When early Christians greeted each other on Easter
Sunday, one said to another (in whatever language), “Christ is risen!” The other would reply, “He is risen indeed!” I have done this every year that I’ve been
here, and joked about greeting each other on campus like that. But, people have done that! I have been greeted that way by you, and I’ve
heard that you’ve greeted each other like that. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
About 30 of us watched the movie, “The Passion of
the Christ” on Friday night. It is
incredible. I was reading the other day that
a movie and book have come out on the miracles
from “The Passion”. The producer of each
says there are more than 70,000 stories of miracles and conversions from that
movie. One involves a murderer who
turned himself in after watching “The Passion”.
It was obviously a fruitful production. It’s accurate and powerful….very
powerful. It’s tough to watch, of
course, because you walk with the Lord every step through his passion and death.
If we walk with the Lord, the passion is brutal, but
the Resurrection is so sweet. Think
about his experience in coming back to life.
His body died, and his soul left his body. We say in the Apostles Creed that He “descended
into hell”; he spent three days freeing the good men and women from the Old
Testament to Heaven. His soul then returned
to His body, and His body is alive again.
Just about all of the marks from His Passion are gone. His tortured body is now pristine and
glorious. He has triumphed over His
enemies…his wounds…sin…and death. As
much as we agonized over Christ’s crucified body, we rejoice even more in his
risen body!
We can have a resurrection experience in this
life. It’s different from Christ’s in
that it involves death and rising of His body.
Ours would be death and coming back to life of our soul. Souls are immortal, so they don’t die
forever. But, they can die to sin. There can be a lack of life…a lack of
anything good. The person whose soul is
in this state of mortal sin and goes to Confession, walks out of the
confessional like Christ walked out of the tomb. They are risen! Or, maybe someone whose faith seems dead…someone
who is just going through the motions…someone who doesn’t get anything out of
Mass or prayer…and then have an Epiphany or “ah ha” moment…a grace-filled
experience that breathes life into their souls.
They rise up in faith!
Eight GW students became Catholic last night at the
Easter Vigil. Today’s Washington Post has
a story about the record number of adults becoming Catholic in the Archdiocese
of Washington this year. Over 1,300 came
into the Church last night in our area! They are the faces of new life in
Christ through Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Eucharist. Their old selves have died; the new selves
live.
Our community in general is desperate for this
Resurrection experience…desperate for Easter and Spring after a long winter and
semester…after a long, long month filled with tragedies on campus. We had a memorial Mass at Newman last week for
one of the students who died recently. More than 100 people jammed our chapel
to pray together and remember Carlos Pacanins.
Dozens of his family and friends spoke at the end with stories,
memories, and reflections. So many of
them – almost all of them – spoke of Carlos as if He is in Heaven or on the
way. They spoke of his
Resurrection!
Finally, we could say (but won’t) at every Consecration
at Mass when the priest holds up the Host and Chalice, “He is risen! He is risen indeed!” The Eucharist is the Risen Body and Blood of
Christ. At that moment, we are supposed
to whisper what St. Thomas said, “my Lord and my God”. It is truly Him and He is truly risen. That’s our man. That’s our God . That’s Him who created you and saved
you. That’s Him who loves you and sees
you as good. You are good and you are
loved.
Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed!
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