Father Rick Bolte's Homily

A: Easter

In the Sunday paper there was a comic that had a family mother, father, and two children leaving church.  As they are walking past the minister, one small child asks the father, “Isn’t church open on Sundays besides Christmas and Easter?”  We all recognize that only on a holiday like Easter or Christmas do we have such crowds that people are standing out in the gathering space.  Many are visiting family from out of town but many are also not regular church goers.  The fact that so many extra people are in church demonstrates that either by our personal faith or by family tradition we know today to be a very special celebration.

We all, I think, know what Easter is about.  We celebrate that God sent his Son into the world to give his life that we might be free from our sin.  The Resurrection affirms that indeed Jesus was sent by the Father and his Resurrection is but the first fruit, we too are to rise to a new, transformed life.  Like I said, we all know this.  But does it really make a difference in our lives?  The challenge is to move it from intellectual knowledge to an experience in our hearts that can affect the way we live.

Last night, at the Easter Vigil, we started the service outside.  All lights and candles in the church were out and it was dark outside.  In the midst of that darkness, we started a new fire and lit the Easter candle.  This symbolized Christ, our light, coming into the darkness of this world.  It seemed small but as we entered into church, each baptized person had a candle that they lit from this Easter candle.  When the congregation assembled back in church, the building was lit with a warm glow that dispelled the darkness.  When we allow the light of Christ’s presence within us to shine through, darkness is overcome in our world.

In our second reading today, Paul tells the Corinthians that they are to celebrate the feast with sincerity and truth.  To let the light of Christ shine through us we don’t impose something on ourselves, we simply embrace sincerity and truth.  Family, friends, and the community that is the Church can help us.  Alone we get lost in the darkness of the world.  The world tells us we must be strong, independent, and self-sufficient.  If things go wrong for us in the world, we have failed and are unworthy.  The world invites us to a false pretense of strength and an inner world of fear of failing.

The truth is that though we can for a while look strong and in control on the outside, there is always the possibility of not being able to maintain that façade and indeed there are times parts of our lives can just fall apart.  Being sincere and honest with others eases the fear of failure as it eases our sense of aloneness.  In good relationships with others, we dare to accept that we are limited human beings who are not really in control.  We accept that indeed things can and sometimes do go wrong.  But that’s OK!  We come to realize, especially through loss and failure, that the true love we share is the only thing that really matters.  When a person faces their own death, the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, the loss of house or other valued possessions, we recognize that it’s the love we share with others that helps us get through even the toughest of times.  We remind ourselves and others that even though we forget, this is really all that ever mattered.  Sharing this love which is deeper than appearances and stronger than the feelings of the moment puts us in contact with God.  John tells us, “God is love!”