TO SAY HAPPY EASTER MEANS: REJOICE FOR YOUR LIFE HAS BEEN RESTORED!

EASTER SUNDAY: RESURRECTION OF THE LORD. YEAR C.
April 8, 2007.
(First Reading: Acts 10:34a, 37-43) (Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 5:6b-8)
(Gospel Reading: John 20:1-9).

TO SAY HAPPY EASTER MEANS: REJOICE
FOR YOUR LIFE HAS BEEN RESTORED!

"Dying you destroyed our death,
rising you restored our life.
Lord Jesus, come in glory".

Easter is the joyful celebration of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I. By His Resurrection Christ Restores Our Life.
Resurrection implies that previously there was death, and that prior to death there was life. That is to say, resurrection means that the initial life which was destroyed by death is restored back to its initial state. That is why we say that Jesus' resurrection redeems , saves our "dead" existence and restores it to life.

The History of Salvation explains the historical process that leads to the resurrection:
1. Human life is first the image of God. From the beginning God bestows his image upon human beings (We are created in the image of God). We can say that initially we are truly ALIVE, for we are the image of God, we live in the order intended by God, we are the children of God living in unity, justice and peace among all human beings. Saint Paul (Second reading) calls the true life in God the life of "sincerity and truth".

2. Then comes the state of division and oppression imposed by human beings upon other human beings causing the destruction of the unity, justice and peace among us. Saint Paul (Second reading) says this is the state of "malice and Wickedness" which drives us away from our initial state of life.

3. Finally, Christ intervenes; he comes into our sinful world, a world dead by "malice and wickedness", injustice and oppression, greed and dispossession ominously ruling among human beings. It is this world of malice and wickedness, of injustice and oppression which kills Jesus. And with his resurrection Christ defeats that world of death, for the powers of death cannot overcome the power of Jesus' life - the life of God, the initial life which God bestowed upon human beings and now is restored by Christ.

II. By restoring our life, Christ allows us to experience His resurrection, that is, he allows us to regain our ability to live again. To believe in the resurrection of Jesus means to believe that the life we lost to malice and wickedness, to injustice and oppression has now been restored to its initial state intended by God.

The following is an example of how the experience of the resurrection becomes a reality in our life:
1. Whenever we, human beings, individually or collectively (as a society, or group or nation) undergo the tragedy of destroying the unity, peace, justice, sincerity and truth among ourselves, we experience the loss of true life and bring about suffering and death caused by division, injustice, oppression, war, malice and wickedness.

2. Then, through our belief in, and adherence to the risen Jesus we regain our ability to act, individually or collectively, in order to restore our lost unity, peace, justice, sincerity and truth.

3. Our restored life, then, continues along the ascending path of restoring life every time there is a regression, that is, every time death tries to destroy life, every time injustice tries to destroy justice, every time war tries to destroy peace, every time oppression tries to destroy respect for human dignity, every time the lie tries to destroy truth.

As followers of the risen Lord we are to walk in the path of restoration of life until our biological death finds us filled with the restored life the risen Lord has gained for us, filled with God's life, filled with eternal life, the life that continues forever for those who walk along the path of restoration of life.

Today, with the resurrection of the Lord we joyfully(1) receive restored life. Today is the time to bring to our world, to all human beings without exception, the life of God, the life that was once destroyed by injustice, oppression, war, malice and wickedness, the life that has now been restored by Jesus.

Today we become witnesses and partakers of the resurrection of Christ if we are willing to dedicate our life to ensuring that the life of all our fellow human beings is restored. Then our greeting: HAPPY EASTER will truly mean REJOICE FOR YOUR LIFE HAS BEEN RESTORED!
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Footnotes.
(1) The joy of Easter is that which individuals or nations experience whenever they restore their life and the life of their fellow human beings through justice, peace, unity, sincerity and truth.
The world's powerful individuals or powerful nations that spread oppression of any kind or engage in wars of aggression and expansionism cannot experience the joy of Easter for with their actions they only bring death to human beings.