Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church

Homily for April 16, 2006
Liturgical Year B-Cycle II
Easter Sunday
By Fr. Joshua Nyoni
Topic: The Power of the Resurrection
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Reading I
Acts 10:34a, 37-43
Peter proceeded to speak and said: “You know what has happened all over Judea,  beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached,  how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power. He went about doing good and healing all those oppressed by the devil,  for God was with him. We are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree. This man God raised on the third day and granted that he be visible, not to all the people, but to us, the witnesses chosen by God in advance, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commissioned us to preach to the people and testify that he is the one appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead. To him all the prophets bear witness, that everyone who believes in him will receive forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Reading II
Col 3:1-4
Brothers and sisters:
If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory.

Gospel
Jn 20:1-9
On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark,  and saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter  and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them,  “They have taken the Lord from the tomb,  and we don’t know where they put him.” So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first; he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in. When Simon Peter arrived after him,  he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there,  and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. Then the other disciple also went in,
the one who had arrived at the tomb first,  and he saw and believed. For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.
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Something had happened to Peter that completely changed and transformed his life.  He had changed, you will remember, from a betrayer, denying Jesus, to what we have just heard today, a bold and powerful and even fearless preacher.  Something has taken place in his own life.  It was the experience of Jesus that changed him.  We have to note what changed us.  What does change us is our experience, our personal encounter with the Lord Jesus.  Of course, a discourse for instance on prayer, or whatever, that will not change us unless and until we come to that point when we kneel and pray.  It is prayer that can really change us.  It is prayer that can make a difference in our life.
 
Peter had eaten with Jesus, had seen Him suffer, had seen Him being scourged, had seen Him being put into the tomb.  Not only that, having seen Jesus raised, he was as it were, empowered to be a witness and to be, I will qualify here, a true witness.  
 
When we talk about witnessing, what do we know?  We are talking about giving testimony to what you have seen, you have heard, you have touched.  We use our five senses.  Is that Ok?  Yes, we give witness to what we have seen, heard or have touched, all that.  I know that there are some who give witness to something else and I am not speaking of that.  We all know, of course that there is also the sixth sense.  We call it common sense, which sometimes I understand is not so common.  Peter was giving witness to what he had seen and what he had experienced.  We, too, especially today, ask someone to give testimony, to give witness to that resurrection, to live a life that is new.  Who brings newness to that life?  It is Christ. 
 
In the letter to the Colossians, Paul admonishes the Christians to have their values straight.  He wants their thoughts, their eyes to be set on Jesus, to be fixed on Jesus.  In fact, what he is writing is that their minds and their hearts be set out on the things of eternity.  He was speaking to us also, to view life, to view everything, against the background of eternity and not to live in this world as if this world is all that there is or is all that mattered.  It is a pity that we have Christians who live like that.  They live in this world as if there is nothing beyond, nothing to come and you should take your time and enjoy.  There is something more to this world, something more to live for. 
 
Just as in daily life we speak of some people, for instance, we say, “Music is his/her life.”  When you see him moving, you see music.  I think there are some people like that.  Or there are some who say, “Sports are all their life.”  I see some people having sports here and there.  Some people who live for work, who are workaholics.  Some of these people live and see nothing but work.  For them, everything is work.  For Paul, Christ must become our life.  When he writes to the Philippians, he says, “For me to live is Christ.”  (Phil 1:21).  To the Galatians, he says, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.”  (Gal 2:20).  If you are a genuine Christian, I think Christ must be important to you, to each one of us.
 
In the Gospel today, John gives us the reaction of three people reacting to the empty tomb.  The first one is Mary of Magdala.  The second one is Peter and the third one is that disciple who is described as “and the other disciple whom Jesus loved.”  When Mary saw the empty tomb, she was disturbed.  She presumed that Jesus’ body had been stolen, and her concern was to find that body.  Where is that body?  Where have they put that body?  In this, what do we see?  We see that she began her search that had begun even earlier than that, her search for Jesus, her search for God.  That is what must characterize us, as Christians, is that search for God.  We must try and find God.  Where is he?  Of course, he eludes us many times, but we mustn’t get tired.  It is a pity that some Christians get discouraged in that search for God. 
 
We must continuously look for him until we find him.  John tells us of what Peter saw, but he offers us no description of Peter’s reaction to the tomb, which might mean that Peter did not know what to think.  Lastly, John tell us that the “other disciple…saw and believed.”  I think we get a little idea of what has happened here.  Just after seeing, he thrusts himself into believing.  What exactly is this?  There seems to be a leap of faith from the empty tomb to the belief in the resurrection.  The sense of faith described here is that of loyalty, to be faithful to someone.  The other disciple saw and was moved to a type of loyalty or fidelity to Jesus that would not waver.  It would not waver even though the tomb was empty. 
 
From all of this, what we just found out, what does it mean for us today?  What does it mean to live a life of the Resurrection?  What does it mean to be an Easter person?  Easter is all about Jesus having risen.  It is about life; it is about leading and living a New Life.  How do we share in the Resurrection?  WE share in the Resurrection in the following ways.  Each time we love again, after being rejected, we share in the power of the resurrection.  Each time we trust again, after having our trust betrayed, we share in the power of the resurrection.  Each time we hope again after having our hopes shattered.  Each time we pick up the pieces, pieces of our lives and start again, we share in the power of the resurrection.  Just as Christ has conquered all and if our lives are hidden in Christ, nothing will destroy us, not pain, sin, rejection, or death.  We can conquer all through faith in Him.