Happy Easter! There are so many different things worth reflecting on today, it’s almost unfair … so I want to focus on something that is probably the most easily missed. It’s the opening line from the first reading of Easter morning: Peter proceeded to speak and said…
Peter proceeded to speak. Now, we know that Peter doesn’t often have a hard time holding his tongue – he frequently has something to say, and often it’s not good. Think of where we were a week ago – Peter is speaking, sure, but he’s denying that he even knows who Jesus is. Not exactly the perfect model of discipleship, right?
Peter’s encounter with the Risen Lord changes him. It drives out his fear. It fills him with hope. And it gives him the courage to finally, really speak: to proclaim the truth that Jesus Christ, once crucified, now lives; and that all who believe in Him will receive forgiveness of their sins. So we have to ask ourselves, then: are we allowing our encounter with the Risen Lord today to change us? Are we willing to speak, instead of just talking? Perhaps more importantly, and more fundamental to our celebration today: are we even open to encountering the Risen Christ? That can be a difficult question, so I leave you with Pope-emeritus Benedict XVI’s thoughts on the encounter with the Risen One, from his 2011 Easter homily:
In truth, this encounter had something unsettling about it. The world had changed. This man who had died was now living with a life that was no longer threatened by any death. A new form of life had been inaugurated, a new dimension of creation. The first day, according to the Genesis account, is the day on which creation begins. Now it was the day of creation in a new way, it had become the day of the new creation. We celebrate the first day. And in so doing we celebrate God the Creator and his creation. Yes, we believe in God, the Creator of heaven and earth. And we celebrate the God who was made man, who suffered, died, was buried and rose again. We celebrate the definitive victory of the Creator and of his creation. We celebrate this day as the origin and the goal of our existence. We celebrate it because now, thanks to the risen Lord, it is definitively established that reason is stronger than unreason, truth stronger than lies, love stronger than death. We celebrate the first day because we know that the black line drawn across creation does not last for ever. We celebrate it because we know that those words from the end of the creation account have now been definitively fulfilled: “God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good” (Gen 1:31). Amen.