The Resurrection of the Lord
For those of us who continue to be intrigued about how the universe came about, there was fabulous news last week. Physicists employing the $900 million Planck space telescope mapped background radiation from the early universe. They were able to study sound echoes and fossilized light going back billions of years. Physicists now say that the universe is 13.8 billion years old – 80 million years older than we had originally thought it to be. The new discovery also bolstered the belief that the universe was smaller than an atom in the beginning when, in a split second, it exploded (Big Bang Theory), cooled and expanded faster than the speed of light. Here, however is the most intriguing thing. 68.3% of the universe is dark energy – dark, not meaning bad but that we do not understand what it is. It is a mysterious energy that is spread smoothly throughout the universe. Physicists have not identified what this energy is. Imagine the possibilities! The material world is only 5% of the universe. The universe almost offers us unlimited possibilities.
I want to talk about Easter as the triumph of possibilities… endless possibilities, eternal possibilities. I believe that the resurrection of Jesus is like the Big Bang. With the opening of the tomb at Jesus’ resurrection, unimaginable energy and power has been unleashed in the universe. Unlike dark energy, we know the power of the resurrection. Easter also offers us endless possibilities… eternal possibilities.
- The possibility of Good over Evil. In recent times we have witnessed much evil and sadness in the world and in our country. In my country, a twenty-year old college student was gang-raped in a moving bus, thrown out and left to die. Just three months back in this country an unstable man entered a school and mowed down twenty innocent children and six adults. Closer to us, in Steubenville, high-school teenagers got intoxicated and then raped another inebriated sixteen year old, photographed it and webcasted it on social media. Is this the same world that has been redeemed by Christ?
Christ himself was the victim of Evil. When he was laid in the tomb and the stone was laid against the entrance of the tomb, it seemed that Evil had had the last word. But even before his death, Jesus did not let Evil conquer him. The goodness inside him was indomitable. He healed the soldier who had come to arrest him, he forgave his accusers and murderers from the cross, he welcomed the repentant sinner into paradise and even in excruciating pain entrusted his spirit to his Father. Had Christ returned evil with evil, Evil would have had the last word. But Christ lets goodness and godliness reign. Not even a sealed tomb could contain the goodness of Christ.
With the resurrection of Christ endless goodness has been unleashed into the world an in each one of us. Yes, evil is all around us. But Christ gives us the endless possibility of goodness to overcome evil.
- Love Offers Endless Possibilities. This coming Tuesday, I have a very difficult funeral. The family will be burying a twenty-six-year-old married man. Ian Beall worked for the US Navy. The circumstances of his death is still unclear but the fact is that a father has lost his son, a wife her husband and two sister their only brothers. I met with the family on Thursday. At one point the father said to me, “Father, I loved my son.” I let him cry as I was lost for words. The only thing I can blurt out was, “John they can kill your son but it cannot kill your love for him and his love for you.” And I think that this is true.
People could kill Jesus but not his love. One look at the cross and we know the possibilities that love offers. He showed us the endless possibilities of love. What would happen if Christians all over the world grasped on to the possibilities that Christ’s love offers. What if we laid our guns down? What if we separated the walls we have built between genders, races, classes and religions? Imagine what could happen if we did not just bury Christ’s love in some corner of our heart but rather let it explode in our hearts and through us in the world? Oh! Easter offers the endless possibilities of love.
- The human heart… the realm of possibilities. Pope Francis has set the Catholic Church and the world on a radically new path this Holy Week and Easter. His latest action of washing the feet of twelve minor detainees on Holy Thursday (two of whom were women and not necessarily Catholic), has delighted some people and agonized others. I think Pope Francis is redefining how Christ, Christianity and Catholicism are imagined and lived. Many people think of Catholicism as a sum of all its rituals, the sacraments, the clergy, the traditions, the Cathedrals, the devotions and the pomp and regalia. I think Pope Francis is not necessarily rejecting these but redefining them according to the gospel message of simplicity, humility and love. When he went to prison and washed the feet of the inmates, the question I asked myself is, “Why did I not think of that?” He is making me re-think the gospel message. He is making me re-imagine Christianity. He is making me re-live the message of Christ.
Just as a mysterious energy spreads smoothly throughout the universe the energy of Christ’s resurrection is also sweeping the universe. The energy of Christ’s goodness and love is seeping the universe. But Christ’s energy does not exist is a vacuum. Where can we find this energy? We find this energy in every human heart. The baptized heart even more particularly belongs to Christ. The Christian heart is the location of Christ’s energy and grace. Pope Francis is showing us the way in this. Friends, we are a resurrection people. The resurrection of Christ makes our heart a realm of possibilities. Nothing stops us from letting loose the energy of the resurrection in the world today. Yes, there is evil; Yes, suffering exists; Yes, we all must die. But our heart must be such that neither evil, not suffering, nor death can smother the power of the resurrection. If the power of the resurrection must be felt in the world, your heart and mine must be on fire with Christ.
May our Easter worship lead us to the power of the Resurrection. Amen.
- Fr. Satish Joseph