The Resurrection sounds insane if you’ve never met Christ. The Resurrection is not a metaphor or a way of saying Christ’s memory lived on. It is the claim that a dead man, a man who was tortured to death on the cross and buried in a tomb with a massive stone sealing him into it on Friday, was physically, bodily alive and appearing to people, walking around, and saying hi to his friends on Sunday.
Peter recounts that, “We ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.” Ghosts don’t eat. Visions don’t drink. Symbols don’t have breakfast on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.
This teaching is astonishing. There are plenty of things about our faith that people dislike, disagree with, or outright hate. But the Resurrection is different. You cannot keep the morality, the church, and the faith, but drop the empty tomb. If the tomb isn’t empty, it’s all meaningless. St. Paul himself says so. But if the tomb is empty, it’s all true.
Brothers and sisters: the tomb is empty. He is risen. Christ, the Good Shepherd, is now looking for each of us to bring us home. Like the good father of the prodigal son, Christ wants to welcome us home, call us by our name, and invite us into the feast. St. Paul writes, “our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us celebrate the feast.”
That word, therefore, means something is required of us right now, because we too have passed through death and resurrection with Christ.
Are we living like it?
Because the old ways of living are still there. St. Paul says that we celebrate, “not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” That old yeast of our former life is patient. It knows our patterns, the resentments we’ve been carrying, the comforts we’ve been settling for and calling contentment, the fears we’ve been calling realism, the smallness we’ve been calling humility.
The famous Paschal Homily of St. John Chrysostom instructs us: “Let no one weep for his iniquities, for pardon has shown forth from the grave. Let no one fear death, for the Savior’s death has set us free. He that was held prisoner of it has annihilated it.”
Pardon has shown forth from the grave. The Savior has set us free. Which of these old ways of living is ours? What must we hand over to Christ?
Haec dies quam fecit Dominus!
This is the day the Lord has made!
The tomb was empty. He has risen! Let us celebrate! Amen! Alleluia!