Easter Sunday The Resurrection of the Lord
It was January 11, 2019. I had been back home only for two days. That was the day I lost my beloved father. Dad was buried in the local parish cemetery. In Kerala, one of the 29 States in India, common Catholic cemeteries are rare. This is because from ancient times, parishes have maintained their own private but smaller cemeteries for their parishioners. This has huge implications for parishioners. They cannot own permanent individual graves for their loved ones. After three years, the remains of their loved ones are reverently and prayerfully removed and put in a common well along with other people’s remains. Someone else is then buried in the same grave. My family always knew that we would have my father’s grave only for three years. But then, the pandemic ravaged the world. More people died than they would otherwise die normal times. We barely had my father’s grave for two years. On my last visit home, I went to visit my dad’s grave. It was no longer there. Someone else had already been buried in the same grave.
Here are three points I would like offer for an Easter reflection.
No Grave is a Permanent Grave
Initially, the realization that I would not have my father’s grave after three years made me very uncomfortable. But it was merely a fleeting thought. Because we are baptized and because we have already died with Christ, we Catholics are not uncomfortable or afraid of death. We live each day knowing that we have already embraced death. Let me reflect on this further.
For a moment, let me draw your attention to this Easter/Paschal candle. This paschal candle is lit from a new fire at the Easter vigil. This Paschal candle is always present on two occasions in a Catholic’s life – baptism and funeral. At baptism, the minister of the Sacrament, lights the baptismal candle from the Paschal candle and says to the infant, “Receive the light of Christ!” And then the minister turns to the parents and godparents saying, “Parents and godparents, this light is entrusted to you to be kept burning brightly. This child of yours has been enlightened by Christ. He/she must always walk as a child of the light. May he/she keep the flame of faith alive in his/her heart. When the Lord comes may he/she go out to meet him with all the angels and saints in the heavenly kingdom. Amen.”
Note that at the very initiation into faith we talk about the final coming of Christ. And then at the funeral of that baptized person, the funeral casket is placed under the light of this very Paschal candle. This is because at baptism that baptized person has already died with Christ. And now that that baptized person has died, they can rise to life with Him. The implication is clear and simple - not only is no grave a permanent grave, but no death is a permanent death!
Living to Die, Dying to Live
There is yet another reason that we Catholics are comfortable with death and dying. If you have been beside a loved one as they approached the end of life; and if you have been present when the priest was administering the Sacraments for the last time, you saw the priest pour a little water on the forehead of the dying person saying, “In baptism you died with Christ and rose to him with new life. May you now share in his eternal glory!” And then the blesses the whole body and prepares it for burial.
It is not unintentional that at the last moments of our life on earth we are reminded of our baptism. We do this because the effect of baptism comes to fruition at the moment of our death. It is when we die that we live. In reality, we live to die so that when we die we will live. Once again, we remind ourselves that no grave a permanent grave, and no death is a permanent death!
A Resurrection People!
Easter is the reason for our familiarity with life, death, and eternal life. The Easter Sunday Gospel reading recounts the story of the women who had buried Jesus in an empty, unused tomb. When they returned after the Sabbath, the tomb was empty (Lk 24:1-12). The tomb in which Jesus was buried was no more a gravesite. It was the site of the ultimate victory of God’s redeeming love; the site of the victory of life over death; the site of the victory of light over darkness; the site of the victory of immortality over immortality. So what if I do not have a permanent grave for my dad? For that matter, so what if you do not have a permanent grave for your loved ones? Easter is not celebration of graves, tombs, death, and mortality! Rather, it is celebration of the reality that no grave is a permanent grave; that every tomb will be empty; that death is no more; that life is forever!
However, before we reach the end of our lives, we live an entire life witnessing to the reality that our life on earth is a “dying to live and living to die”. The life we live now is already a life dead to sin but alive to power of the risen Lord. We already live like people who have no permanent graves! May this be true day after day until we are with the risen Christ. This is the meaning of being a “Resurrection people,” or as they say, an “Alleluia people!”
Today, in this Eucharist we celebrate the One who by His death and resurrection made every grave a temporary one; the One in whom we die to live and live… not do die but to live forever! Amen.
- Fr. Satish Joseph