Easter Day (Fr. Guiliano)

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
     his mercy endures for ever.
 
Let Israel now proclaim
     his mercy endures for ever.
 
Our Psalm reminds us of the great truth of Easter Day. The mercy of God is from everlasting to everlasting. It springs from his goodness; it has always been present in human life; it always will be. For “he is good; his mercy endures for ever…”
         
That mercy is the ground of our being and the source of our salvation. In his goodness, God made the worlds, and “when we had fallen into sin and become subject to evil and death,” God sent his only and eternal Son “to share our human nature, to live and die as one of us,” to reconcile us to God, the Father of All. Jesus stretched out his arms upon the cross, and offered himself in obedience to God’s will as a perfect sacrifice. In this way, he made atonement for every sin – from Adam’s to our own -- and he showed forth once more that eternal truth: God “is good.” All the time! “His mercy endures for ever.”
 
No sin could separate us from God’s love – not ultimately; no wickedness, no transgression, no evil within or without. God’s mercy remains present at every moment. Centuries ago, he spoke these words through the prophet Jeremiah: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I have continued my faithfulness to you.”
That is good news for us this morning. It should free our hearts and our voices, bringing us to praise. We should say with the Psalmist: “The Lord is my strength and my song; and he has become my salvation.”
 
Our praise should resound this day, filling the Church and spilling out onto the streets, such that passersby on foot or in cars should say, “There is sound of exultation and victory in the tents of the righteous.”
 
They should hear our joy as we sing:
 
          The right hand of the Lord has triumphed!
          The right hand of the Lord is exalted!
          The right hand of the Lord has triumphed!
 
We raise together that Easter refrain: “Alleluia, Christ is risen. The Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia!”
  
What else does this eternal mercy mean for us, beloved? I point you to our Scriptures which provide us with assurance, which tell us of the expansiveness of God’s purposes for us, and which provide a way of living in this world.

First, assurance. When Mary Magdalene and Peter and John went to the Garden of the resurrection, they did not expect to find their Lord alive. This is clear from all the Gospels. The disciples of Jesus expected to find him dead, vanquished, overcome. He had foretold his crucifixion; he had also foretold his rising; they did not believe. Even when they came to the tomb, they did not understand, not at first. It took something else. Consider Mary Magdalene who was blessed as the first to know of Christ’s rising: she found the empty tomb, she told the others, she lingered in the garden in her sorrow. She saw angels; it did not matter; she saw Jesus himself, and mistook his appearing; she heard him ask “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?”

Then, he called her name: Mary. The Lord called her name, and so she found him whom her soul loved, and she was entrusted with the task of proclaiming his rising.

That is assurance. Whether we are firm believers this Easter Day or those with doubts, we may know this morning: God the Son is seeking us out. It may take much for us to believe. We may doubt the evidence; we may doubt his messengers; but he comes to meet us. He acknowledges our ignorance, our sadness. He call us by name. | We imagine that we are seeking God, don’t we? In truth, God seeks us, and he will find us. He will assure us. He will speak our name, and say in our ears those comforting words of the prophet: “I have loved you with an everlasting love.”

The Lord will also show to us the great things that he plans for our lives.

Jeremiah’s prophecy, our first lesson, was a promise given to Israel as it was going into exile. They had been destroyed as a people, scattered to the four winds; they experienced losses that few of us can imagine. But God promised to them a restoration, a discovery of grace “in the wilderness” of their suffering, when they sought rest and solace. Their life lay in ruins, and God said, “Again I will build you…” Their voices were silenced by horrors; they could not lift their voices in song, and God said, “Again you shall take your tambourines, and go forth in the dance of the merry-makers…” They were brought low, deprived joyless; and God said, “Again you shall plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant, and shall enjoy the fruit…”

That same is true for us on Easter Day, or whenever our life lies in ruins or our joy is squelched. “I will build you,” God says. You shall dance; you shall have joy. And why? Because Christ our Lord is risen, trampling down death by death and giving life to those in the tombs. He stands as an eternal sign of God’s victory, and he extends that victory to us today.

We may be raised with Christ. He has shared in our death; we may share in his life. He has conquered our sins; and he calls us to walk in newness of life in this world, in the joy of Easter. He summons us through his apostles to cast our vision upwards. As Paul wrote in the letter to the Colossians:

“Seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”

We are not just ordinary people, living quotidian and boring lives. We are Easter people, transformed by our sharing in the Lord’s death and resurrection. Our true life is with him.

So what are these things that are above, on which we must set our minds? Are they angels strumming heavenly harps? Are they planets in their courses? Are they the saints who have gone before us?
 
These are all worth contemplating, but not what Paul has in mind. Those things that are above are named by him later in chapter 3 of his letter. We have died with Christ, he says. So must put away what is earthly in us: that is, our evils, our immorality, our wicked passions.

We are to live our true life now, the true life of those who have been made new, clothed with Christ, remade in the knowledge of our Maker. We must put on “kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. […] bearing with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgiving each other.” Just as the Lord has forgiven us, we also must forgive. And “above all, we must clothe ourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”

These are the things that are heavenly, the things that are above, the things of Christ, the life of Christ’s resurrection that is to be lived now, the revealing in our time of the goodness and mercy of God that last for ever, the gifts that are ours from now to eternity. God is good. All the time. “His mercy endures for ever.”

It is Easter, my friends. The world is made new, and we too are made new, if we have shared in Christ and received the gifts he offers. As you leave today, do not forget these things. Hold them firmly in your mind; let your heart rejoice in the truth. For “The Lord is our strength and our song; he has become our salvation.” Though he died, he lives, and he is present with us.

“The same stone which the builders rejected
has become the chief cornerstone.
This is the Lord’s doing,
and it is marvellous in our eyes.
On this day, the Lord has acted.
We will rejoice and be glad in it.”
 
Alleluia, Christ is risen. The Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia.