THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH Her Doctrine and Morals Easter Sunday 24 April 2011

The Sunday Sermon

Dear Friends, 

It is a glorious day for all who truly love God. Those who love Jesus have followed Him to the Cross and from the Cross to the Sepulcher, and now today, from the Sepulcher to eternal Life.

There is no Resurrection without a prior death. We have died with Christ when we were baptized or when we put off the old man (the ways of sin) and became a new creature in Christ. We have followed our Lord’s injunction to take up our cross and follow Him. In denying ourselves we have died to ourselves, therefore it is just and fitting that we should rise forth in a new life with Jesus.

It is true that Jesus has risen from the dead and that we too will rise from the dead one day. Our resurrection will be glorious if we have truly died to ourselves and this world. If we have failed to die to ourselves and this world but have only suffered a physical death then our resurrection will be a most terrible and miserable one, because we will have risen to eternal damnation.

Today we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection and in this celebration we strive to follow Him. We hope that in His mercy He will give us the grace to die with Him so that we may rise with Him. It is not enough for us to just believe in Him; we must follow Him; we must pattern our lives on His.

Too many today will celebrate the Resurrection, but will have nothing of the suffering. They desire to follow Christ in His glory but will have nothing to do with Him in His suffering. They will go to church on this Sunday but the rest of the week, or even month or year they will spend in a hedonistic forgetfulness of God. They seek physical and material pleasures at the expense of the spiritual ones. This celebration is then a fake and a fraud. Such as live in this manner are not true Christians.

Only those who have spent the season of Lent and most importantly the last few days with Jesus can truly rejoice and benefit from today’s feast.

Those who have born this sorrow of Christ’s suffering, at least in their hearts, now run forth with joyful exhilaration like the women as they go to tell Peter and the other Apostles what has taken place. There are no words to truly express the sentiments of these hearts that love Jesus this way.

As Lazarus suffered in this world so was he rewarded in Heaven, and the rich man suffered so much the more because of all the pleasures that he enjoyed in this world. The same applies to all of us. If we will not suffer now for the love of God as Lazarus did, then we will surely suffer in Hell as the rich man does. Recall that the rich man begged Abraham to allow Lazarus to go back and warn the rich man’s family so that they might avoid his punishment. Abraham tells him that his family has the revelations of Moses and the Prophets and if they will not listen to them then they will not listen to one who returns from the dead.

We too have Moses and the Prophets and in addition Jesus has returned from the dead. If the rich man’s family had no excuse for not correcting their lives, then those today who live as they did will have much less of an excuse. Perhaps even worse will be those who will use the celebration of Jesus’ Resurrection to be even more offensive to God.

Let us not break our Lenten fasts with overindulgence and excesses just because it is truly a time for celebration. The whole purpose of the celebration and its joy will be completely lost if we use the opportunity only to offend God. The Modernist Materialism is all around us. It is not wrong to take moderate enjoyment from these worldly things, but is necessary that we sanctify these things at least by seeing and associating the symbolism of these things with Christ. The passing of winter has brought out the little bunnies from their holes in the ground which suggest to us Christ’s rising from the tomb. The little chicks must break forth from their egg shells and represent to us the Resurrection. The candy and sweets all suggest to the goodness and sweetness of Heaven and all of God’s gifts to u,. etc.

In this time of joy let us sanctify ourselves and the season by looking for God in everything around us. Let us see His goodness in our joys and sorrows; in our pleasures and in our pains. Let us do all for the love of Jesus and in this manner our Easter joy will be just as beneficial to us as our Lenten sacrifices and mortifications.