April 16, 2017
St. Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas
Acts 10:34-43
Psalm 118
I Corinthians 5:6-8
Matthew 28:1-10
Matthew’s gospel account of the empty tomb and the encounter with the Resurrected Lord that we have just proclaimed includes a detail that grounds the truth and power of the Resurrection of the Lord in reality: “Jesus met [the women] on their way and greeted them. They approached, embraced his feet, and did him homage.” Why did they embrace his feet? The feet are that part of the body closest to the ground. As we recall, it was the feet of the Apostles that were washed on Holy Thursday. Feet ground a human being in reality. Feet represent the human condition, never totally clean, sensitive and always in need of cleansing. Today’s actions by the women in the Gospel reveal that in Jesus, our human condition is redeemed.
Their embrace of his feet follow upon their discovery of the empty tomb and the encounter with the angel who urges them not to be afraid. We no longer need to be afraid of death because of the Resurrection of Christ. Not only does death have no more power, but also nothing can keep or seal off the power of God’s life in a tomb or any other place in which we might attempt to conceal it. No human deception or plan, no physical barrier or obstacle, can hold back the power of the new life of the Resurrection offered us in Jesus Christ.
At the end of the account of Jesus’ passion and death in Matthew’s Gospel which we proclaimed on Palm Sunday, there was the interesting line from Pilate to the chief priests and Pharisees after they had come to Pilate asking him to secure the grave so that Jesus’ disciples might not steal his body. Pilate responded: “The guard is yours; go, secure it as best you can” (Matt 27:65). “…Secure it as best you can.” There is no securing anything from the love of God in the world. All attempts to do so are futile.
“The guards were shaken with fear of him and became like dead men” (Matt 28:2-4). The wisdom of this world, the drives of fear and death, attempt to keep the tomb locked. They attempt to control the narrative. They attempt to keep the power of death and sin alive. Yet, nothing can hold back the love of God. The wisdom of this world is futile and marked by death.
Pope Francis preached last evening, "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."
It is a light that conquers darkness, a love that quells hatred, a life that destroys death forever. This is what we celebrated on the great night—last night—of the Easter Vigil, and it is what we celebrate today—this Easter Day—this day which the Lord has made.
The new life, the new being, that Christ gives us in the Resurrection changes human beings forever. St. Paul powerfully captures this idea in the second reading from his first letter to the Corinthians when he exhorts them and us today: “Clear out the old yeast, so that you may become a fresh batch of dough…. For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us celebrate the feast, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” The new life, the new being means that the old ways will not work anymore. One cannot secure themselves against the power of God’s deathless love in Christ, like the guards, representing the old ways, tried to do when they thought they sealed Jesus’ body in the tomb. There has been a radical change not only in Jesus but, because of Him, also in us, a change that the forces of death and its practitioners are powerless to seal, conceal or undo. God in Jesus Christ has brought it about and we are recipients of it, those of us who have been baptized into Christ—who celebrate “…not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth”.
This Easter day which the Lord has made and every day are forever changed. Stones and guards and human scheming and sin and the personal tombs we often bury ourselves in cannot keep the awesome power of God in Jesus Christ from doing what He wills. God cannot be chained; God cannot be bound. God cannot be buried; for God is not dead. He is alive. As the angel tells the women at the tomb: “He is not here, for he has been raised just as he said.” Christ is risen, alleluia! He is truly risen, alleluia!
