This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad! This is our Psalm response for today, and it will be the Gospel Acclamation every day this week. This whole Octave of Easter is to be seen as one day, the glorious Day on which Jesus Christ rose from death to new life. In our Psalm today we also read, “By the LORD has this been done; / it is wonderful in our eyes.”
We have just finished following Jesus through the events of Holy Week, from his entry into Jerusalem, through the Last Supper, the agony in the garden of Gethsemane, and his Passion, Death, and Burial. Jesus was nailed to the Cross. He died and was buried. We spent yesterday in the tomb with him. Our normal expectation would be that his story is over. Nothing more can happen once a person is in the tomb. As the disciples on the road to Emmaus put it, “We were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel” – but apparently not, since the Romans executed him. So we might as well leave Jerusalem and go back to our everyday lives. And yet … no! He is risen from the dead and is alive again!
We should try to enter into the experience of surprise at Jesus’ Resurrection. He was dead, and is now alive, walking around, talking to his followers, eating and drinking with them? He was laid in the tomb on Friday, really and completely dead, and now he has walked back out of the tomb alive on Sunday morning? How can this be? It sounds impossible. But as the angel announced to Mary at the Annunciation, “nothing will be impossible for God” (Lk 1:37) – even raising Jesus from death to life.
We will see throughout the coming week, as we read many accounts of the days following Jesus’ Resurrection, that people had all kinds of reactions to the news. Some doubted. Some walked away, probably in disappointment and unbelief. Some would not believe when told by others, but later did believe when Jesus appeared to them. Some obstinately refused to believe and denied the Resurrection. Many were no doubt too busy with their own affairs to take the time to see for themselves what had happened. And some, like Mary Magdalene, earnestly and lovingly searched for the Lord until they found him.
The important point is that Jesus’ Resurrection stands as an invitation and a challenge to me, now, today. This is the day that the Lord has made. I must decide today, and every day, what response I will make to the Good News of Jesus’ Resurrection. Is this just an interesting story which has little practical effect on my life? Do I doubt that Jesus really rose from the dead? Do I hold back in fear of what God might have in store for me if I choose to believe and follow him with my whole heart? Or can I believe that God really has done this surprising thing, brought new life where there was only death?
Why does this matter? Because, as St. Peter says in the first reading, “Everyone who believes in him will receive forgiveness of sins through his name.” Jesus did not die and rise as some sort of magic trick. He did it to reconcile humanity to the Father, to win forgiveness and eternal life for us. Only in him is there hope of everlasting glory. In our condition of sin and weakness, we are as good as dead when it comes to achieving the true purpose of life – communion with God. It is simply impossible for us. We experience this over and over throughout life, as we see all too often our inability to love as we would want to. But the God who raised Jesus from death to life can also raise us from death to life. We see plainly in the Resurrection of Christ that, truly, nothing is impossible for God, even transforming each of us into a likeness to Christ!
This is the joy of this Day, that we have a God who can and does win the victory over sin and death. And so St. Paul urges us, “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.” As Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into the glory of Heaven, so we, too, will be raised into glory with him. This is not only a story about Jesus and his disciples two thousand years ago. It is our story!
If we believe this, then Paul tells us what we must do: “Let us celebrate the feast, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” “Clear out the old yeast!” This is our response: believe and rejoice in what God has done, and in what he shows us that he can do. Clear out the doubt and fear. Clear out the self-will, the pride, the sensuality, the clinging to the old ways.
Both the angel at the tomb, and then Jesus himself, tell the two Marys in the Gospel, “Do not be afraid!” The Psalm tells us to “give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, / for his mercy endures forever.” We have no reason for fear. Our God is showing us clearly that he loves us so much that he is ready to lay down his own life to bring us into union with himself. He is showing us that his love is stronger than sin and death. No matter how difficult our situation might be, we can say with the psalmist, “I shall not die, but live, / and declare the works of the LORD.” The dying into which we are called to enter with Christ is not to end in death; it is for a glorious resurrection!
Indeed, this is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad!
How does the “impossible” reality of the Resurrection challenge the way I view my own hopeless situations? What “old yeast” of my past am I still holding onto instead of letting God raise me to new life? In what ways is the Risen Lord inviting me to replace my fear with the surprise of his joy?
Excerpt from The Anawim Way, Volume 22, no. 4. More information about The Anawim Way may be found here.