Year C Easter Sunday

Year C Easter Sunday 31 March 2013

Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral Parish Sorsogon City

          Today is Easter Sunday.  On Good Friday we remember how Jesus suffered and died on the Cross for our sake and for Love of us.  On Black Saturday we remember the death of God for the life of man and we wait for His coming again, His resurrection, as was prophesied and He Himself promised.  And so today, Easter Sunday, the promise is fulfilled, the prophecy is perfected, God died and rose up again and took man with Him.  God who became man now brings man to become God.

          The message of Easter Sunday is tremendous and worth repeating over and over again to us and by us to others.  Especially this Year of Faith, we have to know our faith’s celebrations and the whys of these rejoicings.  Jesus has conquered evil; He has conquered devil; He has conquered death.  Death has no more power over Him.  Jesus now makes us participants to this divine action.  It is His action, but He makes us partakers in this tremendous triumph.  Because He has conquered evil we took conquer evil in Him.  Because He has conquered devil, we conquer the evil one in Him.  Because Jesus conquered death, we conquer death in Him. For, truly, we are not only Christians of the Cross, but also and especially of the Resurrection.  For, truly, we are not only Christians of Good Friday, but also and especially of Easter Sunday.  For, truly we are children of the light and of life and not of darkness and of death.  We are Christians not only of sorrow but also and especially of joy.  We are Christians full of love, faith and hope and we are averse to despair because precisely Jesus has conquered.  We are Christians of the Cross and especially of the Resurrection.  Joy therefore is the characteristic of Christians and not moroseness.  Excitement therefore and zeal are our stamps not boredom and laziness.  Faith and hope therefore are our shields and in us there is never a room for gloom and despair.

          Now we are tasked by God and, really, by our own selves, by our own conviction, to spread to others this message.  With the message, we become messengers of the Good News to others, to our family members, to those close to us.  We can do so by our words, by our writings, but most especially we can do so by our attitude in life, by our gestures, by our lives.  Our hopefulness in spite of every hurdle and difficulty in life makes others see in us the joy of the Resurrection.  Our zeal and hard work in spite of division and opposition make others see in us the hope of the Resurrection.  Our hope and strength in spite of tragedies and chaos around us make others see in us the assurance and assistance of the Resurrection.  This message is so strong and so life-changing that those who hear it instantly become messengers of it.  The message of Resurrections makes you and me messengers of Resurrection to others.  Christ resurrected makes you and me resurrected persons too who will wish others to be resurrected too.

          Sisters and brothers, as one, let us thank God for sending His beloved Son so that we may be sons in the Son.  We thank Jesus for giving us His life in so wondrous way as when He gave us His life on the Cross.  We thank God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit for defeating the evil, the devil and death and so therefore we defeat them in Him.  And now we renew the promises we made through our parents and godparents when we were baptized and we make them our own, as we declare once again that we are now willing messengers of this message.  We wish to rise again as Jesus is risen and we wish others to participate in this divine life.  Amen.