Acts 10:34a, 37-43; Ps. 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23; Col 3:1-4; Jn.20:1-9

“He is risen!”  He is not only risen but in Christ “we were raised with Christ”.  We have entered into his kingship that is why we are in this world but not of this world.  Holy Week is a reminder not only of the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ but our own death, “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God”.  We have died to the flesh and to remain with him and in him through the Holy Spirit.  Just as “God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and power”, we too have received the anointing and power of the Holy Spirit to overcome the darkness of this world.  Thus, Easter is a celebration that we have been raised for the kingdom of God is at hand and his kingship is in Christ Jesus. 

In the gospel of John, we see in Mary of Magdala, Peter and “the other disciple” who is believed to be John a very human reaction to the empty tomb.  It is the assumption that if the body was missing someone had taken it from the tomb.  Jesus had the power to raise Lazarus from the dead would he not have the power to come back from the dead, “this man God” as Peter calls him?  They saw with the eyes of humanity and did not understand until Jesus appears to them and “ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead”.  “He is risen” but do we see the hand of God in our lives or are we still contemplating with only our human eyes what is happening around us? 

“He is risen” that we may see and understand with the eyes of faith first not last.  This is what it means to be in the world but not of the world.  We are to rise with Christ each morning and declare “I shall not die (this day) but live”.  We live in the glory of the Lord and even if we should die a mortal death, we remain alive in Christ freed from the bondage of sin for all eternity.  We enter into the greater life to come.  Sin is death thus we only die when we allow sin into our life.  From sin into death is the original fall of Adam and Eve and remains to this day the enemy to overcome.  We overcome it with the grace of God when we remain focused on our faith as God reveals himself to us each day becoming stronger witnesses that he is risen and we are in him. 

We often simply look at the sin of Adam and Eve as a sin of disobedience but to God the Father disobedience is a failure of love.  Jesus asks Peter after the resurrection three time “Do you love me?”  After Peter responds then Jesus gives him a command “feed my sheep”.  As parents, haven’t we not said to our children “If you love me then listen to me?”  Sin at the core is failure to love the other.  Just as the fear of God is not being scared of a person.  Husbands do you fear your wife?  Wives do you fear your husband?  I hope not.  We fear not the person but a broken relationship with them because we love them. 

It is love that binds us to each other and to God and when we fail to act in love we sin against each other and against God.  Fear of God is fear of breaking the love bond we have received to enter his glory and the fear of eternal separation from him by our sins which we have already created by sinning.  The God of justice does not come to condemn us but to reveal to us what we have already done to ourselves.  He is risen not to condemn but to set us free while there is still time.

Christ is the “judge of the living and the dead”.  Let us recognize that “the dead” may represent those among us who are walking in death because of sin already judged.  He is resin to bring us salvation and free us of the judgment of eternal separation from love.  Christ’s judgment is ever in the present for he is outside of time.  Jesus says to us today, “If you love me listen to me”, risen today to be with you and call you for in this day I came to sacrifice myself for you and the whole world. 

Peter no longer speaks for himself in today’s first reading, he now speaks for the Church.  He and the disciples are now commissioned to go forth and preach the good news of the resurrection and the hope for all humanity.  Together then the Church speaks for Christ to testify to the truth that brings us eternal freedom.  When Jesus tells Peter, “feed my sheep” he is bringing together this command with Holy Thursday and the Last Supper when he said “Do this in remembrance of me”.  Thus, the disciples devoted themselves to prayer and the breaking of bread.  They assigned others to take care of the physical needs of the people.  Today we live on this command through the priesthood that Jesus gave his disciples.  We receive the risen Lord, body, blood, soul and divinity in the Eucharist.  We also receive him when we listen to him in his word.  We are feed with his word and with his body, the two parts of the Mass. 

  He is truly risen and lives in us.  He has chosen us to be his temple and to remain in us always.  Happy resurrection day!