Image – Jewish Tombs in the Mount of Olives
Christ is risen! I mean He’s really risen, He’s not dead. He’s the first person in all of history to rise from the dead and it’s because of Him that we celebrate The Resurrection.
From the earliest times of humanity, we have always had the tradition of burying the dead and keeping reverence for them by memorializing them.
When I was younger, before the Seminary, I went to Los Angeles, and I did a tour of graves out there. We went around in a hearse, and we did a hearse tour of all the famous people’s graves. Now I just want you to know a couple of the people that I saw: Dean Martin, he’s dead, Marilyn Monroe she’s dead, John Candy, Bing Crosby, Rodney Dangerfield, Lucille Ball, Jimmy Stewart, Humphrey Bogart, Elizabeth Taylor, Walt Disney and Roy Disney, they’re both dead, Betty Davis, Judy Garland and even Toto from the Wizard of Oz. They’re all dead.
Then you go around our country, and Frank Sinatra is one of them. The last lines before he died weren’t I did it my way; the last lines before he died were I’m losing, and he died. With JFK, we have the Eternal Flame marking his grave. When Elvis Presley died, people were insisting that he had swapped bodies and that he was still alive, but I guarantee you now Elvis Presley, the king, is dead.
William Shakespeare, before he died, wrote this: he placed it on his body: I friend for Jesus’ sake forbearer to dig the dust and closed here blessed be the man that spares these stones and cursed be he that moves my bones. He didn’t want his body to be stolen.
Charlie Chaplin’s body was stolen, and then the thief called his wife and rammed the body for $600,000. It wouldn’t be the first call that she received; she received 25 more calls insisting each one of them had the body, so she decided to call the police, and they found the body, and Charlie Chaplin was dead, by the way.
We’ve been burying the dead for thousands and thousands of years. If you go back, some of the oldest burials, 8,500 years ago in Germany and 5,000 years ago in ancient Greece. In the early civilization 100,000 years ago, they found a man in a cave with 15 others. Off the coast of Kenya, they found nearly 78,070 thousand years ago they found a small 2½ child placed in the fetal position in a shallow grave. In South Africa they discovered a grave over 500,000 years old. We’ve been burying the dead for a long time, and we’ve been memorializing the dead where they are buried for a long time. With Jesus all we have is an empty tomb because He’s not there. He’s risen. Now near Jerusalem, near the Mount of Olives, they used to bury people along the hillside, and they’ve done that for the last 3000 years. There are probably about 100,000 graves along these hillsides, I’ve seen them in Jerusalem, but then when they ran out of space they began placing bodies in caves so from the year 1200 BC until about 70 years after the Christ, they replacing bodies in caves to be buried and ever since then they’ve memorialized and not one body has gone missing during all those times and all of those people are in fact dead.
So, the tomb was empty, and we might think, we need a little bit more proof than that, right, just an empty tomb. First of all, the tomb was empty after being guarded by 12 guards. The women come there early in the morning to anoint his body and they discover that the heavy stone was rolled back. Who could have done that? Then the Disciples one by one come to see the empty tomb and something interesting happens. After Peter goes into the tomb the beloved Disciple peaks in and we hear a beautiful phrase in the Gospel today. He saw and believed.
The Disciples weren’t even sure what to make of this at first. Then after they came to believe that wasn’t the end, Jesus began appearing to them in his resurrected form. First to Mary in the garden who she mistook for a gardener, and then two other women he greeted in the holy city of Jerusalem. The two Disciples that were walking on the road to Emmaus didn’t recognize Him at first but once He sat down with them, they recognized Him in the breaking of the bread. He appeared to Peter again in Jerusalem. He appeared ten Disciples in the Upper Room and one of them, Thomas, wasn’t there and he said, “I want to see him.” So the next week He appears to 11 Disciples. Thomas was able to see the wounds on His side and in His hands and he believed.
The seven disciples would gather on the boat when they were fishing and giving up hope and Jesus appeared to them on the shore with the fire. They didn’t recognize Him at first and the Beloved Disciples said, “It is the Lord.” So, Peter jumps off the boat swims to shore and has breakfast with the Lord. Then He appeared to over 500 people at once. During the time when this was written most of them were still living, although some had died, but He appeared to over 500 people. He would appear again to His Disciples when He Ascended into heaven and to the Apostle Paul who was murdering Christians. He would appear to him, and Paul would have a conversion.
He left a message for his disciples before he ascended into heaven: “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to Me, and I give it to you. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father at the end of the Holy Spirit, and behold, I Am With You always.” Jesus is with us in the resurrected form.
That’s not even the end of the resurrection because many Saints have experienced Jesus in the resurrected form since then. One of the first was Saint Francis of Assisi who Jesus appeared to and said, “Rebuild my church.” Then he would receive the Stigmata, the wounds of Christ on his very body.
He appeared to St. Catherine of Siena, St. Julian of Norwich, St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Margaret Mary, who would give the devotion of the Sacred Heart, St. John Vianney, and St. Padre Pio. He showed himself to all these saints.
We have come here together today in this church to celebrate the empty tomb. Jesus is not gone, He is with us and He is with us in a deeper way than He ever could have been in the flesh because at every church around the world as the Bread and Wine are consecrated they’re transformed into the very Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ and when we receive Him into us, we become members of the Body of Christ and Jesus is alive in His church today.
For those of us who come every Sunday, worship, and receive the Eucharist, we receive Him into us. What about people who don’t believe? What about people who may not be part of our Catholic faith?
Well, last night at the Easter Vigil, churches throughout the world welcomed those who wanted to come into the faith, be initiated and baptized, and receive Eucharist and Confirmation. For those of you who want to believe this, we are starting a series on Tuesday right after Easter called “Christ Life” for the next seven Tuesdays. We are going to help you come to know Jesus.
What about us Catholics who believe but maybe haven’t been to church, or it’s been a long time since we’ve been to Mass, or were caught in some grave sin? Jesus appeared to Sister Faustina, and this is an amazing, wonderful message. He said to her. “My daughter, I want you to tell the whole world about my inconceivable mercy. I desire that the Feast of Mercy, Divine Mercy Sunday, the Sunday after Easter,” which is next Sunday, is for all of us who have been away. He says, “Especially for poor sinners on that day I will open up the very depth of my mercy. I will pour out a whole ocean of grace upon those who approach the Font of my Mercy. I will give them complete punishment and forgiveness of sin for those who go to Confession and receive the Eucharist. Let no soul fear to draw near to Me even if its sins be scarlet red. My mercy is so great that no mind, be it of man or Angel, will ever fathom it throughout all eternity.”
Jesus has given us this gift not only on Easter Sunday but also on next Sunday, Divine Mercy Sunday. So we’ll have Confession from noon to three and pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet at three, and we will be able to experience the Resurrected Lord.
For thousands and thousands and hundreds of thousands of years, we’ve always buried the dead and for all these years, we’ve memorialized them for all those years no one was ever raised from the dead and the only way that we experience the resurrection is through the only person that has risen from the dead through Jesus.
Now He wants each and every one of us to come to know Him, to come to love Him, to give our lives to Him so that we too may experience the Resurrection.
This year, our church is celebrating the Eucharistic Revival. Our hope is that we can help Catholics believe once more in the real presence of the Eucharist, that Jesus continues to live in the body and blood that we will receive.
So my dear brothers and sisters Jesus is not dead, He is risen, and that is what we celebrate on this Easter Sunday
