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Easter Readings
First Reading: Acts 10:34A, 37-43
Psalm: Psalm 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23
Second Reading: Colossians 3:1-4
Gospel: John 20:1-9
Happy Easter! He is risen! Alleluia, alleluia! So, what does Easter mean to me? What is the importance of the resurrection?
Today I’m going to reflect on Paul’s reading that we used on Saturday night during the Easter Vigil, Romans 6:3-11. In the notes for the podcast today, you’ll find the readings for Sunday’s Easter mass. But I want to reflect on Paul’s reading from the Easter Vigil. Since Paul’s reading is not in the notes, I’d like to read a little bit of it to you.
“Brothers and sisters, are you aware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death, we were indeed buried with Him through baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead, by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.” He goes on to write, “We know that our old self was crucified with him, so that our sinful body might be done away with that we might no longer be in slavery to sin.”
Think about that phrase just for a second, “…in slavery to sin.”
What does this mean in relation to Easter? Here’s the bottom line: Christ was killed for us. His death washed away our sins. By dying, he defeated death itself. That’s it. As Christians, we may have different ideas about how all of this works, but this our common belief. As CS Lewis put it, “That is the formula. That is Christianity,” (Mere Christianity, 55). But there’s the catch. We have to say yes. You see, we have a choice. Jesus will never force himself on anyone. So, we have a choice.
Why would anyone refuse the offer?
That’s a good question and Paul gives us some insight through the phrase he uses, “…in slavery to sin.” You see, temptation and sin are so powerful a force that people find themselves trapped in a cycle of sin. Yes, that sin could be things like drugs and alcohol, but people can also become slaves to money, power, influence, new technology, pornography, sex, among other things. A slave cannot do whatever they want. They can only do what their master commands.
Maybe another way of looking at sin is through the language of addiction. An addict may lack the power to resist – to fight – to decide. To break the cycle of addiction, an addict needs help from the outside, but even then, it won’t work unless the addict is wants help.
Consider the life of Venerable Matt Talbot. Born in 1856 in Dublin, Ireland, the second of twelve children, his father and most of his brothers were heavy drinkers. In 1868 Talbot left school at the age of twelve and went to work in a wine store where he soon began “sampling their wares.” By the age of thirteen, he was considered a hopeless alcoholic. He was an alcoholic by the age of thirteen! But that didn’t stop him from getting work at various whiskey stores. He frequented pubs spending most or all of his pay and running up debts. When he ran out of money, he borrowed and scrounged for money. He pawned his clothes and boots to get money for alcohol and once he stole a fiddle from a street entertainer just so he could buy drink.
At age 28, he was broke and out of credit. He waited in the street outside a pub in the hope that somebody would buy him a drink. After several friends had passed him without acknowledging him, he went home humiliated. With the help of his pastor, he turned to God for help.
He was an alcoholic for 16 years, but Talbot stayed sober for the next forty years of his life. He once said, “Never be too hard on the man who can’t give up drink. It’s as hard to give up the drink as it is to raise the dead to life again. But both are possible and even easy for Our Lord. We have only to depend on him,” (Matt Talbot).
My brothers and sisters, I have good news! Like Matt Talbot, we are not alone! By our baptism, we have access to God’s grace. You see, when we pour water over a baby during a baptism or submerge an older child or adult in the water, it symbolizes what Paul is saying – we die with Christ. When the child or adult emerges from the water, it symbolizes the Resurrection – we rise with Christ.
St. Paul reminds us that by our baptism we have God’s grace – we have the power to nail our sins to the cross and with Jesus to experience the resurrection. For Christians the Resurrection at Easter is like the Passover. Easter means deliverance from the oppression of sin and failure to new life through baptism.
Our lives can demonstrate freedom from sin’s power and show the fruits of the resurrection in our lives. Paul uses strong images to get his message across. Those baptized into Christ have been “buried with him.” We are united with him in his death, but also in his resurrection. Christ “raised from the dead, dies no more.” The same is true for us: we died with him and now we are “living for God in Christ Jesus.”
This Easter, Jesus invites you and he invites me to look at the results of our Lenten sacrifices and, by the grace of God, to nail our sins to the cross so that we can experience the liberating freedom of the resurrection. The great challenge of Easter is of course how the resurrection will bear fruit in our lives, and that leads us to our homework.
Homework!
- Reflecting on my Lenten experience, what sins am I prepared to nail to the cross? In other words, what is new about my faith this Easter?
- Like Jesus who emptied himself out for all of us, ask yourself, “as a disciple, where and how am I being called to sacrifice in my life for the good of others?”
Do you got it? Do you get it? Are you going to do it? Well good! May each of us come to experience the joy of Easter! He is indeed risen! May Almighty God bless you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. +Amen!