I spent Easter in a cemetery. No, I wasn’t exactly visiting the graves of my blood relatives. Nor was I trying to get a part in an episode of CSI. I was at Mass—the Easter Vigil to be exact.
The Book of Revelation does not contain a series of esoteric predictions about the end of the world. Rather, Revelation presents a world in which the final union of God and humanity is taking place in the presence of the slain Lamb. This ultimate union is described as a wedding: “I . . . saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husb...
During the season of Easter, we often hear passages that seem to establish a non-negotiable barrier between those who accept the Gospel and those who do not. In the Acts of the Apostles, we hear from Paul and Barnabas that “it was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first, but since you reject it and condemn yourselves as unworthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles” (Acts 13:...
The temptation of Easter for the regular churchgoer is to forget that the resurrected Jesus remains the crucified Lord. On the Third Sunday of Easter, we find ourselves confronted with Christ’s wounds of love bathed in resurrected light.
Those struggling with religious doubt often believe it would be easier to have faith if they had been witnesses to Christ’s Resurrection. If only they had encountered the risen Lord along the road to Emmaus. If only they had seen the burial clothes in the empty tomb.
The Easter fire has been lit. We stand at the edge of something which is beyond our control. Its warmth and light make all the difference in our lives and in our world. As preachers, we are invited to give voice to the Church’s faith, and the cornerstone of that faith, now and for all time, is the affirmation that Jesus Christ, put to death cruelly and unjustly, nonetheless lives and walks among u...
