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| The Resurrection by James Tissot (1836–1902), Public Domain |
March 31, 2018
St. Patrick’s Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas
Genesis 1:1-2:2
Psalm 104:1-2, 5-6, 10, 12, 13-14, 24, 35
Exodus 14:15-15:1
Exodus 15:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 17-18
Isaiah 54:5-14
Psalm 30:2, 4, 5-6, 11-12, 13
Romans 6:3-11
Mark 16:1-7
This Easter reading from Mark’s Gospel speaks of a white-robed man sitting in the open tomb. The white-robed man addresses the women who have come to anoint the dead body of Jesus, “Do not be amazed! You seek Jesus of Nazareth, the Crucified. He has been raised. He is not here. Behold the place where they laid Him. But go and tell His disciples and Peter, ‘He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see Him as He told you.” The white-robed man in a sense admonishes the women as he reminds them what Christ has already told them.
The women had been wondering if they would be strong enough to move the heavy stone to unseal the tomb. Yet, in their meeting the white-robed man in the empty tomb, it is revealed that human strength alone cannot unseal death—only the power of God revealed fully in Christ is able to conquer death. This power fully revealed is the truth and the love of God. The white-robed man is wearing the robe of the baptized—the newly enlightened—as our brothers and sisters who are to be baptized will be clothed after being newly enlightened. In their baptism and true enlightenment they will remind us of our own true enlightenment that Jesus the Crucified is not in the tomb.
The women are the first to be near the empty tomb because they had been present at the Crucifixion. The women come to the tomb and find it open and they enter it with amazement. As Pope Francis observes, ‘The women carrying their oils go to the tomb with their hearts already anointed with love’ but filled with the inconsolable grief of bitter death. The women encounter hope and receive the previously impossible consolation from the news given them by the white-robed man.
The disciples and Peter among them had fled the Cross so they are to have this truth of the Resurrection revealed to them first through the joyful testimony of the women who hear of the Resurrection from the white-robed man who repeated the words of Jesus to them. The white robe calls to mind the words of Revelation 7:13 that speak of the white-robed army of martyrs who give testimony to the conquering power of Christ over death because their white robes have been washed in the Blood of the Lamb, the Blood of Christ.
The admonishment that the white-robed witnesses offer us this evening is by way of reminder and repetition of the eternal truth of the Gospel. Despite this repetition we ask why do we continually return to the tomb to look for the risen Jesus? As Pope Francis preached at last year’s Easter Vigil: “In our hearts, we know that things can be different but, almost without noticing it, we can grow accustomed to living with the tomb, living with frustration. Worse, we can even convince ourselves that this is the law of life, and blunt our consciences with forms of escape that only serve to dampen the hope that God has entrusted to us. So often we walk as those women did, poised between the desire of God and bleak resignation. Not only does the Master die, but our hope dies with him.” Yet, the glorious news is that Jesus Christ crucified is Jesus Christ risen from the dead. Christ is the light that shines eternally.
Christ is the light of the world. Thus, our Easter Vigil includes the blessing of the Easter Fire and preparation of the Paschal Candle—from which the candles of the newly baptized will be lit, and from their candles, in turn, will our own candles be repetitively lit in our lives of faith as they were first lit at our own baptisms—as we obediently return to Galilee to meet the Risen Christ.
The first reading from Genesis offers us the initial account of creation. “Let there be light.” The creation of light precedes even the creation of the sun and the moon. This reveals that the sun and moon are not gods as natural religion would posit; they are creations in the light. As Pope Benedict XVI preached, “Light makes life possible. It makes encounter possible. It makes communication possible. It makes knowledge, access to reality and to truth, possible. And insofar as it makes knowledge possible, it makes freedom and progress possible.”
Evil hides. Evil cloaks itself in darkness. Evil inebriates us with the secretive. Light, then, is also an expression of the good that both is and creates brightness. It is daylight, which makes it possible for us to act. To say that God created light means that God created the world as a space for knowledge and truth, as a space for communion and freedom, as a space for goodness and for love. The material world is fundamentally good, existence itself is good. Evil comes into existence only through denial. It is a “no” spoken arrogantly to God’s “yes.”
Easter is about the obedient and eternal “yes” of Jesus Christ to the loving will of the Father. His “yes” is completed and fulfilled and cannot be accessed in the darkness of the tomb. His “yes” burns brightly as the paschal candle towers in this Cathedral tonight. His “yes” is the light that shines so brilliantly that the lie of the evil one burns away when cast into its unquenchable and true fire. The Paschal Candle, as it is consumed by fire, offers light and warmth that burns away our selfishness and fear inasmuch as the candle gives itself in sacrifice. It is Jesus Christ who gives Himself in this light and thus His Crucifixion and Resurrection are inseparable and of eternal worth as eternal love and eternal light.
The eternal light of Christ that is enkindled by His Resurrection enables us to see by faith in a manner that transforms our capacity for right reason. This is symbolized by the lighting of our candles that are in fact our “yes” in the sacrament of Baptism with our promises and our renunciation of sin and our rejection of its dark prince.
Without the gift of faith received at Baptism, we live in the darkness of the prince of this world. This darkness affords sight for sensible and ephemeral things and enables us to acquire information and knowledge at an incredibly rapid pace through the internet and social media. Yet, it is a darkness that obscures the purpose and design of the world’s creation intended by God and bleaches out the difference between good and evil. This is the darkness that is overcome by the light of Christ’s Resurrection that we know by the baptismal gift of faith. As Pope Benedict XVI preached on this feast several years ago, “Today we can illuminate our cities so brightly that the stars of the sky are no longer visible. Is this not an image of the problems caused by our version of enlightenment? With regard to material things, our knowledge and our technical accomplishments are legion, but what reaches beyond, the things of God and the question of good, we can no longer identify. Faith, then, which reveals God’s light to us, is the true enlightenment, enabling God’s light to break into our world, opening our eyes to the true light.” The Resurrection repeats the creation — only with more clarity. Just as sun and moon are revealed not to be gods, thus, our human-made lights of communication are revealed not to be gods.
Baptism is so much more than a simple washing. It is an illumination that enables us to see the fullness of truth, the purpose of our lives, the reality that God loves us unconditionally, and in Christ crucified and risen we are able to love as He loves. Baptism fuses us together in Christ’s risen body—the Body of Christ, that is the Church—animated by the Holy Spirit. You who are to be baptized and confirmed in the Holy Spirit trust these graces you are to receive. Christ is no liar! He can neither deceive nor be deceived. Trust your new sight. For us who have been baptized and are renewed through the repeating of our baptismal promises in communion and solidarity with our new brothers and sisters, let us listen to them in their white robes and not seek Christ in the darkness of the tombs of our own making. Everything is different because Christ is truly raised from the dead.
