“Do not be
amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not
here.” Mark 16:6
I had the
chance of listening to a man on radio last week saying it is wrong to celebrate
Easter. He argued that the word “Easter” comes from the name of a certain
goddess called “Ish Tar” who had the shape of an egg and so on and so on. I
laughed because all my life I have been celebrating Easter but have never for
once heard about this neither have I ever done any form of homage to her. Jesus
has always been the focus of Easter.
For over
40days now, we have fasted, we have prayed, we gave alms, we partook of the
stations, we kissed the cross, we have so far tried to draw close to Jesus as
much as possible, why should someone now get up and begin to talk about
goddess? I mean, does the name “Easter” even matter? You see, the point behind
all these is that we can actually miss the point! Yes, we could become so
involved with liturgical accuracy, historical jingoism, Biblical scholasticism,
just name it, that we end up like the women looking for Jesus in an empty tomb.
Dear
friends, what matters is not how many days Jesus spent in the tomb, it’s not whether
or not God said we should celebrate this Feast, it doesn’t even matter what
name we call it; whether Passover, Resurrection, Sabbath or Easter. No, no, no!
What matters is what becomes of our lives henceforth after having heard all
these readings and participated of all these activities since that blessed
Valentine’s Day that so happened to be Ash Wednesday. So, what exactly has
happened to us in all of these? What has changed about us? St. Paul answers in
today’s Epistle:
“We know
that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again… So you also must
consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Romans
6:9-11. That is it! That is why we are here. The whole essence of Easter is how
we can put sin away from our lives. All these readings, all these many prayers,
all these singing, all these movements; everything we have been doing comes
down to just one point: SIN.
Easter is
not about eggs. When we celebrate Easter, we are celebrating our death to sin
and our new life in Christ Jesus. That is why we do baptism on Easter Night.
Watching these catechumens wearing white coming forward to receive baptism
reminds us of what our life should be; white, spotless, pure as the seventh
psalm sings. We ought to be moved to tears watching them make their profession
of faith, (renouncing Satan, his empty works and promises) when we look at our
own lives and see how we have failed.
Sin is the
one word that connects all our readings today. In the beginning when God
created the world, he saw that everything was good. Sin spoilt it all. God
chose Abraham and from him began a race to which we are members by virtue of
our faith. This new race was supposed to be in covenant with God; living above
sin to be a light (example) to the rest of mankind but then, this people kept
falling back again and again into sin. Even when God saved them from Egypt by
mighty works of valour, this people seemed to trust sin more than God.
God did
not give up on them; he sent the Prophets all of them with just one message:
WALK AWAY FROM SIN AND EMBRACE TRUE LIFE. Yet, they remained hardened. Isaiah
speaks of God as the beloved husband wanting to give water, money and comfort
to a wife (we) who is lost, hungry and penniless but as Baruch puts it, this
woman does not understand, she doesn’t want to accept wisdom, she despises the
law. Ezekiel delivers God’s message: the voice of the husband saying: Come back
to me; I will sprinkle clean water upon you, I will cleanse you from you dirt;
your love for sin; I will change your heart; I will be your God and you my
people.
Dear
friends, the summary of our celebration this night is simple: Die to sin. I
don’t want to know the meaning of Easter but I will continue to celebrate it so
long as it makes me hate my sins; die to my sins; love God and live according
to his commands.
Jesus is
Risen; rise with him, rise from immorality, rise from impurity, rise from bad
habits, from everything and anything that is foul, polluted and deadly. Jesus
rose two thousand years ago, Jesus is not rising again tonight; we are the ones
rising from the death of our sinfulness; our celebration only becomes real when
we leave our graves.
Become a
changed person. Rise from evil, rise from corruption, rise from wickedness,
rise from unforgiveness, rise from hatred, rise from lust, rise from greed. Arise!
Arise!! Arise!!!
Let us Pray: Lord Jesus, create in me a pure heart. May my life from now
on be new and different, strengthen me in the battle against sin. Amen.
Be Happy.
Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. God bless you. (Easter
Vigil. Year B. Bible Study:Gen.1:1-2:2,
Gen.22:1-28, Ex.14:15-15:1, Isa.54:5-14, Isa.55:1-11, Bar.3:9-15, 32-4:4,
Ez.36:16-28, Rom.6:3-11 and Mark 16:1-7).
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