Easter Joy

The fact that the Easter festival has been given 50 days indicates the magnitude of celebrating it with joy. After 5 weeks human celebration easily begins to flag. The pandemic unites people more closely with the first disciples than one might think: they were joyless before the Risen One visited them.

Editor in Chief of America Media Jesuit Matt Malone notes that faith flowing from Easter infuses people with new purpose.

Easter joy gives us the faith to stand in our present, on the bedrock of the past, and face our future: a future of our choosing yet also chosen for us, @Americaeditor writes in his 'Of Many Things' column. https://t.co/L53BskDSJl

— America Magazine (@americamag) May 20, 2020

Χριστός Ανέστη!

The Greek Orthodox Easter Hymn

Sung the world over in several languages. This Greek version was sung clearly.

Christós anésti ek nekrón,

Christ is risen from the dead

thanáto thánaton patísas,

Trampling death by dying,

ké tís en tís mnímasi,

And on those in the tombs

zoín charisámenos!

Bestowing life!

Easter Sunday word, 24 April 2011

Easter Sunday1 A (24 Apr 2011)

Ac 10. 34a, 37-43; Ps 118; 1Co 5. 6b-8; Mt 28. 1-10

Homily of Fr. Paul Panaretos, S.J.

Resurrection Rumors

A rumor has it that the Resurrection is more about Jesus than about you and me. Like many rumors it is false. Like many rumors that one twists truth. Yes, Jesus died it’s true, but unlike others, when Jesus rose he was not resuscitated from near-death to die again. Resurrection means Jesus lives now in an absolutely new and more powerful way for you and for me. Resurrection is about all humans.

Resurrection has come to mean something hard to understand instead of energy and power for personal transformation as well as authority and boldness for announcing the good news of Messiah Jesus’ death and resurrection.¹ The first Christians, though, used those words to describe their experience of the resurrection for them. Resurrection meant Jesus had become more powerful for them after his death than before it, which is opposite to how we humanly think, isn’t it? That is one clue that resurrection is about us more than it is about Jesus.

Another rumor has it that the day we celebrate the resurrection more people go to church than other days. Like some rumors that may be true. Yet when we begin to appreciate resurrection is more for us, others will make that rumor false. When will that happen? As people, like today’s new Catholics, have and hold energy and power for personal transformation as well as authority and boldness for announcing the good news of Messiah Jesus’ death and resurrection.

The newly initiated Catholics, like the first disciples who came to the tomb of Jesus; like those who became a fresh batch of dough in St. Paul’s words, received the Holy Spirit as St. Peter reminded us: God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power. When Peter and Paul lived resurrection was still a scandal: a scandal for those who thought God would never raise a crucified messiah²; and a scandal for those who put their faith in philosophy, military, political or other powers. Holy Spirit is the language for God’s personal power.

As time went by and as people believed, resurrection lost its scandalous power. The loss of its scandalous power left more believers thinking resurrection was more about Jesus than about them. Holy Spirit equals God’s power to create what humans cannot. Holy Spirit equals God’s power to create life in a virgin’s womb. Holy Spirit equals God’s power to create life from death: to create life in a lifeless womb or to allow an old Abraham and Sarah give birth to an infant Isaac. Holy Spirit raised Jesus from death. God’s power made Jesus more significant and powerful after his death.

Even more surprising, Holy Spirit equals God’s power to help burdened bodies and minds discover God is giving life to us here and now when we think God is not present or cannot be present. Holy Spirit equals God’s power to give us courage to join together and notice how we are being made new in the face of so much violence, hatred, greed, cynical thinking, false accusing, desperate measures and brittle relationships.

Our joining here taps into God’s power. Each liturgical celebration³ gives us a privileged moment to be Mary Magdalene, to be the other Mary or to be one of Jesus’ disciples and to stand in Jerusalem and go to Galilee and meet him in new and surprising ways. We do this each Sunday because Jesus’ resurrection includes us.⁴

So spread the truth that resurrection transforms our lives, that it is about us because Messiah Jesus gives us energy and power, authority and boldness the world cannot. Spread as well the truth that we do this not one Sunday but every Sunday. Sunday after Sunday of celebrating the resurrection is how we grow to live the energy and power our Messiah Jesus give us on the day the Lord has made, promising, I am risen, and I am always with you, alleluia.

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1. These words appear numerous through the New Testament.
2. God's curse rests on him who hangs on a tree (Deuteronomy 21.23) was cited as scriptural proof.
3. Joseph Tawil, Eparch Emeritus of Newton, in his Introduction to the Theology of the Divine Office, where he cites Maximos the Confessor. “Since the resurrection...God has revealed Himself in a liturgical way.” The way of knowledge and and that of love go hand and hand.” He also quoted a pope: "in order for the faithful to become imbued with the truths of faith," said Pope Pius XI, “the annual solemnities of the liturgical feasts are far more efficacious than all the documents of the Church's magisterium, even the most important. If the latter are particularly addressed to the intellect, the former have their salutary influence on the heart, then the intellect and then the whole man…” (Enc. Quas Primas). A Protestant was more concise: “Human life has no meaning, except liturgically,” said the Protestant J.J. Von Allmer, “and not just human life, but the life of everything created.”
4. “We celebrate Sunday because of the venerable Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we do so not only at Easter but also at each turning of the week.” The Day of the Lord, 19.

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Wiki-images of a Resurrection painting and of Mary Magdalene and the Risen Lord are in the public domain.

Sunday word, 16 May 2010

Easter Sunday7, Ascension C (16 May 2010)

Ac 1. 1-11; Ps 47; Hb 9. 24-28; 10. 19-23; Lk 24. 46-53

Homily of Fr. Paul Panaretos, S.J.

Joy, Worship and Purpose

Gesu Parish capitalizes on the Solemnity of the Ascension to commission its neophytes, born anew in the pure water of baptism with the threefold name of God, sealed by Holy Spirit and sustained by the eucharist. What I say to you, Angel, Beth and Jim, I say to all because the sacrament of the eucharist sustains the baptism of each person, and because this is not the end of your formation but the commencement of it as fully initiated members of Jesus’ body in the world, the church. First, a word about the Ascension of the Lord.

The Ascension is not a separate event but one with Jesus’ resurrection. Limited by space and time as we are, we appreciate them separately. We separate the strands of the paschal mystery to appreciate better the entire mystery and notice how it is inviting us now. Luke’s use of the phrase, forty days, has less to do with time and more to do with its scriptural sense, God’s revelation. When received, one notices things of great moment and interest. A few examples: a new creation after the forty days Noah and his family were in the ark; Moses was on Mt. Sinai for forty days before receiving the commandments; forty days Elijah tarried on and around Mt. Horeb before he received God’s revelation for his future; and Holy Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness forty days before he began his prophetic ministry. All divine desires more than human ones.

The church never divided Jesus’ ascension from his resurrection. The fact that a diocese may observe this solemnity on Thursday or Sunday emphasizes God’s revelation in Jesus by their Spirit more than human time. God’s revelation fulfills humans, gives shape and purpose to our lives and makes our baptisms our shared vocation to be apostles and witnesses of Jesus’ dying and rising to our world today. I note one feature shared by the first apostles and us as we consider our role as witnesses of Jesus’ dying and rising in which we share: blessing. That this blessing was not an impersonal feature Luke was clear: As [Jesus] blessed them he parted from them. Three things to note: joy; worship and purpose.

Jesus’ blessed parting from the disciples meant Jesus was present with them in a way different from the way he had been. When a child physically lives apart from parents because of school or marriage, say, the parents and child remain related and in a new way. Jesus blessed his disciples, promising to abide with them. They reacted not with grief but with worship, showing the risen Lord esteem, not asking him for anything. Their worship and esteem overflowed with great joy, because Jesus was their joy.

Humans can be distracted from their joys, as we know. Perhaps we share the disciples’ first distraction, namely not having Jesus with us bodily as he was once with them. While we are not told why they stood there looking at the sky, looking at the sky distracted them from their purpose Jesus gave them, not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for “the promise of the Father about which you have heard me speak.” With that promised presence of Jesus with them and his Spirit’s new energy filling them, not only would they be different—liberated and confident—they would change the world.

Into this Christian joy, worship and purpose you have been initiated, Angel, Beth and Jim. Into this Christian joy, worship and purpose you have joined us. You remind us that your Christian joy, worship and purpose are ours, that they make us different and commission us to change the world by them. While your initiation into the Easter Sacraments has been a moment of overwhelming blessing for you, remember that it has also blessed us by renewing our Christian joy, worship and purpose with you for the sake of our world.

In your daily 15 minutes with Jesus this week, bask in the living light of our triune God. Ask the disciples to present you to Jesus. Hear Jesus speak to you in his words to them and feel him bless you. Ask Jesus for the grace to allow him to live in and through you. Close, saying slowly the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus’ words on our lips, Father...hallowed be your name, help us pay homage and esteem to God for who God is before we ask God to supply any need we may have.

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Wiki-image of an image of the Ascension is in the public domain,