What is disbelief? It is what led people to crucify Jesus? What is love? It is what led Jesus to accept crucifixion. What is faith then? It is what kept John the Beloved Apostle of Christ at the foot of the Saviour’s cross. It is what kept Mary Magdalene, a sinner, at the foot of the cross. Faith is our response to the love which took Jesus to the Hill of Calvary.
My fellow Christians! Let me ask you another question. What did happen over those three days we have been reliving again as we have celebrated the Paschal Triduum? Our Lord was crucified. He died. He was buried. He rose from the dead. One thing needs to be added however: He did it for us and for our Salvation. When God acts things don’t happen by accident. God always acts on purpose. What happened to Jesus on Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday didn’t happened by accident. Only those who don’t know the sacred history recorded in the Holy Bible, the History we call our Salvation History could say that what happened to Jesus of Nazareth was an accident. At the beginning of that Sacred History, our Salvation History, God started creating as we read in the Genesis. On the seventh day he rested as we read in the Scriptures but he didn’t withdraw from the world he created. The world he created is good. That’s how God saw it at the beginning and it is how he sees it now. The world cannot go bad. Trees and flowers, animals and birds and the fish cannot go bad. Mountains and seas, planets and stars cannot go bad. Only we, humans, can and we did. How bad we went when we treaded the Son of God like the worst criminal. We were so bad that God couldn’t stand that and he came to continue his act of creation. He didn’t need to fix up the world but we, humans needed some serious fixing. Jesus died on Good Friday. If Sunday is the first day of the week, what day of the week is Friday? It is the sixth day. What happened in the Genesis on the sixth day? God created the first people. Jesus died on the day when we remember the creation of first humans because only we - humans - in the whole Universe needed some serious fixing. God didn’t abandon us. He didn’t leave us to be corrupted by our sins but God came to us in his Son – Jesus in order to continue creating us in his likeness. Jesus, Our Saviour took upon himself all evil that was in us, the evil that was eating us within like a tumor. He died so that that sin, that tumor could die with him. When he rose from the dead he came out of the realm of death sin free, that sinful tumor free.
Some generous people in this world donate their organs to help the sick. Jesus donated his whole body so that our sin could cling to him and leave us free. Sunday, the first day of the week is now the celebration of the new humankind. That first Easter Morning when the Risen Lord appeared to his disciples he was offering them to join this new humankind that was made visible in his Risen Body. The Easter Week we are beginning today is an amazing time. It is the time when we listen to the testimonies of those friends of Christ who saw him alive and who believed that he wanted to give them this same new life. This Easter Week will finish next Sunday but what doesn’t finish is Jesus’ coming to us. Every time when you come to Mass you meet the Risen Lord who offers you the new, sin free life, as you receive his Body and Blood. He tells us: “Your sins were so deadly that when I took them upon myself they killed me. When your sins killed me they died with me. Then my Father rose me from the dead. My Body is now immune to sin. My Body is now resistant to sin that’s why I give you my Body and Blood in Holy Communion so that you could develop resistance to sin. I give you my resurrected Body and Blood so that you may rebuild your immunity system that can help you fight sin in your life.”
My Brothers and Sisters! What is faith? It is what keeps you every Sunday at Mass as you acknowledge that it is God who gives you the Body and Blood of his Risen Son so that you could become this beautiful creation of God he had in mind when he created the first people of the sixth day.
My fellow Christians! Let me ask you another question. What did happen over those three days we have been reliving again as we have celebrated the Paschal Triduum? Our Lord was crucified. He died. He was buried. He rose from the dead. One thing needs to be added however: He did it for us and for our Salvation. When God acts things don’t happen by accident. God always acts on purpose. What happened to Jesus on Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday didn’t happened by accident. Only those who don’t know the sacred history recorded in the Holy Bible, the History we call our Salvation History could say that what happened to Jesus of Nazareth was an accident. At the beginning of that Sacred History, our Salvation History, God started creating as we read in the Genesis. On the seventh day he rested as we read in the Scriptures but he didn’t withdraw from the world he created. The world he created is good. That’s how God saw it at the beginning and it is how he sees it now. The world cannot go bad. Trees and flowers, animals and birds and the fish cannot go bad. Mountains and seas, planets and stars cannot go bad. Only we, humans, can and we did. How bad we went when we treaded the Son of God like the worst criminal. We were so bad that God couldn’t stand that and he came to continue his act of creation. He didn’t need to fix up the world but we, humans needed some serious fixing. Jesus died on Good Friday. If Sunday is the first day of the week, what day of the week is Friday? It is the sixth day. What happened in the Genesis on the sixth day? God created the first people. Jesus died on the day when we remember the creation of first humans because only we - humans - in the whole Universe needed some serious fixing. God didn’t abandon us. He didn’t leave us to be corrupted by our sins but God came to us in his Son – Jesus in order to continue creating us in his likeness. Jesus, Our Saviour took upon himself all evil that was in us, the evil that was eating us within like a tumor. He died so that that sin, that tumor could die with him. When he rose from the dead he came out of the realm of death sin free, that sinful tumor free.
Some generous people in this world donate their organs to help the sick. Jesus donated his whole body so that our sin could cling to him and leave us free. Sunday, the first day of the week is now the celebration of the new humankind. That first Easter Morning when the Risen Lord appeared to his disciples he was offering them to join this new humankind that was made visible in his Risen Body. The Easter Week we are beginning today is an amazing time. It is the time when we listen to the testimonies of those friends of Christ who saw him alive and who believed that he wanted to give them this same new life. This Easter Week will finish next Sunday but what doesn’t finish is Jesus’ coming to us. Every time when you come to Mass you meet the Risen Lord who offers you the new, sin free life, as you receive his Body and Blood. He tells us: “Your sins were so deadly that when I took them upon myself they killed me. When your sins killed me they died with me. Then my Father rose me from the dead. My Body is now immune to sin. My Body is now resistant to sin that’s why I give you my Body and Blood in Holy Communion so that you could develop resistance to sin. I give you my resurrected Body and Blood so that you may rebuild your immunity system that can help you fight sin in your life.”
My Brothers and Sisters! What is faith? It is what keeps you every Sunday at Mass as you acknowledge that it is God who gives you the Body and Blood of his Risen Son so that you could become this beautiful creation of God he had in mind when he created the first people of the sixth day.
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