HOMILIES PREACHED BY FATHER ALTIER ON EASTER SUNDAY FROM 2001-2005.

"Alleluia" - that beautiful word, which we have not heard for six weeks, once again pours forth from our mouths. "Alleluia." It comes from two Hebrew words that mean "Praise Yahweh." In English, it means "Praise God." While we continue to speak the English, the Hebrew we have not spoken. Now, it comes forth again; and we praise God with our whole heart because we celebrate the most important event in human history today. Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.

Today, we will renew the baptismal vows that were made so many years ago (for most of us). They were made the day we became Christians; the day we professed our faith in the Holy Trinity; the day we rejected Satan and all his empty works and promises; the day we said "Yes" to Jesus Christ.

Easter Sunday April 15, 2001 Reading I (Acts 10:34a, 37-43),Reading II (Colossians 3:1-4) Gospel (St. John 20:1-9)

When we think about our Christian faith, we need to ask ourselves, "What do we really believe?" Most of us were baptized as little babies, and we were raised as Christian people. Sometimes, we never stop to think about what we believe. We go through the motions week after week, but sometimes it never really sinks into the depths of our hearts. Today is the day that makes us truly Christian. Today, we will renew the baptismal vows that were made so many years ago (for most of us). They were made the day we became Christians; the day we professed our faith in the Holy Trinity; the day we rejected Satan and all his empty works and promises; the day we said "Yes" to Jesus Christ.

But it is more than simply saying, "Yes, I believe." For Christian people, on the day we were baptized, we were baptized into the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. We have been made sharers in His Death and Resurrection. We are members of Jesus Christ; that is what Saint Paul is talking about in the second reading today.

We see what happened today, 2000 years ago, and we rejoice wholeheartedly that our Lord rose from the dead.

We realize that this is not an event just for Him alone. As wonderful as it is, what difference would it make to the rest of us if all we could do was say that He rose from the dead? With modern medical technology, we can suggest that a number of people have risen from the dead. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, and a couple of other people as well. But the interesting thing is, if you think about Lazarus: Peter, who ate and drank with Lazarus after he was raised from the dead (we are told, in Scripture, they had a banquet for Lazarus and Jesus and his disciples were invited to it), didn’t run around the countryside proclaiming the forgiveness of sin in the name of Lazarus, who was risen from the dead. That is because Lazarus was not resurrected; he was resuscitated. Lazarus had to die again.

In Jesus Christ, death has died, death has been destroyed. There is no more dying for Christ.

And for us, who are baptized into Jesus Christ, we share already in His death and resurrection. Saint Paul tells us, "Set your sights on the things above, not on the things of earth. Because you have died with Christ. When Christ your life appears in glory, you also will appear with Him." That is our faith as Christian people: The resurrection from the dead. This is something that, on the natural level, is very difficult for us. It means that your body, the one sitting right there in the pew, is going to rise from the dead.

Your body will share physically in the death of Christ. It already shares mystically in that. You will share physically in that one day, as well. You will also share physically in His Resurrection. Your body, like the body of Jesus Christ, will rise from the dead. Not like the body of Lazarus, because Lazarus’s body had to die again. The body of Lazarus will rise on the last day, but he still awaits that. So, there is a difference between what happened with Jesus and what happened with Lazarus; it is not the same thing.

Only in Jesus Christ is there a resurrection. Only in Jesus Christ do we proclaim our faith. Only in Jesus Christ is there forgiveness of sin. Because of His death and resurrection, He is the One who will come again to judge the living and the dead. So, for all of us, we need to ask ourselves, "How much does this really mean to me? How much does my faith in Jesus Christ really mean? Is it the central element of my life? Am I truly seated at God’s right hand already, in Christ? Am I living that way? Do I really believe that?" In just a couple of moments, we will renew our baptismal vows. We need to ask ourselves, "Do I really reject Satan in my life? Am I truly living for God in Jesus Christ? Do I live the faith I profess? Have I rejected sin? Have I rejected death?"

You see, people in our society are terrified of death. We do everything we can to live longer. That is a mystery I have never understood. The goal of life is to get to Heaven; why anybody wants to stay here any longer, I do not understand at all. Set your sights on the things above, where Christ is already seated at God’s right hand and you are seated there with Him. Why do you want to hang out here any longer, if you can be with Him? Now, I am not suggesting that we should go out and have a mass suicide or anything ridiculous, but it is simply to say, that for Christian people, death is not something to be afraid of. Death has been destroyed in Jesus Christ. Death is a doorway now, that we have to go through if we want to enter into eternal glory. It is not something we fear; it is not something we should try to avoid; and, for Heaven’s sake, it is not a reason we should seek a way to prolong our life here on earth.

You see these unfortunate things now. With all this cloning, people are saying, "Now I can be immortal." You are. You are immortal already. Your soul will never die. Jesus looked at Martha (when Martha came out to meet Him) and she said, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would never have died. Now, I am sure God will give You whatever You ask of Him." Not only did Jesus tell her that her brother would rise, but He went on to say to her, "Whoever believes in Me, whoever is alive and believes in Me, will never die." Then He looked at Martha and said, "Do you believe this? Whoever is alive and believes in Me will never die." Your soul is immortal. Your soul, your entire person, is already in Jesus Christ. You have died with Christ already in Baptism and you have risen with Christ already in Baptism.

If you are in the state of grace, you have absolutely nothing to fear in death. Rather, it is something we should embrace joyfully, that we should look forward to; not because we want to die, but because we live, we have life in Christ. That is what our faith is all about. Do not look for ways to hang on here; look for the ways to get to Him. There is only one way: He is the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. Do we want life? Then we want Jesus Christ. Do we want the truth? Then we want Jesus Christ. If we want the only way that leads to life and to truth, then we want Jesus Christ. There is nothing in this world that will get us to Heaven. There is nothing in this world that will make us immortal. There is nothing in this world that will allow us to live forever. But Jesus Christ, who is already seated at God’s right hand, has made us immortal. He has promised us eternal life with Him and has given us everything we need to achieve and fulfill that promise. Do you believe this? That is what we are going to state in just a moment, when we renew our baptismal vows.

Today and everyday, as Christian people, we each sing "Alleluia." We praise God because we do not live in fear anymore. We are people of hope; we are people of praise. So, we need to look very seriously at ourselves after having come through the forty days of Lent, where we were trying to die to our passions, where we were trying to put the self and all the things of this world aside, so we could focus on life in Christ. Today, as Jesus rises from the dead and we celebrate the Resurrection, we really need to look at ourselves. Having put that other stuff aside so we can see more clearly, we need to ask ourselves, with brutal honesty in the depths of our hearts, "Am I filled with hope in the Resurrection?" Not merely, "Do I believe in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ?" You would not be here today if you did not. Are you filled with hope in your resurrection from the dead? Are you filled with faith that you are already seated at God’s right hand, and therefore, that you already take part in the divine worship of Heaven, which is exactly what happens right here on the altar?

If you are already seated at God’s right hand, then you have been re-created in Jesus Christ for the praise of God’s glory. That is why, today and everyday, we sing "Alleluia." It is because we already behold God. In Heaven, all they do is worship God and praise Him for eternity; and we, out of God’s love, have already been incorporated into that heavenly worship so we can praise Him. What we await now is the day when we will enter physically into that.

Spiritually now, and mystically, we worship Jesus Christ in the Eucharist; and we praise Him there where we can not yet see Him. But we await the day when we will truly behold Him face to face, and the day when our bodies will rise from the dead to be reunited with our souls and forever we will sing the beautiful hymn to the Lamb: "Alleluia! Praise God!"

Note: Father Altier does not prepare his homilies in advance, but relies solely upon the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

This text was transcribed from the audio recording with minimal editing.

March 31, 2002 Easter Sunday Reading I (Acts 10:34a, 37-43) Reading II (Colossians 3:1-4) Gospel(St. John 20:1-9)

Christ is raised from the dead; therefore, set your hearts on what pertains to the higher realms.

This is what Saint Paul advises in the second reading today. Because we have been raised with Christ, we are no longer just earthly beings; but rather, we share the life of Heaven already. Not in its fullness, obviously, but we are already there; we already share the divine life. We are already called citizens of Heaven. Saint Paul goes so far as to remind us that we are merely on pilgrimage in this life because we have our citizenship in Heaven. It is from there, he tells us, that we await the coming of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We know that He will come again.

But long before that, we must grapple with the reality that He is risen from the dead. We hear in the last line of the Gospel that the apostles did not understand yet what it meant to rise from the dead.

And I must say that, after 2,000 years of Christian people passing on the truth of the Resurrection of Jesus, I would be willing to bet that if we took a poll, most of us here do not understand what it means to rise from the dead because we have no experience of this. We have the teaching of the Church; we have the clear witness of the Scriptures, but because we do not see it happen to anybody in our own day, we do not understand it. If someone who had been dead were to stand before us in a resurrected form and explain to us what the difference was, perhaps we would understand it a little bit. For now, all we can do is accept it on faith and look forward with hope to the day when our bodies will rise from the dead.

What we can say about the Resurrection is that it is not resuscitation. Modern medicine is able to resuscitate people, sometimes even after they have been dead for nearly an hour. We are not talking about that. Those people will all have to die again, just like Lazarus. Even though he had been in the tomb for four days, Lazarus was not resurrected, he was resuscitated. And poor Lazarus, after coming back from the dead, had to live this life again – or a continuation of it – before he could die and his soul could go to be with God.

When we talk about Our Lord when He rose from the dead, what that means is that His soul was reunited with His body. But His body no longer had the earthly form that it had before; it was now in a glorified state.

Remember what happened at the Transfiguration when the body of Our Lord began to glow. That is a little inkling of what the Resurrection would be like. We must understand that it is really and truly the body of Jesus. That is made very clear for us, for instance, in the first reading when Saint Peter reminds us that Jesus appeared to them and He ate and drank with them. It is not like the appearance of one of the saints. For instance, if you were to have a vision of one of the saints in glory, what you have is merely a vision. The saints do not have their bodies yet in Heaven. And so it is like an angel appearing, except an angel does not have a body. God gives them something so that we can see, but the body is not really there. If you were to reach out and touch a vision of an angel or to touch a vision of one of the saints, your hand would be able to grasp nothing.

But if Jesus were to stand here before us and we were to reach out and touch Him, like Thomas, we would be able to put our fingers into the holes in His hands and His feet; we would be able to put our hand into the wound in His side because it is not merely a vision. The apostles, when they saw Jesus in the Upper Room, did not have a vision of Our Lord; Our Lord was there with them, physically present among them. It was His body and His soul. He had life, but not the way that we understand it in the natural sense. He had a life which could not be destroyed. In His humanity, He now shared fully in a life which was everlasting.

We know that our soul is immortal and it will never die. The soul of Jesus did not die either. When His body and soul separated on the Cross at the moment that He died, His soul went into the regions of the netherworld, to the abode of the dead. Saint Peter tells us that He went there to preach the Gospel to the saints of the Old Testament. Those who had already rejected God would not accept Jesus, even when He stood before them in the netherworld. But people like Abraham, Moses, and David, even Saint Joseph was there, and they heard the fullness of the Gospel preached and they believed. So on the day of the Resurrection, when the abode of the dead was ended, those souls who did not believe in the Lord were condemned into the eternal fires, as we now think of them. But those who believed could rise to life.

But even for them, they have not yet experienced the [general] resurrection. For those who are in Heaven, the resurrection has not yet occurred. Their soul continues to live, but they still await the day that their bodies will rise from the dead. If we were to go to the tomb of any saint, we would be able to exhume the body and find that it is still there. If we go to the tomb of Jesus, He is not there. The disciples witnessed that, and gave witness on behalf of that fact, when Peter and John ran to the tomb to verify what Saint Mary Magdalene had already understood - that the Lord was not there. Saint Mary Magdalene thought that perhaps the gardener had removed the body. She did not understand what the resurrection of the dead meant; and neither did the disciples, until Jesus actually appeared to them and ate and drank with them.

So too for us now, while we continue to live in this vale of tears, Saint Paul tells us that we are to set our sights on the higher things where Christ is already seated at God’s right hand and we are already seated there with Him. Because we are members of Jesus Christ, we share the life of Christ.

And we already share spiritually in the Resurrection because of our baptism. Remember what Saint Paul tells the Romans: that when we were baptized, we entered into the Death and Resurrection of Christ. The "old man" has died so that the "new man" could put on a new life. And we are to live that new life. While we have to live in this world, we are not to be of this world. We are not to be like the worldly people who surround us everyday; but rather, we are to live as exiles in a foreign land. We are to have our hearts set upon our homeland, the place where we want to go back to, the place where we want to be forever. This place is temporary, but we have a place in Heaven which is permanent. So do not live in this life as though this was a permanent place, but set your sights on Heaven. Set your heart on the place where you will be with Jesus for eternity, and live in this world in such a way that you are living for the next life.

If you consider yourself an exile, you are not going to surround yourself with loads of material things because the day that you have an opportunity to go back to your own homeland, what are you going to take with you? You live simply in a land of exile, awaiting the day that you will be able to pack up your belongings quickly and take them with you so that you could restart your own home. We want to do the same now. Do not live as though this was the end-all and be-all. Live in this world with your heart set on the next. Do not get weighed down with all the material things of this world, but rather, prepare for yourself the spiritual goods so that, on the day that the Lord calls, you can very quickly put your house together and you will be ready to go to your heavenly homeland where you will have an eternal place with God.

Then our soul will be with the Lord, as we await the day of the resurrection of our own body, the last day of the world when Saint Paul tells us that at the sound of the archangel’s trumpet the graves of the dead will be opened and the bodies will rise. For those whose souls have gone to hell, their bodies will go there to be with them forever, and they will suffer the torments in the fullness of their humanity, both body and soul. And for the souls of the just, their bodies will rise and they will be joined with their souls, and then they will share in the fullness of the glory of God in the fullness of their humanity, both body and soul, beholding God face to face, and being filled with His grace and His glory in the fullness of what it means to be human. Not merely just spiritually, but both body and soul.

That is what we need to prepare ourselves for even now, to begin to live that life of glory even here, because we have the Resurrected Jesus Christ with us in the Blessed Sacrament. You will receive Him in Holy Communion in just a moment, where you will once again renew the covenant which began at Baptism. And you, in just a moment, will have the opportunity to renew your baptismal vows where you will once again reiterate your belief in the resurrection from the dead.

So as we go forward now, commit yourself to live not for this world but for the next. Live in this world with your heart set on the higher realms where Christ is already seated at God’s right hand, and unite yourself with Him there. Commit yourself to a life of daily prayer so you can raise your heart and your mind to eternity. Live your life in this world with your heart set upon the next so that on the day God calls you home, you will be ready to go and that on the last day of the world, at the time the archangel sounds his trumpet, when your body – this one right here in the pew – rises from the dead, it will be able to be reunited with a glorified soul and behold God face to face in the eternity of His glory.

*This text was transcribed from the audio recording with minimal editing.

You Will Appear With Him in Glory

April 17, 2003 Easter Sunday Reading I (Acts 10:34a, 37-43) Reading II (Colossians 3:1-4) Gospel (St. John 20:1-9)

When Christ your life appears in glory, you will appear with Him in glory. These words of Saint Paul in the second reading today from his Letter to the Colossians tell us something very important about Our Lord and about ourselves. Saint Paul said also, “You are already seated with Him at God’s right hand.” And because of this, he tells us, we need to set our sights on the things of Heaven, not on the things of earth. Today, as we celebrate this great solemnity of Easter, we celebrate the single most important thing that has ever happened in human history. In the Church’s entire calendar year, today is the greatest feast of all. From a secular perspective, with a quasi-religious element to it, Christmas tends to be the one where the focus is placed; but from the Church’s perspective, the most important feast of the entire year is the one that we celebrate today.

Today death has been destroyed, death which has a bondage on each and every one of us. From the moment that we are conceived, each one of us is doomed one day to die; and for thousands of years of human history there was no hope. The Jews, as they worked their way through their history, began to recognize that the souls of the just somehow continued to live, but they did not yet have the concept of the resurrection. They did not understand any idea of being able to live with God. They believed in a nether world, in a place of the dead, and indeed at that time that was all there was. When a person died, whether they were good or bad, they went into this place of the dead. It is to there also that Jesus went in those three days that He was in the tomb. Saint Peter says it very simply by saying that He went to preach to those in prison. So from the time of Adam and Eve, all the way up to the day that Jesus rose from the dead, every soul that died went into this place. There was still a clear delineation between those who were just and those who were unjust, those who would one day be able to rise and go into Heaven and those who would rise and be condemned for eternity, but they were all still in this place apart from God because of sin. So on Friday, when we celebrated Our Lord’s death, we celebrated the fact that sin had been destroyed.

But it is not enough that sin be destroyed if it still means that we are going to have to enter into death and stay there. And so Our Lord for our sake endured death. Saint Peter, in the first reading today, spoke about all the things that happened in Judah and Jerusalem. He talked about all the things that happened from the time of the baptism of John, all the way through the good works that Jesus did to the time, he says, when they hung Him on a tree. Saint Paul, in his Letter to the Galatians, reminds us that in the law it says that anyone who is hung upon a tree is cursed. Jesus took the curse for us. And the greatest curse of all is the curse of death. In death there is no hope; it is the end; it is darkness; there is nothing beyond (for those who are not Christian). But Jesus entered into death in order to be the victor over death. He tasted death for our sake so that we would be able to have life. We know now as Christian people that, like Jesus, we will have to enter into death someday but it is only a change from what we know in this life, in this vale of tears, in this place of sorrows, in this world of suffering. When you talk to a person who is elderly and suffering greatly, they look forward to death because they know that on one level it will be the end to all of their suffering, but they know also that it is going to be the passage into something that is far more beautiful than what they have ever known here. So they enter into death with Jesus in order to enter into life with Jesus.

In the Resurrection, the human body of Jesus Christ, Our Lord and God, rose glorious from the tomb. It took on a new form and was glorified. No longer held bound by the physical limitations of the human body, Our Lord was able to come forth from the tomb, was able to walk through the walls, was able to appear only to those to whom He wished to appear. As Saint Peter again made very clear, He did not appear to all but only to those who had been chosen beforehand, “by us,” he says, “who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead.” He was still human and He remains human for all eternity. But He is also divine. And because in Baptism we have entered into the death and Resurrection of Christ, we know that our bodies will rise from the dead. This body, the one sitting right here in the pew, is going to rise from the dead and it will live for all eternity along with your soul. Now the question, of course, is whether you are going to rise to life or whether you have chosen eternal death. For those who separate themselves from God, they have chosen eternal death, the living dead, because they will rise from the dead; that is, they will rise from physical death. But as the prophet Daniel tells us, they will rise to be an “everlasting horror and disgrace”. But for those who make the choice for Jesus Christ, the prophet Daniel tells us that they will “shine like the stars in the sky”. Saint Paul tells us, “Eye has not seen and ear has not heard nor has it so much as dawned on the imagination of man what God has prepared for those who love Him.”

So when we think in this world about the most joyful thing that we have ever experienced, no matter what it is, the most wonderful thing that has ever happened in your life, it is as nothing in comparison to what God has prepared for us, a mere tiny foreshadowing of the joy and the glory that God has waiting for you. But already you have entered into that spiritually. Just as in Baptism you spiritually entered into the death and the Resurrection of Christ, so now united with Christ – as He has taken our humanity with Him, bringing it out of the tomb and bringing it now into the eternity of Heaven – you, Saint Paul says, are seated with Him. Your humanity has already been translated into eternal life; all that remains is for you to go there physically, but spiritually you are already there in Christ.

That is why Saint Paul tells us that we have to set our sights on Heaven. This is absolutely crucial because we live in a world that tells us this is all there is. We live in an atheistic and pagan society. We live in a world that does not believe in the resurrection from the dead. We live in a world that says, “Live for today because this is all there is. Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die!” As Christian people, we say, “That is nonsense, heresy!” And we have to reject it. We do not live for this life but for the next because Christ, our Paschal Lamb, has been sacrificed. We have eaten of the Lamb and we have His Blood sprinkled upon our souls so that the Angel of Death will pass over us and we will pass through death into life. The beautiful thing about being members of Jesus Christ is that Our Lord will never ask anything of us that He has not done Himself, and so He tells us in Saint John’s Gospel that where He is we also will be. But we have to follow where He leads. Saint Peter tells us that He has left us an example to follow in His footsteps. And so we know that is what we need to do. We need to follow Him to Calvary, but we need to follow Him through death and into life.

For us, life does not end at the moment that the physical body dies because we know that the soul will live on forever. The soul goes immediately at the moment of death to its judgment, but we also know that the body will rise from the grave, that our souls will be reunited with our bodies and our bodies will be reanimated but with a glorified soul. Our bodies will be like the risen body of Jesus Christ, no longer held bound by the physical limitations which we have here, no longer subject to sickness, to weakness, to fatigue, to suffering, to any of the physical problems that we have. Our glorified bodies, then, will be translated into Heaven where they will be united with God for eternity and where no torment will touch them and every tear will be wiped away.

That is what we celebrate today in Jesus Christ. Yet it is not Christ alone, but all of those who are united with Him. And so as we share in the death of Christ, as we share in the suffering of Christ, so too God holds out for each one of us a share in the glory of Christ. We simply need to choose Him – to set our sights on Heaven where Christ is already seated at God’s right hand and you are seated there with Him in glory – so that when Christ your life appears in glory, you will appear with Him. And then for all eternity, united with Christ and sharing in His Resurrection, you will glorify God in the glory of your resurrected body. In the new and glorified existence which you will live, you will share in the victory over sin and death with Christ and glorify God forever.

*This text was transcribed from the audio recording with minimal editing.

April 11, 2004 Easter Sunday

Reading I (Acts 10:34a, 37-43) Reading II (Colossians 3:1-4) Gospel (St. John 20:1-9)

Today the Church celebrates Her greatest feast. It is the single most important event in human history: It is the day that Jesus rose from the dead. In rising from the dead, Our Lord has reversed everything that had happened because of what occurred in the Garden and human sin up to that point. As Saint Paul makes very clear, He has put death to death. There is no more power in death; there is no more sting because life now reigns once again. Death, Saint Paul tells us, reigned from the time Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden through the time of the Law and right up to the New Covenant. Now life reigns. And life reigns within each one of us provided that we make the choice.

So when we consider what it is that occurred on this day, it is not like someone being resuscitated who will have to die again, but rather it is an entirely new form of being from a physical point of view. It is a glorified life. When Our Lord rose from the dead, He was completely transformed in His humanity. His glorified human soul remained completely united to His divinity as it always had been, but now it took on a different form. It was no longer just in its natural state as our bodies are right now, but it was in a glorified state somewhat similar to what the disciples saw at the Transfiguration – but even greater than that.

Our Lord has also promised to each one of us that provided we die in the state of grace we too will one day be able to share in the glory of the Resurrection, that these lowly bodies of ours seated right here are going to rise from the dead. Each one of us will rise from the dead; there is no doubt about that. The question is – to rise to what? – because there are, of course, two eternal possibilities, and the choice of which direction we are going to go depends entirely on the choices we make in this life. We have huge trouble, a great big problem, in our society these days; that is, people thinking about the mercy of God and forgetting about the justice of God allow things to be run out to their logical extreme. As we know, when things are run to a logical extreme without balance they become absurd. And so the absurdity of their position is that after they die they will go to heaven and they will stand before Our Lord for judgment – and then they will be sorry for their sins. Then they will repent; and because God is merciful, then He will forgive them. That will not happen. It is true that if they die in the state of mortal sin then when they stand before the Lord they will be sorry for their sins; but they will not repent because they cannot repent at that time. Once the soul leaves the body, there is no changing of the mind. The only opportunity to repent is in this life, and there will be no repentance in the next.

So it is not a matter of whether God would be merciful or not, because that is the very nature of God: He is mercy itself. The problem does not lie with God, but lies with us. If we do not want God’s mercy, even though He desires to give it, we would reject it. And for everyone who dies in the state of mortal sin, they die unrepentant. They die rejecting God’s mercy and they will not accept it even after they have died. But for those who seek to do the Will of God, God’s mercy is known even now. As our sins are forgiven and we rise to newness of life, we share already in the glory of Christ. We do not share in the fullness of His glory, obviously, but already the glory has begun within each one of us. We have been baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Saint Paul tells the Romans, which means that in our body we already share in His death and we already share in His Resurrection. That is why in the second reading today Saint Paul could say, You have been raised up with Christ. Therefore he tells us that we are to have our focus on the things above, not on the things of earth; that we are to live in such a way in this world that we are really living for the world to come; that we have to live here for now and we want to do the Will of God in all things while we are here, but it is out of love of God and love of neighbor, not out of any form of selfishness.

And so each one of us, as we look at the Resurrection of Our Blessed Lord from the dead needs to look very seriously at our own self. As we have just completed the rigors of Lent, we can now ask ourselves, “Where is my focus? How was my Lent? Was it really spent serving the Lord? Was it spent denying the self?” Or instead, was Lent really not a whole lot different from any other time of our life so that one really would not know the difference between the day before Ash Wednesday and the day after by looking at our lives. The tragedy, if that is the case, is that now that Lent is over no one will be able to recognize that there is anything different because of Easter. If we live just like all of those people around us do, we have no part in Christ. If all that we want to do is give Our Lord lip service, what good is that going to do for us? When we stop and consider what we celebrate today, it is the single most important thing, not only in human history, but it needs to be so in our own lives as well. When we look at what Our Lord did for us on Friday and what we now celebrate with the glory of all the solemnity today, what difference does this make in our lives?

It is not enough to be able to acknowledge that we believe it. The devil will do the same. He knows that Jesus died, He knows that Jesus rose from the dead, but that has not done him one bit of good. It is for us to be able to embrace this mystery and to put it into practice, to be able to focus our sights on the Resurrection of Jesus Christ so that the way we live is now going to be different. Having renounced certain pleasures and desires for Lent, that has prepared our souls to be able to recognize the beauty of what God has provided for us. And it is up to us to be able to recognize that there are some things that this world offers that, being pleasant and good within themselves, are not necessary. In fact, if we look very seriously at them, we would have to acknowledge that they actually lead us away from God rather than toward Him. And so now we have the opportunity, having been stripped of certain things during Lent, to be able to see with greater clarity what really is most important. It is the things beyond this world – not the things of this world – that have to be the focus.

As the Church proceeded through Lent, you may have taken note that more and more as we entered deeper into Lent, the things of the senses were taken away. At the beginning of Lent, the Gloria and the Alleluia were removed. Things became more and more simple as we went through until finally during Passiontide all the statues and pictures were covered and all the things of the senses were taken away. Now as we celebrate the glory of Easter, all of it is returned simultaneously. Liturgically, we celebrated the death as we slowly proceeded into the nothingness for the senses. And now there is an explosion of sensory things as all of the statues and pictures and crucifixes are uncovered once again. Once again, we proclaim the Alleluia and we sing the Glory be to God.

We need to be able, not only to look at that liturgically, but to actually put it into practice. Saint Paul tells us that whatever we do we are to do in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he tells us that we are to sing hymns and psalms and inspired songs in gratitude to God to thank Him for everything He has done for us. Our lives are to be lives of praise and of thanksgiving to God. So as we hear today for the first time in six weeks that beautiful word Alleluia, it is a Hebrew word which means “Praise God”. And throughout these days of Easter, we will hear that Alleluia many, many times. It is to remind us that not only are we to be filled with joy, but that our lives are to be given over to praise, to be able to see clearly what God has done, to thank Him, to praise Him, to give Him the greatest glory and honor, not only with our lips but with our lives by the way that we live, by everything that we do.

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ for us cannot simply be an event that took place 2,000 years ago, because it is the defining event of who we are as persons. We are baptized into His death and resurrection. We already share in the Resurrection, which means that we are to be looking in that direction. We are to live our lives in such a way that people will recognize that the glory of the Resurrected Christ is in us, that we live our lives not for this world but for the next, that our lives are dedicated to the praise and the thanksgiving of God. That is what we are asked to be about. That is the choice each one of us can make. How much does this day really mean to us? How much does the Resurrection of Christ mean to us? Is it just something that happened a long time ago and really has no bearing on our lives? Are we going to get up tomorrow morning after eating a wonderful dinner tonight and celebrating with family and it will be just the same old routine? Or is there something different? There will be nothing different in the world, but there needs to be something different in our hearts, in our minds, in the fullness of our lives. We have been raised with Christ and we already share in His glory. We must now live our lives to be able to reflect that truth, to be able to live in such a way that it is evident to the people around us that what is most important is Jesus Christ and His resurrection from the dead, so that we are living our lives for God to the praise and the glory and the honor of Almighty God and in thanksgiving for all of His gifts to us.

So as we continue on, now, proclaiming our alleluias, we are first going to renew our baptismal vows. We need to think seriously about this. As we renew those vows, I ask you simply to ask yourself, “Do I really mean this? Am I living it? Do I really reject Satan and all of his works and all of his empty promises? Or do I just speak those words once a year on Easter, but tomorrow morning I throw myself headlong right back into the work of Satan?” We have renounced him; and if we are going to renounce him, that means we have to get him out of our lives. And then we profess our faith in the Holy Trinity and in all that God has done for us. So ponder that now as we renew those vows and sing the Alleluia with the angels.

Put yourself back with Peter, John, and Mary Magdalene in the wonder and the awe as they saw the empty tomb. Put yourself back with them as the Resurrected Christ appeared to them. They ate with Him. They saw the holes in His hands and His feet. They recognized that this was true. It was not just some story or a myth; it was a reality. It was a reality that changed their lives so that they were never the same after that. As we once again renew our baptismal vows and profess our faith in the Resurrection, we too must acknowledge that it is not just a story – it is a reality – and it is a reality that, like them, must change our lives so that we live no longer for ourselves but for Him Who has been raised from the dead.

*This text was transcribed from the audio recording with minimal editing.

March 27, 2005 Easter Sunday

Reading I (Acts 10:34a, 37-43,Reading II (Colossians 3:1-4) Gospel (St. John 20:1-9)

Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. Just exactly what does this mean for us? Saint Paul said in the second reading we heard that you have been raised along with Him. You have died and you also have been raised. Now obviously the way that Our Lord is risen from the dead is substantially different from our present state. His resurrection from the dead means that His glorified human soul, along with His divinity, was reunited with His body. His body, which lay dead in the tomb for those three days, suddenly was reanimated by His soul. But His soul was no longer in the form that ours is in; His soul was now glorified. Therefore, when His soul was reunited with His body, His body was then glorified as well. And so therefore, at the moment of the Resurrection, the glorified Christ was raised to life that could never end. He was destroyed (or so Satan thought) on Good Friday, yet now He lives in a way that He can never be destroyed at all.

There is nothing lacking in His Resurrection. The fullness of His Person – Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity – is united in a way that can never be separated, in a life that can never be destroyed. Death has been destroyed in Him. It is true that all of us will still have to die in a physical way, but each and every one of us is also going to rise physically. That body that is sitting right there in the pew will rise from the dead. If you are in the state of grace when you die, then on the last day of the world your glorified soul will be reunited with your body, and you will live body and soul in a glorified state for the rest of eternity.

We do not even want to discuss what it is going to be like if we are not in the state of grace when we die, but for those unfortunate people, their souls also will be reunited with their bodies. Their bodies also are going to rise from the dead; and for eternity, in the fullness of their humanity, both body and soul, they will live in the horror of their choice. They have chosen to be apart from God. And they will live forever in a way which is indestructible, in a way which will never end; body and soul they will live forever separated from God in the torments of eternal fire.

But we are not called to that. We are called to the glory of God. As Saint Paul says that we are raised with Him, this is precisely what Peter and John saw when they went to the tomb of Our Lord. They noted that the cloth that was around Our Lord’s head was not with the other cloth. The cloth that was on His body was separate. What does this imply? It implies not only that the physical Person of Christ was raised from the dead, but the separation of the two cloths, the head and the body, demonstrate also the resurrection of the Mystical Christ. He is the head and we are the body of the fullness of Christ. The fullness of the Person of Jesus Christ rose from the dead, and each one of us because of our baptism is a member of Christ. Therefore, in Him we have been raised from the dead already as well, which is why Saint Paul would say when we are baptized we enter into His death and His Resurrection. So we share already in everything that is Jesus Christ. We share His Passion, we share His death, and we also share in His Resurrection to new and eternal life. Therefore, Saint Paul tells us that we are to set our sights on what is above and not on what is below, that we are to be living our lives for heaven and not for earth.

Never has there been a more difficult time in human history to be able to fulfill that precept. There is so much of earth – and even more that is from below the earth – that is tugging at us every place we turn. Satan wants us to be with him. Our Lord wants us to be in heaven with Him. The choice then is entirely ours. But we have all these things of the senses that are pulling at us, all of the images, all of the sounds, all of the things that are being presented to us every place we turn. On the other hand, we have the glorified Christ. Now we can each make a choice, and we have to. Which way do you want to go? Where do you want to set your sights? Where is your focus going to be?

Remember that we make the choice of eternity in this life and not in the next. So if we want to choose the sensuality of the world, we are choosing the corruption of the body, and our corrupt bodies and our corrupt souls will then live forever apart from God. But if we put our focus on Christ risen from the dead, Christ for whom death has no more power and therefore for those who die in Christ death has no power over them either, then we will be like Him. Saint John says that what we will be like we do not know, but what we do know is that we will be like Him, for we will see Him face-to-face.

And so as we meditate upon this mystery of Jesus Christ risen from the dead, we need to ask ourselves, “What does it mean for me?” It means that what is being offered to you is life, eternal life. The life of God, the life of heaven is being offered to each and every one of us. We have entered into that life already through baptism. In just a couple of moments, we are going to renew our baptismal vows where once again we are going to say that we reject Satan and all his works and all his empty promises. We are going to renew our faith in God. Are we truly doing what we have vowed to God? Are we really rejecting Satan? all of his works? all of his empty promises? all of his filth and sensuality that he is presenting to us? Are we living in this world with our focus set on heaven? Are we living as people who have risen from the dead? Or are we the “living dead”? the people who walk in mortal sin? the people who have taken their focus off of God? This day sin has been destroyed. As we heard in the Alleluia verse, our Paschal Lamb has been sacrificed and therefore we are to celebrate with joy.

When we think about the tragedy of death and we see the innocent, our Paschal Lamb, dying for us, the natural human response would be one of grief and sorrow; but the Church tells us that we are to rejoice because our Paschal Lamb has been sacrificed so that we could live, and He is risen from the dead. For all of us who have eaten His flesh and consumed His blood, the risen and glorified Christ lives in us. When you, just a few moments from now, come forward to the communion rail and you receive Jesus into your own body, you receive Him in the form in which He presently is, that is, in His glorified form, risen from the dead and glorified and seated at God’s right hand. You are already there with Him spiritually, and there He is going to come to dwell within you. Again, it speaks of our dignity that our souls are heaven. Our souls are the temples that God has created for Himself so that in His glorified humanity He comes to dwell. He is enthroned in the soul of each and every one of us who receive Holy Communion. The risen and glorified Christ lives in us. This is our glory.

So we see, if that is the case, that for all of those who are in the state of grace death has no power. None. We will have to enter into death in order to be able to experience the fullness of life, but death has no power over those who are in Jesus Christ. Right now our nation mourns because as a nation once again we have chosen to allow the innocent and the helpless to die. Right now an innocent woman in Florida is dying by the choice of our imperial courts as they try to “play god” and make choices of life and death. Yet as horrible and tragic as this decision is – and we will pay the consequences as a country for this – as Christian people, as Catholic people, we can look forward to be able to see that this poor woman is sharing in the Passion of Christ. But the expectation is that she may well die this very day, the day of the Resurrection. I trust that Our Lord, as He did with Dismas, is looking right now at Terri Schiavo and saying, This day you will be with Me in Paradise.

It is a sad day for our country. It is a glorious day for the innocent woman who is being put to death because she lived a holy and spiritual life before she entered into this state. She chose to live according to the ways of Christ, and she is dying with Him so that she will rise with Him forever. That poor little body which has been deprived of food and water, and is now deformed terribly, will rise gloriously to be with Him forever. And so will we if we make the choice for Christ.

So as we celebrate today the single holiest and most important thing of the entire Church year, the highest feast that the Church has to celebrate, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, meditate upon the fact that you, as a member of Jesus Christ, have been raised with Him and that you are no longer to be living according to the ways of death, to the ways of sin, to the ways that Satan has presented to us, saying, “It’s fun and it’s pleasurable and it’s easy.” Those are the works of death. In about one minute, you are going to say once again that you reject the works of death, that you reject the works of Satan. Put off the old man and put on the new, the new man who is truly in the image and likeness of Jesus Christ risen from the dead. Live even now in this world with your focus on heaven. Live in this world free of sin, so that you who have been put to death with Christ in baptism are also one with Him in His new life, in the life of glory, in the life of the Resurrection, in the life over which death has absolutely no power.

*This text was transcribed from the audio recording with minimal editing.

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