Easter Sunday 2023

Pablo Gadenz, a Catholic biblical scholar, tells a story from a Sunday morning trip to his favorite donut shop. He says he stood in line behind an eight or nine-year-old girl and her father one day. The little girl spun about on her tiptoes and suddenly asked, “Dad is Jesus alive? I mean…is it true he rose from the dead?" Gadenz says his ears perked up and he wondered how the father would respond. He realized that the father had great credibility with his daughter, and what a great moment for evangelization presented itself to the girl’s father. The father responded, “Well honey, that is what they say, but I don’t know because there is no evidence to support it.” Gadenz said he wanted to scream, 'No! There is plenty of evidence to support the belief Jesus is alive and that He rose from the dead!’

We can’t fault the father’s response. How is it possible that Jesus rose from the dead? That first Easter, even His Apostles and disciples found Resurrection hard to imagine and couldn’t believe what was going on. We know the end of the story, but we need to appreciate what it was like for the disciples to be in the story.

The disciples were in the aftermath of the tragedy of Good Friday. The world as they had known it ended abruptly. They had come to Jerusalem only the week before, escorting Jesus, their Lord, and teacher. With Jesus, they had entered the holy city triumphantly, believing He was the Messiah. The Apostles and disciples followed Jesus faithfully for the past few years and were amazed by Him. They were eyewitnesses to His miracles and healings and recognized He was extraordinary. They felt Jesus was the Savior who had come directly from God.

Then over the course of Holy week, their world came apart. Another of their group betrayed Jesus, and then Jesus was arrested, tried by the Sanhedrin- their religious leaders- and sent to the Roman governor to be condemned to death by crucifixion. Jesus was dead, and it seemed so were their dreams of power and prestige. They couldn’t believe it.

We do have a great deal of evidence of Jesus’ Resurrection. It comes from the four gospels. Four accounts of Jesus’ life might not sound like much in our information age, but many First and Second Century Roman Emperors and other political figures don’t have even one text about them, and Jesus has four. There are so few historical accounts of prominent people because paper was scarce and expensive. It was most often vellum made from the skin of sheep. That is where we get the nickname sheepskin for a college degree. So, for disciples to go to the expense and effort of writing four accounts of His life and Resurrection must mean Jesus significantly impacted people.

Each of the gospels tells a story of the life of Jesus that varies slightly. But they all say disciples of Jesus came to His tomb as early as possible on the Sunday morning after He died to perform the Jewish mourning customs. They didn’t come because they expected to find evidence of Jesus’ Resurrection. They all deeply loved Jesus, and their hearts and minds were in darkness and grief-stricken. When they got to the tomb, Mary Magdalene and her companions were astonished to find the grave empty, so they hurried back to tell the other disciples.

Peter and John ran to the tomb and found it empty of a body with only Jesus’ burial clothes lying in the grave. It seems as if the arrangement of the clothes tells a story but an unbelievable one. The Beloved disciple enters the tomb, recalls how Jesus predicted His Resurrection and comes to believe Jesus is alive. John believes because he had a relationship with Jesus built up over time. John had witnessed Jesus’ ministry, witnessed miracles, and healings.

The disciples came to believe because their experience with Jesus opened them to the gift of faith. Faith is a gift; we can do nothing to give ourselves or anyone else faith, and we can’t will ourselves to have faith on our own.

Faith is a free gift from God, and nothing we can do can earn it. Faith comes to each of us differently. When we read any post-Resurrection narratives, we see many different ways disciples came to their post-Resurrection faith. Over the next few weeks, the gospels at Mass will walk with us as we hear how Thomas, the disciples on the road to Emmaus, and other followers of Jesus came to faith. In our first reading today, we hear the faith journey of the Gentile Cornelius and his household. There seems to be a different path to faith for every disciple.

Receiving the gift of faith isn’t a passive exercise. It doesn’t fall from Heaven on some and not on others. Everyone can have a life of faith, but we must position ourselves to get it. We need to be open to the possibility of faith and situate our souls to receive it. We can’t just expect faith to happen for us. It requires our cooperation and active involvement.

In the confusion of the Resurrection, the disciples couldn’t understand what was happening around them. They were frightened and confused, but they did something about their confusion. They put themselves in a position to discover what Jesus was doing. They disposed themselves to be open to Jesus directing and guiding them.

Their experience of faith gave them hope. Hope isn’t a wild fantasy but comes about from evidence. Hope comes when we have confidence that what we expect will happen for us. Faith tells us because we are part of the Body of Christ through our baptism, we can hope for a share in Jesus’ Resurrection. We can expect to share eternal life.

Faith and hope only flourish if we cultivate and nourish them. Our faith grows through dedication to prayer. If we take time for daily prayer and reflection on the scriptures- the Word of God- our faith and hope will grow. The Sacraments of the Church are also the source of God’s grace to help our faith. The Eucharist- Jesus’ real presence; His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity- is the sum and summit of our faith and helps our openness to growth in faith. Bringing others, like the little girl in the donut shop, to faith makes our faith flourish too.

The days following the first Easter were days when the faith of the Apostles and disciples of Jesus grew by leaps and bounds. As we will read in the scriptures here at Mass these next few weeks, listen to learn how the followers of Jesus came to faith and hope. Follow their example and find the joy of a relationship with Jesus.

Hopefully, during this past Lent, you tried to grow as a person of faith. You practiced prayer. Don’t stop now. Continue to pray for at least a few minutes every day. Try to expand your time in conversation with God; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. If you tried to pray in Lent and it fell by the wayside, pick yourself up and start again this Eastertide. If prayer hasn’t been part of your day, start today. Find a quiet spot during a lull in your day and give as little as ten minutes daily to a conversation with God. Read some of the Bible. Read the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 26, or Chapters 20 and 21 of John’s Gospel to learn about the disciples’ experience of Jesus’ Resurrection. The Acts of the Apostles is an excellent place to start reading the Bible, too, because it tells us how the early Church grew with more and more people who hadn’t even met Jesus but were able to establish a relationship with Him and come to believe in the Resurrection. Be sure to attend Mass every weekend to hear more stories of faith and to receive the Eucharist so, little by little, you can discover the great wealth of evidence for Jesus’ Resurrection and grow in faith.