Editor’s note: This is Bishop’s Easter Homily.
“Who will roll back the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” (Mk 16:3)
When I heard this question in the Easter gospel, it translated in my head to: “Who is going to be there for them now?” It is the reverberation of the question many of us ask when faced with the death of a friend or a loved one, especially a person who has been there for us in whatever life throws at us.
So, sisters and brothers, one can palpably feel today the emotion behind the women’s question. “Who will roll back the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb…who will let daylight back into our lives?” I remember my mother telling me a few years ago of her own experience when her mother died very suddenly on an August afternoon in 1965 when I was only two years old and my younger brother was just two months old. She said that it was like someone had turned out the lights and she wondered in the days and weeks that followed if the sun would ever shine in her life again.
This holy day, we have joined the holy women as they keep watch for the dawn to anoint Jesus’ body. Mary Magdalene and the other women did not have the benefit of two thousand years of faith in the resurrection; they only knew Jesus was dead. In our own lives, brothers and sisters, in the face of death, although we have heard like these same women, Jesus proclaiming that he is the resurrection and the life – we may still wonder what it all means!
Our gospel tells us that the sun did rise that first day of the week after Jesus’ death on the cross – but even today in 2024, we may be looking for it to shine in our lives – to scatter the darkness that fills the tombs within us, so we wonder who can roll back the stone blocking out the light? Like the holy women, we might find it hard to imagine that God will not only roll away the heavy stone – the heaviness of our hearts – but that Jesus would trample sin and death and resurrect humanity’s shattered faith.
Yet, sisters and brothers, that is what this holy day is all about! In the light of the Easter candle, we can see that Jesus the Risen One has removed – literally, demolished – every obstacle – sin and death, doubt and despair! This candle’s light reminds us that Jesus Christ is the first light of a new creation, a second Genesis. His resurrection is a new day for our human family, a day in which death becomes not an end in itself but a “passover” – a “pass-over” into the life of God. This candle reminds us that in every moment of our lives, in every storm that batters our little boat, in every cross we struggle to overcome, Christ is with us, lighting the way, bearing our crosses with us, assuring us that we are always loved, forgiven and welcomed by the God who raises us to new life and offers us the gift of true refreshment and peace.
Nonetheless, like my mother many years ago, for some of us the joy of this day may be escaping us? What if one feels weighed down by worries and burdens – where is this joy to be found? Let me suggest that the answer is to be found in the candles that were carried last night and in the candle we were entrusted with at our baptism.
A brother priest once wrote this regarding the power of the Resurrection:
“Last week, the Resurrection took on another new meaning for me. It was a particularly hectic week. I felt as if I were running from pillar-to-post starting fires in some places and putting them out in others. The last thing I wanted to hear at the end of the day on Friday was that I had a visitor.
“Before I had a chance to respond to the announcement, a young woman appeared at my office door and asked if we could talk. My voice responded, ‘Certainly,’ but my heart begged her to let me finish clearing off my desk.
“It is not with any sense of pride that I tell you that I didn’t clear off my desk, but rather sat down to talk with and listen to this stranger who really needed help. Her story was long and it was heartbreaking. And when I realized how much more difficult it was to tell than to listen, I forgot what chores I had left undone, and listened with my whole heart and soul.
“That young woman left my office many hours later, still carrying with her the same problems that she had brought in. But she also left knowing that she was not alone and that someone thought she was important enough to hear her out.
“For my part, I was reminded that one of the messages of the Resurrection is that we are never alone. I learned that when we make ourselves more consciously present to others, when we pay attention to them – we resurrect them – we give them new life, just as Jesus gave it to you and me.”
So, brothers and sisters on this Easter morning/night, “This is why we flock to his new creation: God always does what is good for man. He discovers him little by little, softly he opens our eyes, for nothing is impossible for God, since he gives himself.”
There is no need for us to fret and worry: “Who will roll back the stone…from the entrance to the tomb?” Alleluia, He is Risen!
