Mass readings for Easter Sunday, Feast of the Resurrection of the Lord:
Acts 10. 34a, 37-43 Psalm 118 Colossians 3.1-4 John 20.1-18
This morning we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus; his return from the dead – and I know for many in the world it seems like a fairy story, a story for children, a story for the naïve, a story for those who live in fear of death and by this story live in a blissful denial of its power over us, its extinguishing force.
Fair enough. I believe there are not more than a few Catholics who hold that opinion, but retain their faith identity less as something integral to themselves, and more as a moral code of conduct; a guide to right and wrong that can be consulted as needed. But resurrection?
It’s that unacknowledged scepticism, coupled with the long and troubled history of the Church that in every generation has scandal, malfeasance, that come to time when so many are just not sure about all of this. I mean, this place, the priesthood, the sacraments, the Bible and its moral code that so many now flout, dismiss as archaic.
But what do we do if we ditch it? What happens when Resurrection becomes unbelievable? What happens when life is just this, with its pleasures and pains, its joys and its tragedies; and the ultimate and inescapable tragedy of death.
While I have something of an answer to offer, many who should hear it aren’t here to listen. They’re keeping busy being busy, busy being distracted by the busyness of life (to quote Ecclesiastes) – this morning, watching highlights from the Masters Tournament.
Now, let’s not have anyone walk away today with the message that Father doesn’t approve of golf, or watching golf. I think there are far worse things in the world than for you go out on an afternoon with friends and play nine or 18 holes; to have people over to watch the Masters and admire a game well played. Indeed, these are among the better uses of our time. That’s good stuff; but we need to tap into where that good comes from; what the Scottish track star Eric Liddell (celebrated in the famous film, Chariots of Fire) spoke of when reflecting on his own passion for running – God made me fast, and when I run, I feel his pleasure; not his own personal satisfaction, but the realization of virtue applied to perfecting the talent God gives us bringing us to the fullness of who we are, telling each of us in such moments that there is purpose to this life, meaning, and in that meaning our salvation. And the things that discourage, that in their own way kill a little bit of us, visit death in a part of our lives; these are overcome. It’s the meaningless things that vanish and are forgotten; a meaningful life is truly everlasting.
So, who wins the famous green jacket this year isn’t really meaningful, unless you can see it in a striving after something greater, and then be inspired to pursue the same.
Now, I don’t know how many are aware of this, the mainstream media is always shy about mentioning such things, but last year’s Master’s winner, Scottie Scheffler is a man of faith, and he thanked Jesus Christ for the successes he’s enjoyed as a young pro golfer. And in his testimony really made it clear that he didn’t play to win the championship, he played so as to play well – to play to the best of his ability and so, please God.
About ten years ago the then two-time Master’s champ Bubba Watson also gave praise and thanks to Jesus Christ after donning the green blazer again. Both men said they couldn’t have won it without Jesus.
Some may put this all down to evangelical fervor, and all that “born again” stuff that makes some of us uncomfortable.
I think to a great degree this is a matter of semantics. For the evangelical who rightly says that unless we are born again we cannot enter the kingdom of God, I put it to you that living the Resurrection as Catholics and Christians is the same spiritual state. Baptism, if you pay attention during the raucous services with the babies tells us specifically that what we do at the font isn’t just ritually washing, it is a dying, dying to this world, and being reborn in Christ.
So, I am born again, by the graces I receive in baptism, but most importantly by accepting them into my life. Insofar as I refuse them, I die a little, or even quite a lot. But the one grace I have never refused, and that is the grace of faith in the Resurrection that tells me that even as I die by my sins, I can be raised again to new life in Jesus Christ by recommitting myself to him, by renewing the covenant he has made with us through his great sacrifice on the cross. By reconciliation, by communion through the Eucharist, by living my faith in community and as an individual disciple, I know the power of the Resurrection that has brought me back time and time again from my failings, my faults, my sins, but also those calamities that come unbidden, for which I can see no personal fault, but nonetheless land on me and my family with awful force.
I have lived through an adolescence that was marked by depression, a young adulthood of unemployment and uncertainty in career; in married life, with my wife Biserka, we have taken the blows of loss of loved ones, financial stresses, loss of jobs, end of careers, the grave illness of our only child, the threat of homelessness, ostracism by community, alienation from family, time and time again facing an uncertain future with dread creeping within, with tears, and cries of anger and of anguish. We’ve stood in the garden as Mary Magdalene did, before the empty tomb and asked, “where are you?” And yet, we rise again because those evils ultimately have no power over us because we live in Christ and know where we are going – we know that by living our lives of Christian virtue, applying it to our own modest talents, those things God has gifted us, we grow spiritually as the pleasure of God flows through us, as the Holy Spirit inspires with perfect love, absolute truth, pure justice.
The world and those who are of the world may despise us for our faithfulness to higher things and putting the lesser things of this world in their proper place, we have God’s love and assurance that to abide in faith, hope and love is to live eternally. We are spiritually resurrected in this life time and time again, and through faith by grace we will at last rise one final time in the eternal kingdom of God and be with Christ forever.
Amen.