Easter Sunday - Year C

 Easter People - Fearless People

“We are an Easter People; Alleluia is our song.”  This declaration was made almost 15 centuries ago by St. Augustine as an expression of Easter joy.  But living our joy and enunciating our faith in Jesus’ resurrection in our day-to-day existence is a big challenge.

With regard to this daily challenge, Latin American theologian Jon Sobrino shares a personal memory in his book “Christ the Liberator”.  About 30 years ago, Sobrino was present at a mass during which some of his fellow Jesuits were professing their religious vows.  At the celebration, Ignacio Ellacuria (one of the Jesuits who were murdered for the faith in El Salvador, Nov. 16, 1989) spoke of the importance of following Jesus by living as already risen beings.  Sobrino saw that he was accustomed to Ellacuria’s liking for historicizing the Christian faith.

Jesus resurrection in history means that we can continue to hope in a world grown dim with despair.  In raising Jesus, God liberated an innocent, unveiled the injustices done against him and crowned his saving sacrificial death with victory and life.  To live as risen beings in history is to share in all that God has done in Jesus and for Jesus.

Living as risen beings also means living free from fear.  Fear must never again be the motive for anything we do or do not do. At various times and in variety of ways, we fear deprivation, boredom, loneliness, failure, suffering, but at the root of all these fears, insists David Knight, is the fear of death.  Without our belief in resurrection death is the utter end of all; it is absolute loss.  But through our baptism into the dying and rising of Jesus, death is absolute gain.  Thereby we live as risen beings forever. 

Marvellous  was the transformation from fear to fearlessness in those who first experienced the power and reality of Jesus-risen.  They learned to readjust their priorities, concentrating not on the passing things of earth but on the things that are above (Col. 3:1-4, 2nd reading).  They could powerfully preach the good news of salvation (Acts 10:34, 36-43, 1st reading).  Their experiences with the crucified Messiah and with the empty tomb (Jn. 20:1-9) will provide renewed impetus for our own continued growth in faith and our commitment to live as risen beings until Jesus comes again.