Easter Sunday April 20, 2025 Homily: Fr Vigoa — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:03Christ is risen, truly, gloriously,
2. 0:07eternally
3. 0:08risen. And because of that, we who
4. 0:11believe are joyful,
5. 0:15unafraid, and filled with undying hope.
6. 0:20Those three marks, joy, courage, and
7. 0:24hope, have always been the unmistakable
8. 0:28sign of a true
9. 0:31Christian. They don't come from a
10. 0:34comfortable
11. 0:35life. They don't depend on circumstances
12. 0:38or
13. 0:40feelings. No, they come from a truth
14. 0:42that changed
15. 0:44history and changes us today.
16. 0:48Jesus Christ has conquered
17. 0:51death. The tomb is
18. 0:54empty. And because he lives, we shall
19. 0:58live
20. 1:00too. But the question is, why is the
21. 1:03Christian so joyful even in
22. 1:07sorrow? Why is a Christian unafraid even
23. 1:10when the world grows dark?
24. 1:13Why does a Christian cling to hope even
25. 1:17when all seems
26. 1:20lost? Well, because Jesus Christ is
27. 1:25alive. Many figures have shaped
28. 1:29history, some for good, some for
29. 1:34evil. Carl Mark's body lies in a tomb in
30. 1:38London.
31. 1:40Nichi's body lies buried in
32. 1:44Luten. Muhammad's body lies buried in
33. 1:48Medina. Buddha's buried in
34. 1:52Pingyang. And even Lazarus who was resus
35. 1:55resuscitated and raised by Jesus
36. 1:58eventually died
37. 2:01again. But go to
38. 2:03Jerusalem. Go to the tomb of Christ and
39. 2:06you will find something stunning.
40. 2:09It's
41. 2:11empty. And it's been empty for over
42. 2:132,000
43. 2:15years because only one man in all of
44. 2:18history has defeated death forever. Only
45. 2:22one man rose by his own power not to die
46. 2:28again, but to live forever in glory.
47. 2:32That man, Jesus Christ, the son of God.
48. 2:37Why could he
49. 2:39rise? Because he is not only a man. He
50. 2:43is God from God, light from light, true
51. 2:46God from true
52. 2:48God. And because he rose, he made a
53. 2:51startling promise to all of us. Yes,
54. 2:54even to you and
55. 2:56me. He made us a promise that if you are
56. 2:59united to me through baptism, you shall
57. 3:02live with me forever.
58. 3:05And this is not
59. 3:07poetry, some beautiful language. This is
60. 3:10a
61. 3:13promise. And it is that promise that
62. 3:16gives us that inner joy, that gives us
63. 3:18that
64. 3:19courage and our enduring
65. 3:24hope. In our first reading today from
66. 3:26the Acts of the Apostle, Peter stands
67. 3:28before the world and he says something
68. 3:32extraordinary.
69. 3:34He says, "We are
70. 3:37witnesses. We ate and drank with him
71. 3:40after he rose from the
72. 3:43dead." Peter didn't believe easily
73. 3:47either. He ran to the tomb. He doubted
74. 3:51the women. He needed to see, to hear, to
75. 3:55touch the risen Lord.
76. 3:58But once he did, he never stopped
77. 4:02proclaiming
78. 4:05him. He's not telling us a
79. 4:08myth, some nice madeup
80. 4:11story. What he's doing is he's giving us
81. 4:15testimony. He's saying, "I saw him. I
82. 4:19lived with him. I failed
83. 4:22him. And he came back to me, and now
84. 4:25he's alive.
85. 4:28And now Peter says to all of us and he
86. 4:31says he commissions
87. 4:33us because here's the
88. 4:36truth. You will not meet the risen
89. 4:39Christ by
90. 4:41accident. You won't encounter him just
91. 4:44because you've heard the story since
92. 4:48childhood. You have to go
93. 4:51looking. But not in the tombs.
94. 4:55Why do you seek the living among the
95. 4:57dead? We're
96. 4:59told if your fail if your faith today
97. 5:03feels
98. 5:05stale, if your prayer life feels
99. 5:08shallow, if your experience of God is
100. 5:11more memory than
101. 5:13presence, faith in the risen Christ is
102. 5:16not passive. It is a
103. 5:20pursuit. It's a search that begins with
104. 5:23love.
105. 5:25The kind of love Mary had that made her
106. 5:29rise early before the
107. 5:32sun. The kind of love that kept Peter
108. 5:35from staying stuck in
109. 5:37guilt. The kind of love that leads to
110. 5:40new
111. 5:42life. So if you've lost sight of him, do
112. 5:46not
113. 5:47despair. Seek him
114. 5:49again. But don't look among the dead.
115. 5:53Don't look in the old cold places of
116. 5:55guilt and indifference. He's not
117. 5:58there. He's risen and he's going ahead
118. 6:02of you. Seek him in the places where
119. 6:05life
120. 6:06pulses, where the gospel is not just
121. 6:09heard, but that that where the gospel is
122. 6:11lived. Seek him among the poor, the
123. 6:14joyful, the reconciled, the
124. 6:16courageous. Seek him in the breaking of
125. 6:18the bread.
126. 6:20Seek him in the fire of your own longing
127. 6:23heart. Peter saw him and testified to
128. 6:27this. Mary heard him call her by name.
129. 6:32And now the same risen Jesus comes to
130. 6:34call you on this Easter
131. 6:37Sunday. To follow Christ doesn't mean
132. 6:40life will be easy. Jesus never promise
133. 6:44us an easy life.
134. 6:46He did not promise us riches or comfort
135. 6:49or an escape from suffering. What he did
136. 6:51was he promised us something
137. 6:54greater. Be faithful to me. Be faithful
138. 6:58to me and you will rise with
139. 7:01me. That's the hope that made the
140. 7:04martyrs
141. 7:05brave. Those early Christians that gave
142. 7:08their
143. 7:09lives. The hope that led missionaries to
144. 7:12risk everything to preach the gospel.
145. 7:15That's the hope that brings you here
146. 7:19today. And this is your mission
147. 7:22now. Because you see, people don't come
148. 7:24to the faith by clever arguments or even
149. 7:27by powerful
150. 7:29sermons. They come to faith because
151. 7:32someone showed them what faith really
152. 7:34looks
153. 7:36like. And that someone needs to be
154. 7:40you. You now are witnesses to this
155. 7:43truth.
156. 7:45You now must be
157. 7:48apostles. So my brothers and sisters,
158. 7:51live in such a way that makes others
159. 7:53wonder what gives them such joy. I want
160. 7:58what you have. Teach me about this
161. 8:02Jesus. Why are you so
162. 8:05fearless? Why does this hope where does
163. 8:08this hope come from?
164. 8:11Well, it comes from a person, not a
165. 8:14memory, not a myth. A person who lives
166. 8:17today, Jesus Christ. And that's what we
167. 8:21celebrate this morning. Not only that
168. 8:23Christ rose from the grave, but that he
169. 8:26will rise, that we will rise with him
170. 8:30because this is our feast day, too.
171. 8:34So be joyful, be unafraid, be filled
172. 8:38with hope because the grave is empty.
173. 8:41Christ is risen. Christ has been
174. 8:44victorious. Amen. Allelujah.