Corpus Christi Blog

Easter Sunday - Seek and Encounter

04-05-2015HomiliesFr. Chad King

Happy Easter everyone!  Each of us is meant to really know the joy and glorious occasion in which we gather.  In order to fully appreciate it, join me as we place ourselves with the disciples.

The Apostles watched as Jesus Christ, the person they believed was the Messiah, the Son of God, suffered and died.  Without knowing how God could die, their faith was shaken.  The disciples were confused, grieving, and depressed.  Without hope and unsure about the future, all they knew is that the person they thought was their Savior had died, they laid him in the tomb, not knowing what would happen next.   How would you have reacted?  Would you be feeling the same despair?  Haven’t we all felt lost and confused, unsure, perhaps doubting, if or how things that are happening in our life will ever work out for the good.

Let’s place ourselves back in Jerusalem with the first disciples.  Mary Magdalene found that the tomb is empty and ran to tell Peter and John.  Would our first thoughts be that Jesus’s body was moved or stolen, or would we believe that he had been raised from the dead just as he said he would?  Regardless of what they thought, seeing with their own eyes the burial cloths that once wrapped the body of Jesus would leave a vivid and real impression in the minds and hearts of the disciples.  The last verses of our Gospel tells us that the disciples, Peter and John, looked into the empty tomb saw the burial cloths, and they, “saw and believed”, but still, the Gospel says “they did not yet understand the Scripture that he (Jesus) had to rise from the dead”.  They did not understand Jesus’ words telling them “where he was going, they could not yet come, but that he will come back, and will lead them to the place he has prepared for them”.  So for these two disciples belief in what happened to Jesus began when they saw the wrappings, even though they did not yet fully understand what Jesus’ Resurrection meant for them and for all people thereafter. 

Aren’t you and I so often like these early disciples?  Our faith, and the understanding of spiritual realities, are usually gradual for us as well.  We might say we believe in something, but the full understanding of its meaning has yet to sink in.  For many people faith in the Resurrection of Jesus is an abstract belief, something they say with their head, but not known in their heart.  Jesus’ Resurrection might be a belief of an event that occurred at one point in history, but the meaning of it still hasn’t taken root in our lives today.  We say Christ died and rose from the dead for the forgiveness of sins, but in some ways we haven’t really let the saving actions of Christ root out sin in our lives.  But isn’t it comforting to know that even the early disciples who walked with Jesus didn’t fully get it right away either?  As Catholics through the Sacraments of Confession and Eucharist we are set free to live the life God has planned for us, we are set free to receive Heaven. 

Imagine what Heaven will be like, no more tears, no more suffering, no more sickness or pain, and no more death.  Wouldn’t that be nice?  So as our 2nd reading says, if then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above.  We don’t have to live anymore striving for the temporary earthly goods to cope through our struggles, we are able to receive the eternal heavenly joy, the eternal life God gives us.  And this reality of heaven is not just what can be ours fully in the future, but we can start to live it now on earth if we seek him with all our hearts.  My brothers and sisters , to know and feel God’s presence and helping hand through all we deal with in our daily lives is amazing.  (Pause) To stand in the middle of the chaos and stress of our lives and have peace, the peace that only God can give, then we can persevere.  (Pause) To have such indescribable joy through all our sadness and struggles is so worthwhile.  (Pause) St. Paul in our 2nd reading says, to have our lives hidden in Christ. To have our lives hidden in Christ means to be united to Christ in our daily struggles and daily stresses through our daily prayer, and to have the hope, the grace to persevere through it, and to go through it even joyfully.  This is what all the saints have witnessed to us, this is the life the apostles have shown us, this is what it means to live the promise of Easter and the power of the Resurrection.  So as St. Paul says, seek what is above, not what is of earth. 

The early disciples are an example for us, they sought the Lord.  Mary Magdalene went to the tomb seeking the Lord and saw the stone was rolled away.  Peter and John, without hesitancy, ran to discover for themselves the truth of what happened to Jesus.  The disciples sought the Lord, and as we will hear in the upcoming weeks of the Easter season, through their seeking- they found the truth for themselves.  The disciples had genuine and faith assuring encounters with Jesus.  Are we seeking the Lord with all our hearts?  If we seek him, then we too can encounter him in a new way every Sunday and grow in faith, just as the disciples did.  Will you take time in prayer every day to seek the things that are above?  Will you pray so that your life is hidden in Christ, so that you will witness to others the life we are all meant to live?  Will you take time this Easter to grow in becoming more a people of the Resurrection?

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