(music) Jesus Christ is risen today,
Alleluia.
Our triumphant Holy Grave,
Alleluia.(music ends)
I like that, you know, "very early
in the morning, on the first day
of the week." So, if I had my choice, Mass would
have been at 6 o'clock right when the sun was coming over the rooftops
and but I guess not.
8 o'clock is early enough for some. So I sent out my Easter texts
at 5:30 this morning. I took a picture of the altar
with my phone and then, "Happy Easter", each one, individually
so that everybody knows how special they are. I haven't heard back from anybody, well I did. I heard back from one person.
Only one other person was up at 5:30. It is
been 40 days of fasting, 40 days of
penance and abstinence, and now we begin the
50 days of celebration, 50 days of Easter,
of God's light, of God's love,
of God's forgiveness. Last night,
in the Gospel, Jesus actually
speaks to Mary Magdalene and the other Mary and
says to them: "Peace be with you."
And then he tells Mary, "Go to my brothers
and tell them that I will go ahead of them and lead them
in Galilee." Today, Jesus is
gone, the tomb is empty and we don't hear Jesus speak but
we know that when He comes to the Apostles in the Upper Room,
again his words are what? "Peace
be with you." And in the other Gospels, not today,
but in the other Gospels, the Angel is there at the tomb and the Angel says
what to Mary? "Do not be afraid. You're looking for Jesus of Nazareth
who was crucified, He is risen, he is not here." And
so, I'd like to look at those two, the words of the Angel
and the words of Jesus. The words of
the angel first: "Do not be afraid." We come to Church
not out of fear but in confidence
that God loves us and when we're sorry for what we've done wrong,
God forgives us. I have some
people in my family, I don't come from a very spiritual
family. There was no rosary before supper. We only said Grace when there was company.
And so but we, my dad and I
went to Mass every day but I have some uncles
whom they don't go to Church at all.
I don't think they've been to Church since even people saw in black and white.
And I'll say, you know, Uncle Tom or Uncle Frank, why don't you come to Mass? When I go down to Binghamton to visit
or we'll say Mass at home, and I'll call and say,
"Come on over. We're going to say Mass at my aunt's house." And the big response is:
"Oh Father, if I went to your Church, the Church
would fall down." And we hear people say that, don't we?
And in a way, they're joking and so I joke back and I say, "Don't flatter yourself.
There are bigger sinners in the world than you,
number one. Number two, it is for people like you the Church was built. You
don't wait until you're healthy to call the doctor
so why wait until you're perfect, then there will be no Church
if everybody was perfect, I'd be out of a job. So they tease a little
but I think sometimes, there's a little fear. Maybe not afraid of God but fear
inside, not yet able to reconcile whatever it is
that's going on inside. I don't know. I'm not a
psychologist and I'm not in their head. What I do know
is the Angel says to Mary and to all of us,
"Do not be afraid." And why?
Because of what Christ says: "Peace
be with you." To the very
people who deserted him only a few days ago,
Jesus appears in the Upper Room and says
"Peace be with you." We celebrate today
not condemnation but comfort and consolation. We celebrate today
the love God has for us and the Eternal Life that he promised and
through Jesus Christ now gives. So be not afraid
for it is the very peace of Almighty
God that you and I have received, not just on
Easter, every Sunday when we come to celebrate the Mass
and not just on Sunday, but
every day when we wake up, we open our eyes
we have the opportunity to welcome that
light, that love, that redemption
in our hearts. And so we are not
people of fear and darkness but people
of love and of light. We know that God
is God alone, to love him with all our heart,
all our mind and all our strength and to love our neighbor
as ourselves.