First Sunday of Easter
(Acts 10:34a.37-43;
Colossians 3:1-4 [or I Corinthians 5:6b-8]; Luke 24:1-12)
Americans like to make
verbs out of nouns. They talk about “googling” a word on the Internet to learn
its significance. To “photoshop” a person is to set her image into another
photo by means of the “Photoshop” application. Most everyone understands what
these new verbs mean. The experience of using the Google search engine or the
Photoshop application is so wonderful that it is recorded in memory. Something
similar can be done with the noun "Easter."
We can talk about eastering
a person. It is giving the person the experience of Easter in its fullness. It
is to fill her or him with joy, hope, and the desire to tell others about the
risen Christ. Eastered people are seen throughout the resurrection narratives
in the New Testament.
Peter is an eastered
person. He shows it in the encounter with Jesus on the shore of the lake. He
and other disciples have returned to Galilee after Jesus' resurrection. They
are fishing when the disciple that Jesus loves recognizes him on the shore. Peter
immediately jumps into the water to be the first to welcome him. It seems that
sheer joy drives Peter forward.
Once this kind of Easter
joy was seen in our society. On Easter Sunday everyone wore new clothes to
church. Then they went out into the streets to share the spirit of Easter.
Unfortunately, these customs have been lost. Perhaps it is because people have
lost the hope that the Lord's resurrection offers. They say, like the disciples
when they hear the women's report, that it is “nonsense.”
However, the disciples
are not closed to the resurrection for long. With the appearances of Jesus they
become firm believers. Saint Paul is the best example. In his letters he writes
of the “new self” that is born as a result of the resurrection of Jesus. The
“new self” is a person reconstituted to truly love. Paul says that this new
person carries within himself or herself the hope of eternal life. There she or
he will meet God “face to face”. The meeting is personalized in the Letter to
the Philippians: "... I consider everything as rubbish, as long as I win
Christ and be united to him..." Without a doubt, Saint Paul is an eastered
person.
So too are Mary Magdalene
and the other women eastered people. They prove it when they report the
resurrection “to the Eleven and to all the others." It is such wonderful
news that they cannot contain it within themselves. They have to share them with each and
everyone. The resurrection has opened up a new possibility for humanity. In the
end we are not going to be judged by other humans according to our fortune or
our fame. We will be judged by God according to our likeness to Jesus. If we
conform to him, we will be judged worthy of the resurrection. If we ignore him
to follow our own whims, we will not deserve eternal life.
They say that on Saint
Patrick's Day everyone is Irish. For this day only everyone wears green and
eats stewed meat with cabbage. We are eastered people -- not just for one day
but always. Let us be joyful each and every day. Let us not lose hope of
eternal life in the midst of a world inclined to fortune, fame and whims. Above
all, let us tell others, particularly our children, of the Lord's resurrection.
Eastered people don't close themselves off from the world because of its
nonsense. Rather, as Jesus Christ, they show the world what true love is.
