He is Risen indeed !
Acts 10:34a, 37-43; Colossian 3: 1-4; John: 20:1-9.
‘Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in and saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the Scripture that he must rise from the dead.’ John 20:1-9
Today our mother, the Holy Church, says to all her children: ‘Have faith’, but not any faith.
Rather have faith in God, who today raises Jesus Christ, his only Begotten Son, from the dead. Believe as though this is true, for the truth will set you free. [ Jn 8.23]
Easter faith, is God’s gift to us. We first receive this faith at our Baptism and we renew it each year at Easter. St. Paul reminds us today, ‘you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.’
Two events in this ‘Year of Faith’ point us towards that glory.
The first is, this is the 1700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed. This Creed takes its name from the ancient city of Nicea, today modern Iznick in Turkey. It was there that after much debate the First Ecumenical Council of bishops in the year 325 AD met and agreed on a statement of faith they could sign.
Secondly, in this year 2025 the whole Church, East and West, celebrates Easter on one rather than on two separate dates. Today the Universal Church in all its diversity, worships in the Spirit the One True God who raised Jesus his Son from the dead.
The Gospel today describes how on the first Easter morning the two disciples, Peter and John, ran to the tomb of Jesus after Mary Magdalene had reported that she had found the tomb empty. It was John the beloved disciple who on arriving first stooped to look in, where he saw the linen cloths lying there, Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus'[a] head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself.
Then John followed Peter into the empty tomb, and we are told he saw and believed.
What was it that John saw and was moved to believe? For John the linen grave cloths appeared as a sign, a powerful sign of hope that Jesus had risen.
Nevertheless, they did not understand the Scripture that he must rise from the dead.
Faith, we learn, always comes before understanding.
As the author of the Letter to the Hebrews reminds us, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
And it is this conviction of things not seen that generates in us the deepest expectation that he will appear again in glory at the end of time. In the meantime Christ has left us the sacrament of his precious body and blood, signs that he is with us and will come again.
‘We waited, and at last our expectations were fulfilled’, writes the Serbian Bishop Nickolai of Ochrid, describing the Easter service at Jerusalem.
‘ When the Patriarch sang ‘Christ is risen’ a heavy burden fell from our souls. We felt as if we also had been raised from the dead. All at once, from all round, the same cry resounded like the noise of many waters, ‘Christ is risen’ sang the Greeks, the Russians, the Arabs, the Serbs, the Copts, the Armenians, the Ethiopians – one after another, each in his own tongue, in his own melody…. Coming out from the service at dawn, we began to regard everything in the light of the glory of Christ’s Resurrection, all appeared different from what it had been yesterday; everything seemed, more expressive, more glorious. Only in the light of the Resurrection does life receive meaning.’
Bishop Nickolai, who died in 1952, vividly describes in his Missionary Letters the sense of resurrection joy that the Orthodox believer experiences in Jerusalem at Easter at the tomb of Christ as the New Fire spreads through the crowd.
This is the same experience for all churches as they keep the vigil and wait for the proclamation of the good news of Christ’s resurrection after the Paschal Candle is lit.
For over a thousand years there has been a schism between the ancient churches of the Eastern Orthodox tradition and those churches here in the Catholic West. This scandal of schism is increased by celebrating Easter on two different dates.
But this year, 2025, is, as I’ve already indicated,a year when the two calendars coincide.
To celebrate Jesus rising from the dead on two fixed dates each year makes nonsense of Easter.
The central truth of the unity of Gospel is that Christ died and rose once and for all.
The good news is that the present Pope and the Ecumenical Patriarch are seeking to agree on one date for Easter as a sign of a growing unity and a healing of the division between the Churches.
Last Maundy Thursday we also remember how, after Jesus had washed his disciples’ feet – a sign of loving service - he had told them, ‘A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
The love of Christ we Christians have for one another is our greatest witness to Christ in every age. If we Christians are divided we betray our Lord’s command and the Good News of his resurrection.
In our present world, a world ruled by Satan, sin and death, where people and nations are torn apart in the most terrible ways, the message of the love of Christ and his resurrection could not be more urgently needed. We therefore must continue to seek in humility those things that unite us – so that by our deeds as well as our words Christ is known in this present age.
In our ordinary experience it is so often when night is at its darkest, when every hope seems to have gone, when the tomb is empty and void, that the risen Lord comes and greets us ,and faith and hope arise unexpectedly in our hearts.
Then in the words of the Nicene Creed we confess, I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.
May all be assured of this hope today!
‘in the light of the glory of Christ’s Resurrection says Bishop Nickolai, all appeared different from what it had been yesterday; everything seemed more expressive, more glorious. Only in the light of the Resurrection does life receive meaning.’
Christ is risen alleluia, he has risen indeed Alleluia!