Sunday the 5th of April 2026 - Easter Sunday - The Resurrection of The Lord

Acts 10:34a, 37-43/ Psalm 118(117):1-2. 16-17. 22-23/ Colossians 3:1-4/ John 20:1-9

Imagine running to the tomb on that first Easter morning, heart pounding with grief and confusion. You arrive and see the stone rolled away, the tomb empty except for the grave clothes. That same empty tomb is calling to us today with the greatest news in history. Today is not just a remembrance of a past event, it is a living reality. Jesus is risen.

In the Gospel today, we hear about the other disciple who reached the tomb with Peter. We know this to be John, but he is left unnamed for a reason. He stands for every one of us. God is inviting each of us to enter that tomb today, to look inside, to see that it is empty, and to believe, to understand what a wonderful truth this is.

What are we believing? We believe that Jesus, the second person of the Holy Trinity, became human like us. He suffered and died as one of us, but then He shattered the chains of death. Just as we share in the death of Jesus through Baptism, we also share in His glorious resurrection. This is the foundation of our faith. The Church teaches that the Resurrection is the crowning truth of our faith. It is the centre of everything we are as believers. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then everything we teach and believe is a fraud. Without the resurrection, Jesus would simply be a person remembered for being good who met an unjustifiable and tragic end. Jesus is much more than that. The central teaching of the apostles, once they received the power of the Holy Spirit, was that Jesus is Lord and He is risen.

Why do we believe this? Think about that first Easter Sunday. The tomb was empty. Could someone have stolen the body and perpetrated the biggest fraud of all time? Absolutely not. The disciples were terrified. They had abandoned Jesus in His hour of need and were hiding away in a locked room. All their hopes and dreams had been dashed. The tomb was guarded by a team of Roman soldiers specifically to prevent the body from being removed. The disciples where simple people, they had no means, no reason, and no opportunity to steal the body of Jesus. If the Roman or Jewish authorities had removed the body, they would have surely presented it. That would have convincingly scuppered any suggestion of a resurrection, but no such action occurred.

Consider what happened next. The initial doubt and disbelief of the disciples prove the resurrection is true. They went from hiding in hopeless despair, to confident, bold witnesses. Once they received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, they fearlessly preached the resurrection to all. They were prepared to suffer and die for what they knew to be true. Indeed, all but one of the apostles died as martyrs for this belief. People do not tend to suffer torture and death for a lie. What motive would justify the persecution they were willing to suffer? They went to their deaths convinced that Jesus had risen. Even Saint Paul, who was initially dedicated to destroying the early Christian faith, was completely transformed. The risen Jesus personally spoke to him, and Paul became one of the greatest preachers of the faith. The growth of Christianity thriving under an occupying force and facing severe persecution supports the truth of the resurrection. These witnesses in the New Testament were not fraudsters or deceivers.

In our modern world, it can sometimes feel that Christan faith has waned as people turn to the world for all their needs. We are constantly bombarded with opinions that can obscure the truth of what we see in the empty tomb. There is a story about two people marvelling at the sheer magnificence of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. One asked the other why we cannot build magnificent buildings like this any longer. The companion gave a profound answer, replying that the people who built that cathedral had faith, but today we only have opinions. You cannot build a cathedral with opinions. The same is true of our Christian life. We cannot build a life of everlasting hope on opinions. We need the rock-solid faith of the empty tomb which is the guarantee of our own resurrection. The celebration of Easter gives us the hope we need in a world that can be full of pain, sorrow, and fear. Easter reminds us that life is truly worth living. The real, living presence of Jesus is in our souls, in the Church, in the Blessed Sacrament, and He reigns in His heavenly Kingdom.

In the second reading today Saint Paul tells us that since we have been raised with Christ, we must seek the things that are above. What does that mean for our daily life? We are no longer bound by the petty opinions and passing worries of this world. Our minds are set on the glorious reality of heaven. In the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we see this boldness in action. Peter stood up and fearlessly proclaimed that Jesus is Lord. He declared that they ate and drank with Jesus after He rose from the dead. This was not a ghost or a hallucination. This was the physical, victorious, risen, Son of God.

This trust in the resurrection gives us the incredible strength we need to face the temptations, worries, and fears of this mortal life. The message of Easter is that we are resurrection people. We must not lie buried in the dark tombs of our sins, our bad habits, our addictions. God is calling us out of the tomb. No tomb of despair, no tomb of discouragement, not even death itself can hold us. For Christians, every single day should be an Easter day. We are called to live joyful lives filled with the real presence of the Risen Lord. We should be known to everyone by our lives of love, mercy, compassion, and sacrificial service. We are now the bearers of the Good News. We have the same mission as the first disciples. If the world does not hear this wonderful message from us, who will it hear it from? If the message of the resurrection is not heard, the world will only hear other messages of despair and not our message of eternal life.

This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice in it and be glad. May God bless us as we live in the joy of the Resurrection

God Bless Brendan