We gather together as members of Christ’s Mystical Body to acknowledge and celebrate our Lord’s resurrection from the dead. This miracle directly involves each one of us. In this liturgy we confront the loving God’s plan in the following teachings of the Catholic Church. First in the incarnation that the word became flesh and dwelt among us. God Himself became man. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and was born of the Virgin Mary. He was like us in all things except that He was without sin. He is a Divine Person. His humanity is and will be part of His Divine Identity for all eternity. When Jesus ascended into heaven to the right hand of His Father forty days after today the disciples were with Him. We read in Acts
1:11 this , ‘And while they were gazing up to heaven as He went, behold, two men stood by them in white garments and said to them, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into heaven?” This Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven, shall come in the same way as you have seen Him going up to heaven.’ And how will that be? It will be in His humanity, in his glorified body at the final judgment.
We will share in the resurrection on the last day through the power of this miracle. At our death the soul is separated from the body, but since body and soul together are the identities of the human person. And the soul is the form of our personhood, body and soul will be reunited at the final judgment. But what is the judgment? and what does it mean for us?
All will rise on the last day but as Jesus declares in Mt. 25, He will separate the sheep from the goats. The sheep on His right will enter into the eternal kingdom and the goats on His left to whom He will say, “Depart from me…into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” The criterion in both instances was whether or not the corporal works of mercy where performed in the lives of the judged here on earth. The spiritual works of mercy are just as critical, however, as is the struggle against sin.
We read about the need for correction in the prophet Ezekiel. In the letter of St. James 5:20, “if anyone of you strays from the truth and someone brings him back, he ought to know that he who causes a sinner to be brought back from his misguided way, will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.”
And so we see the importance of the incarnation and the results of Christ’s coming in the sacrifice on the cross and the victory of eternal life over death in the resurrection.
However, there is another of the church’s teachings that we experience on this solemnity – That is the necessity and the flavoring of throughout life of the sanctifying grace received in the sacrament of baptism and because of and for its sake it the perching of the Gospel.
After the tomb was found empty and Jesus had encountered the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, he entered the upper room as we read in Mk 16:24, “At lengths he appeared to the Eleven as they were at table; and He upbraided them for their lack of faith and hardness of heart, in that they had not believed those who had seen Him after He had risen. And He said to them, “Go into the whole world and preach the Gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized shall be saved. But he who does not believe shall be condemned.” Thus were the apostles commissioned. The apostle Thomas who doubted that the Lord had risen later saw Him and believed. The tradition of the Church is that Thomas went to Southern India and preached the Gospel and there have been Catholics in the territory of Kerola ever since. Many of them are in this Diocese, as well as several priests in Dallas and Tyler.
In a few minutes we will renew our baptismal promises and be sprinkled with holy water to remind us of the magnificent gift and call that we have from Christ. In past ages before exploration began those souls in the West and the North did not know of those in the East and the South and vice versa. As was the case in Greece and Rome where many gods were worshiped so it was elsewhere. All people instinctively seek that which they know is outside of and above themselves. And of course there are those who only believe in themselves. And so the question arises as to whether Christ is just one other object of worship, one God among many. In this age of globalism there is an effort to form a one world religion that can override all differences and encompass all people.
But this does not satisfy man’s inner being. He can only be satisfied with the truth. And the truth is univocal. It only has one meaning. Therefore the need to evangelize is as necessary today as it has always been. If man really knows Christ he will love Him and follow Him. “Preach the Gospel to all creatures baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Baptism is the doorway to eternal life.
We have seen the importance of the incarnation, the judgment, the resurrection and of baptism. In this world it is crucial that the baptized receive the strength of God’s life into which they can grow and become like Christ in whose image their souls are made.
On Good Friday, when Jesus has died on the cross, His side was opened with a centurion’s lance. Blood and water poured forth. The signs of life, life in baptism and in the Eucharist, and the coming into existence of the Church which is Christ Himself.
All this is necessary to protect us from the devil and his Angels who hate Christ and all who serve Him. In the renewal of our baptismal promises, we are asked if we reject Satan, all his works and all his empty promises. Recalling also that in Baptism we died with Christ to live no longer for ourselves but for Him. That is the contest, the struggle we have each day.
We have experienced the risen Lord as the light of the world and our light. He says to us, “You are the light of the world and the salt of the earth. If salt loses its flavor what good is but to be thrown out and trampled under foot.”
The new Paschal Candle shining before us shows us the price that was paid in the five nails containing incense that send up to heaven the sufferings of Christ for our sake. He is risen. Let us rejoice and be glad.
1:11 this , ‘And while they were gazing up to heaven as He went, behold, two men stood by them in white garments and said to them, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into heaven?” This Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven, shall come in the same way as you have seen Him going up to heaven.’ And how will that be? It will be in His humanity, in his glorified body at the final judgment.
We will share in the resurrection on the last day through the power of this miracle. At our death the soul is separated from the body, but since body and soul together are the identities of the human person. And the soul is the form of our personhood, body and soul will be reunited at the final judgment. But what is the judgment? and what does it mean for us?
All will rise on the last day but as Jesus declares in Mt. 25, He will separate the sheep from the goats. The sheep on His right will enter into the eternal kingdom and the goats on His left to whom He will say, “Depart from me…into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” The criterion in both instances was whether or not the corporal works of mercy where performed in the lives of the judged here on earth. The spiritual works of mercy are just as critical, however, as is the struggle against sin.
We read about the need for correction in the prophet Ezekiel. In the letter of St. James 5:20, “if anyone of you strays from the truth and someone brings him back, he ought to know that he who causes a sinner to be brought back from his misguided way, will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.”
And so we see the importance of the incarnation and the results of Christ’s coming in the sacrifice on the cross and the victory of eternal life over death in the resurrection.
However, there is another of the church’s teachings that we experience on this solemnity – That is the necessity and the flavoring of throughout life of the sanctifying grace received in the sacrament of baptism and because of and for its sake it the perching of the Gospel.
After the tomb was found empty and Jesus had encountered the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, he entered the upper room as we read in Mk 16:24, “At lengths he appeared to the Eleven as they were at table; and He upbraided them for their lack of faith and hardness of heart, in that they had not believed those who had seen Him after He had risen. And He said to them, “Go into the whole world and preach the Gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized shall be saved. But he who does not believe shall be condemned.” Thus were the apostles commissioned. The apostle Thomas who doubted that the Lord had risen later saw Him and believed. The tradition of the Church is that Thomas went to Southern India and preached the Gospel and there have been Catholics in the territory of Kerola ever since. Many of them are in this Diocese, as well as several priests in Dallas and Tyler.
In a few minutes we will renew our baptismal promises and be sprinkled with holy water to remind us of the magnificent gift and call that we have from Christ. In past ages before exploration began those souls in the West and the North did not know of those in the East and the South and vice versa. As was the case in Greece and Rome where many gods were worshiped so it was elsewhere. All people instinctively seek that which they know is outside of and above themselves. And of course there are those who only believe in themselves. And so the question arises as to whether Christ is just one other object of worship, one God among many. In this age of globalism there is an effort to form a one world religion that can override all differences and encompass all people.
But this does not satisfy man’s inner being. He can only be satisfied with the truth. And the truth is univocal. It only has one meaning. Therefore the need to evangelize is as necessary today as it has always been. If man really knows Christ he will love Him and follow Him. “Preach the Gospel to all creatures baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Baptism is the doorway to eternal life.
We have seen the importance of the incarnation, the judgment, the resurrection and of baptism. In this world it is crucial that the baptized receive the strength of God’s life into which they can grow and become like Christ in whose image their souls are made.
On Good Friday, when Jesus has died on the cross, His side was opened with a centurion’s lance. Blood and water poured forth. The signs of life, life in baptism and in the Eucharist, and the coming into existence of the Church which is Christ Himself.
All this is necessary to protect us from the devil and his Angels who hate Christ and all who serve Him. In the renewal of our baptismal promises, we are asked if we reject Satan, all his works and all his empty promises. Recalling also that in Baptism we died with Christ to live no longer for ourselves but for Him. That is the contest, the struggle we have each day.
We have experienced the risen Lord as the light of the world and our light. He says to us, “You are the light of the world and the salt of the earth. If salt loses its flavor what good is but to be thrown out and trampled under foot.”
The new Paschal Candle shining before us shows us the price that was paid in the five nails containing incense that send up to heaven the sufferings of Christ for our sake. He is risen. Let us rejoice and be glad.
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