Categories
HOMILIES

EASTER FEAR OR JOY?

This Easter homily is based on John 20:1-9.

What is remarkable about this Gospel story is the emotion that the women experienced as a result of their discovery of the empty tomb: Fear.

I wasn’t expecting that.

We are told that the women were so afraid they said nothing to anyone– exactly the opposite of what the angels had requested them to do. Of course we know that they eventually overcame their fear and disclosed their discovery to the other disciples.

Easter is supposed to bring joy, but isn’t it funny that the initial reaction of the women was fear?

There is something about us that is reluctant–if not suspicious–about good news. It’s almost as if we are more accustomed
to fear and sadness than to joy. We often end up doing what the women did after their encounter with the angel: We flee from good news!

The poet Hafez has written a beautiful line that is worth thinking and praying about:

happiness.204

It’s hard to believe what the poet is telling us: that happiness has been pursuing us. It’s astonishing!

Too often it doesn’t feel that way at all! Happiness seems all too elusive.

But this brings us to one important truth: Happiness is a choice,
a decision we have to make, but too often we fail to make that decision.

Imagine Happiness running down the streets in pursuit of you,
as the poet Hafez says. Why would we be running away
from Happiness? Could we be pursuing something else that we are mistaking for Happiness?

Or, is there anything in our life that is keeping us from dropping
our fear, our anger, our sadness–or whatever else is getting in the way of joy.

What would we lose if we made the choice today–right here and right now–to leave all that behind and to be happy?

Let’s think about that. And if you can, do something about it.

This Easter, make the decision  to let Happiness find you.

Categories
HOMILIES

HORROR VACUI

 

This homily is based on John 20:1-9.

Two great mysteries bookend our Lord’s lives–and they feel so different from each other. At the beginning, of course, is the birth of our Lord, which we celebrate at Christmas, and in the end, we have his resurrection, which we commemorate today as Easter.

The Christmas narrative seems to happen in slow motion, as if unfolding to a peaceful Christmas carol. All the Easter stories, on the other hand, seem to be always on fast forward. There’s a lot of confusion and a lot of frantic running around.

 

grafspoed_grt

Categories
HOMILIES

HOW FAST WOULD YOU RUN?

This homily is based on John 20:1-9.

There’s a lot of running that goes on at Easter. Every single account of that first Easter morning reports it. In today’s Gospel, Mary Magdalene discovers the stone rolled away from the tomb, and immediately she runs to Simon Peter, who, upon hearing her report, along with the beloved disciple, makes a run for the Lord’s burial place.

grafspoed_grt

Categories
HOMILIES

WHAT THE DISCIPLE SAW AND UNDERSTOOD

This homily was delivered on Easter Sunday, 20 April 2014, based on John 20:1-9.

Eugène Burnand: Peter and John Running to the Tomb
Eugène Burnand: Peter and John Running to the Tomb

This event is one of the earliest ones concerning the Resurrection; it happens early Easter morning. As we read from the Gospel, Mary Magdalene shows up at Jesus’ tomb while it is still dark, but is surprised and distressed to see the stone removed from Jesus’ tomb. So she rushes away to report this to Simon Peter and another disciple (whom many identify as the Evangelist) and tells them her very logical conclusion that the body of Jesus has been stolen.

Curious and disturbed about the news, the disciples decide to check it out for themselves. They’re understandably worried and clearly eager to find out because we’re told that they run to the tomb. In fact, the other disciple runs faster than Peter–either because he’s more fit or more desperate, we’re not sure–and arrives at the tomb first. We don’t know why, but probably out of courtesy, he does not go into the tomb until Peter gets there and in fact, he lets Peter go in first.