and make Christ and the Mass a priority within our life for from this reality the stone always comes to be removed.
May each of you have a blessed Easter and allow the Lord to remove the stone which is present within your life.
