The Lord's Easter message is that all are welcome; all are forgiven; and all are invited to the Eucharistic banquet.

Today is the day of Easter joy.  We are immersed in the beauty of our Easter music.  We can smell the fragrance of our Easter lilies.  You are dressed in your Easter finest.  The joy and the sense of wonder is in the air.  We proclaim the centerpiece of our Catholic Christian faith:  Jesus Christ is Risen from the dead.  Alleluia! Alleluia!

Today we celebrate the reason why we are a people of hope and new life.  Today we cast off fear and make a leap of faith.  Liturgically we light the Easter candle because we believe in the light that comes from the Risen Lord.  Indeed, in the light that comes from the Risen Lord, the darkness of fear and the darkness of sin is no more.  This Easter candle needs to be lit in the deep recesses of our hearts.

Though this feast celebrates the centerpiece of our faith,  in today’s Easter Gospel, there is no Alleluia chorus or even angels singing God’s praises as in the Nativity Gospel, the Gospel seems to pay more attention to the sluggish growth of human faith than to God’s overwhelming power – until we realize that the two are intimately connected.

Why is it that the Gospels give so much attention to the sluggishness of the disciples’ faith journey?  Today’s readings invite us to assess where we are in the journey of faith.  It is good to remember that there is no bad place to be, and no place where it is impossible to be touched by God’s unconditional love?

I would love all of us to have the opportunity to reflect on how we encounter the Lord on this Easter day  -- as parents who bring their families to this Easter Eucharist, as Catholics who have participated in the other liturgies of Holy Week on Holy Thursday and Good Friday, as Catholics who may have not been in Church since Christmas day, as Catholics who are very distracted by the busyness of life, as Catholics who have recently experienced the death of one you  love or the pain of some significant brokenness in life, or as pilgrims who seek to come to the Lord more deeply in their lives. 

My hunch is that those of us who are gathered today come from all over the spiritual landscape.  Each one of us is unique.  This is not by accident.  It is by God’s design that there is no perfect cookie-cutter Catholic.  We need to dispense with the myth that there is one size that fits all for us as Catholic Christians.  May there always be considerable diversity in the ways each one of us encounters our loving God.  We are a big Church.  There is room for everyone.

If you study the gospel stories about the resurrection, you notice that they are not primarily about what happened to Jesus, but what happened to his followers.  As we pray over the Gospel, all of us – believers and doubters -– are present at the empty tomb.   In today’s Easter Gospel from the evangelist John,   “On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb.  So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciples whom Jesus loved, and told them, “they have taken the Lord from the tomb and we don’t know where they put him.”  Mary’s first impression was that the enemies of Jesus had taken Him away somewhere.

Peter then enters the tomb and sees the burial cloths, signs of death that are not yet signs of new life.  The empty tomb is not proof of the resurrection.

Then the beloved disciple John enters:  “He saw and believed.”  Love always believes.  The proof of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead happens when our hearts are filled with the love and hope that comes from God and from God alone.

The profound Easter mystery is that the Lord has given His life out of love for us, and there is nothing we can do to stop God from loving us.   Yes, this is the Easter mystery.  There is nothing we can do that will stop God from loving us.  So we come to this Easter day from various life experiences:  Some of have labored in the Lord’s vineyards starting from the early hours of the morning; others have come just at the last hour.  The Lord rewards the first and gives generously to the last.    He receives the fruits of labors and but the Lord also accepts good intentions.  You, who are rich and poor, come together.  You who are sober and you who are slothful, honor this day.  You who have kept the Lenten fast, and even if you did not keep the fast, be joyful now.  The Eucharistic table is richly set: come, take from it, all of you, without any scruple.  Let no one go away hungry.  Come, all of you, enjoy this feast of forgiveness.  Let no one grieve because he has sinned again and again.  Enjoy this feast of forgiveness.  Let no one be afraid of death, for the Savior’s death has delivered us.

In every way possible to say it, the Lord’s Easter message is that all are welcome; all are forgiven; all are welcome to the Easter banquet.  Does this mean that anything goes, that our Church is a Church without rules or discipline?   Of course not.   It does mean that the Lord’s love and Risen Life is to be shared by all.  There is nothing we can do to stop God from loving us.  Yes, we do need to open ourselves to the forgiveness and reconciliation and love the Lord extends to us.  And as sure as the sun rises each day, when our hearts are touched by the love of Jesus, we are motivated to share this love with one and all.   

What we know from the Jesus of the Gospels is that Jesus has a soft spot in His heart for all those who stand in any need.  Whatever side of yourself which you may judge to be unworthy of the Lord’s love, be assured that that will be the way the Lord is reaching out to you.  If you have not darkened the walls of the Church in many, many moons, the Lord’s message to you is you are loved; you are forgiven; you are welcome here.

The outrageous Easter mystery we celebrate is that the Church is not a gated community.  The love of the Risen Lord is meant for you, for the person sitting next to you, and for everyone.  What will it take for you to be convicted of the Easter message that Jesus seeks to fill this world with His love?  What will take for us to believe that God’s love will triumph over poverty, conflict, violence and war?

We cannot celebrate Easter in one day; we will not come to faith in one Mass.  AS God’s Easter people, we make the journey together over the course of a life time.  Whenever and wherever we trust and hope in the light that comes from the risen Lord, our spiritual darkness fades away.  As surely as the dark of night gives way to the dawn, the Lord’s gift of Easter joy awaits you.

Have a blessed day.  Today is our day of Easter joy.