In the Eastern churches, Christians greet each other on Easter Sunday morning not by saying “Happy Easter”, but with the acclamation: “Christ is risen, Alleluia!”  To which the other immediately responds, “Truly, he is risen! Alleluia!”  Let’s try that?  … Again, a little louder, like you mean it …?      

The Eastern churches have another custom.  They believe that when Christ rose from the dead, he had the last laugh on Satan.  And for this reason, Easter is a special time for joke-telling and humour, for laughter and merriment.  So here is this year’s Easter joke. 

And that, my friends, is why there is fresh snow on the ground for Easter this year!  But believe it or not, there's actually a point to this joke!   For you see, it is tempting to see Easter just as “another holiday”: an excuse for another long weekend, an opportunity to get out of town, to gather with family and friends for a big meal.   Is Easter just a yearly boost to the chocolate-egg, jelly-bean, and Sunday-brunch industry?  Or might it be something far, far more important?

We are here in Church today.  Might it be that we sense – however we might express it – that Easter means something far deeper than all this?  Easter is about new life – about Resurrection.  We all know about life – and death.  In fact, most of us have been touched by the reality of death, in one way or another.  Early this week, we received news that our former Archbishop, Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte, is very close to death and has been admitted to palliative care.   Perhaps some of you have also lost a loved one this past year.  Maybe you’ve have had to make radical adjustments in your life: a retirement or job loss, a broken or strained relationship, a life-threatening or chronically debilitating illness. If you are not currently going through this yourself, chances are someone who is near to you is: a sibling, parent, child, friend, neighbour, or co-worker.   Such experiences bring us face to face with our mortality – but also with our hope in something beyond this life, in a reality that exists beyond the grave. 

Throughout these past few days, we have seen this beautifully portrayed in the liturgies enacted here in this very church.  It was truly amazing on Holy Thursday evening to witness how, after having their feet washed by Deacon Richard and myself, twelve members of the congregation went out to wash and dry the hands of their fellow parishioners.  They did so with gentleness and seriousness, knowing this was not just a symbol or gesture, but an expression of the way they serve within and beyond the walls of this church.  Visiting the sick, feeding the hungry, preparing children and adults for the sacraments, reaching out to the lonely and grieving, helping to make our liturgies both prayerful and meaningful, living their faith at home, at work, in the neighbourhood – serving others in the name of Christ.   

On Good Friday, I was profoundly moved by the sight of hundreds of people – old and young, from so many nations and cultures – approaching to venerate the Cross of Christ, laying at the Lord’s feet whatever burden they happen to be carrying at this time, wiping a tear from their eye as they rose.   At our evening Way of the Cross, the younger members of our community helped us, in song and dance and drama and prayer, to see the connections between the sufferings of Christ and those of all of suffering humanity, both near and far.  At last night’s Easter Vigil, it was the sight of a dark church gradually coming to light as hundreds of tapers were lit from the single Paschal Candle: a powerful visual symbol of Christ appearing as Light in our darkness, triumphant over sin and death, inspiring us to renew the promises of our own baptism as we welcomed Tanya, Cindy, Brent, Iain and Ji into full communion with the Catholic Church.   Today on Easter Sunday, we are resplendent in Christ’s glory: the Cross empty, draped in Christ’s no longer needed shroud; the new Easter Candle lit, the water freshly-blessed, the church filled with sweet-smelling lilies and beautiful flowers. 

To celebrate Easter is to celebrate who we really are.  We are an Easter people, and Alleluia is our song!  But what does that really mean?  Here in this church, here in NDG, here in Canada, here in this world of economic, geopolitical, and environmental instability?  What does it mean to name and claim our identity as Christians and as Catholics, when in so many lands, our fellow Christians are subject to horrific persecution: in Iraq and Syria, in Egypt and Libya, in Kenya and Nigeria, in China and North Korea?  Easter tells us that Jesus has come to show us a different path: that he has come to lead us from hatred to love, from enmity to reconciliation, from death to life.   Jesus came that we might have life, life in abundance: not just in a heaven a million miles away, but right here and now, in the middle of our busy and complicated lives.  For each of us is precious in the sight of God: we have a divine origin and an eternal destiny.  We have been created by God; we are created for union with God.

It is now our task to claim that risen life that Jesus offers.  We have a choice.   We can remain within our walls, safe and sheltered from the storms that blow around us.  Or we can go out into the world, believing and knowing that this is where we will meet Christ.  For Christ is alive!  Everything Jesus did, everything he stood for, everything he claimed and promised, did not die with his death on the Cross.  Jesus’ message could not be suppressed or destroyed; it lives on, giving hope and direction and inspiration to millions upon millions of people down through the generations, in every time and place.  

But it is not only Jesus’ ideas and message that live on.  To believe in the Resurrection is to know that Jesus Himself lives on, that he has prevailed over sin and death.   That even in a world where still today, people are persecuted for their faith and for their commitment to justice and human dignity for all God’s children, Dr. Martin Luther King’s immortal words ring true: “Easter is our eternal reminder that this truth-crushed earth will rise again, that no lie can live forever.”  No lie can live forever – a wonderful thing for us to hear.  (Politicians, are you listening?)    

To celebrate Easter is to celebrate unconditional, mind-blowing, death-defying, life-giving love!  It is to stake our faith on a Crucified and Risen Lord, into whose death and new life we ourselves have been initiated through Baptism and Confirmation.  Today, as we renew our own baptismal promises, as we bless ourselves with the waters of new life, let us reclaim our identity as Catholic Christians.  In a secular world that is often dismissive and sometimes even hostile to our faith, that is indeed a challenge.  More than ever, we need the grace of courage, to be filled with the Holy Spirit Jesus breathed onto his disciples: when he rose from the dead, when he said to them: “Do not be afraid, it is I! Peace be with you!”    

We all have work to do in this regard.  Someone recently complained to me that they had stopped going to church because all the people there were hypocrites, and I spontaneously responded: “That’s true.  But there’s always room for one more!”  Maybe we have grown a little slack in the observance of our faith.  Like everyone today, we are busy – and there are always so many other things that need to be done on a Sunday morning.  Maybe we don’t come to church as often as we would like to – or should.  Maybe we find it hard to live up to all of the teachings of Jesus.  (I know I certainly do.) 

After all, none of us is perfect!  But isn’t that the point?  That Jesus comes to us precisely in our imperfection, and weakness, and sin?  That he comes to fan that spark of life within us into a living flame?  That seed was sown into our hearts the day we were created in God’s image and likeness; it was blessed and consecrated on the day of our baptism, when we were configured to Christ as members of his body.  Nothing and no one can take it away from us. 

One of my best friends, Bishop Don Bolen of Saskatoon, puts out a video-message every Easter.  I shared it on my Facebook page last night, and I share his words of wisdom and hope with all of you on this Easter day:

“In his death and resurrection, God takes upon himself all the darkness humans can muster, and transforms that darkness to light. We are redeemed by a boundless love. God’s mercy does not end there.  In the Spirit, God equips us too, to be agents of transformation in our world.  Entering into places of darkness and bringing light; to situations of despair, bringing hope, and joy for those who mourn; entering into places of conflict and violence, and bringing dialogue and peace. Bearing another’s burdens, giving of ourselves generously. And trusting always in God’s love. That is God’s way!  And even now we hear God say to us, this is the way of life, walk in it.  Whenever we see hope rise from despair, death transformed to life, and hate to love, we hear anew the redemptive strains of resurrection. Christ is risen, let us rejoice!”

So on this Easter day, let us proudly reclaim our faith in Christ’s resurrection.  Let us renew our commitment to follow Christ, serving Christ in one another, wherever we are sent: in the Church and in the world, in our families and workplaces, in our cities and nations.  Why?  Because Christ is risen, Alleluia!  Truly, he is risen! Alleluia!