Easter I
April 27, 2025
 
For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own
eternity. Nevertheless through envy of the devil came death into the world:
and that do hold of his side do find it.
                                                      (Wisdom ii. 23-24)
 
         
Has it ever occurred to you that Jesus’ Resurrection from the dead was not some immediate and clearly self-evident reality that exploded on to the pages of world history? In your reading of the Resurrection narratives, has one very important thing jumped out at you and grabbed your attention? That thing being that the Resurrection was neither expected nor anticipated by those nearest and dearest to Jesus – His Apostles and Disciples? We do not, after all, read that the followers of Jesus, following His crucifixion, spent their time waiting by His tomb for His much-anticipated Resurrection from the dead. Nor do we read that they were running about wondering with excitement if anyone had happened to bump into Him. Rather, we read that they were huddled together, behind closed doors, fearing further vengeance at the hands of the Romans or the Jews on the one hand, and sorrowing bitterly over their own cowardice or betrayal of Jesus on the other. And this, even after Saints Peter, John, and Mary Magdalene had found that Jesus’ tomb was empty! No, they did not expect a Resurrection at all, nor even that such a thing could ever take place, though the burial tomb of their Master was empty. The Magdalene had run to the Apostles, and cried, they have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him. (St. John xx. 2) Saints Peter and John then ran to the tomb and found it empty. But St. John tells us also that as yet they did not know the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead…and so they went away again to their own homes. [(Ibid, 9) As Fulton Sheen has written, they had the facts and evidence of the Resurrection; but they did not yet understand its full meaning. (Life of Christ, p. 406) 

Further ignorance and skepticism are found once again when the Magdalene returns to the empty tomb. Supposing Christ to be the gardener, she asks him where they have laid the body. Realizing who He was and attempting to embrace Him, Christ responded, Touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. (St. John xx. 17) Mary, clearly, understood neither the nature nor meaning of Jesus’ Resurrection. Some days later, Doubting Thomas would be invited by Jesus to Reach hither [his] finger, and behold  [His] hands; and reach hither [his] hand, and thrust it into [Jesus] side: and be not faithless, but believing, (Ibid, 27) A Resurrected Jesus is one thing; what it means is quite another. So, it will take some time, just about forty days to be exact, before the Apostles’ faith will come to understand the meaning of Jesus’ Resurrection. 

Within that period, Christ will reveal that He is both body and soul, flesh and spirit, transformed and transfigured to simultaneously eat bread with them on the one hand and walk through locked doors on the other. He will also, more importantly, reveal that as God’s Word Made Flesh, he will leave behind and breathe new life into His Body on earth, the Church. Through this Body, He will be with and in His friends through the Holy Ghost.

I tell you all of this for a few different reasons. First, we should notice that every account of the Resurrection of Christ is honestly recorded and passed on to us just as it happened. We do not find that Christ rose from the dead and that, suddenly, the Apostles and friends of Jesus were miraculously enabled to understand what had transpired. There was nothing in it of the miraculous draught of fishes or the feeding of the five thousand. We read rather of ordinary human beings, in every way like you and me, full of confusion, doubt, wonder, fear, and uncertainty. And as the authors of the story do not sugarcoat or romanticize men’s response to Christ’s death, so too they will not spare us their reaction to His rising. From beginning to end we read of an honest account of His friends’ response to His reappearance. In St. Mark’s Gospel, we read that [Jesus] appeared to the eleven themselves as they sat at table; and he upraided them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. (St. Mark xvi. 14) 

Second, the authors of the New Testament record something that happened to them, something that they could never have imagined, desired, or deserved. If they had been left to their own understanding, they would have treated Christ as dead and gone. We read in this morning’s Gospel, however, that, Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst... (St. John xx. 19) The Apostles were hiding in fear. The doors were locked, and Christ appears. He says to his friends, Peace be unto you. (Ibid, 19) What is this that He is saying? He speaks to those who abandoned Him, denied Him, foreswore Him, shrunk from Him, forsook Him, to those who huddled cowardly together ‘fearing the Jews’ and not His God and Our God? (Easter Sermon 1609: Lancelot Andrewes) What is happening? It is certainly nothing that the Apostles could have imagined or invented. In fact, it confounds all their expectations. Certainly, something is happening to [them]. Something should happen to us also. But what is it? Peace be unto you, Jesus says. And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord. (Ibid, 20) As Bishop Andrewes remarks, with no hint of revenge, no verbal reproof, not even an unkind word, Jesus says to his Mother and Apostles, You and I are friends at peace. Peace be unto you. (Ibid) Jesus calls them friends. Peace be unto you. He repeats it twice!  He has forgiven them and brings them His Peace. As my Father has sent me, even so send I you. (Ibid, 21) Jesus Christ is the forgiveness of sins. The forgiveness of sins has risen from the grave and is moving out and abroad. The Apostles are forgiven and are called to spread the Good News of Man’s peace with God to all nations.

The forgiveness of sin reconciles men to God. Christ has made peace between man and God. The Peace I possess, I give to you. Now go and give it to others. There is no Resurrection without the forgiveness of sins. Offer it always; if it is accepted it will grow. If it is rejected, still, you must grow. Forgiveness is the law of love and mercy to be made flesh in all men.

The forgiveness of sins, specifically here the forgiveness of the Apostles’ sins, is the first key that unlocks the door to the mystery of the Resurrection. We said before that God created man to be immortal and made him to be an image of his own eternity. (Wisdom ii. 23, iii. 1) The forgiveness of sins is God’s eternal attribute now made flesh and imparted to all men, made in the image of God for eternity. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? (1 St. John v. 4,5) For, He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. (Ibid, 11,12) The Resurrected Christ, God’s forgiveness of our sins, is offered to us as the key that opens the door to new life and peace with God.
         
What has happened to the Apostles? They realize that Jesus Christ is the forgiveness of sins, who is necessary for all men’s salvation. We shall all go to Hell unless we discover that our sins were the cause of Christ’s passion. We shall all go to Hell unless we discover that we need to be forgiven by Jesus Christ, God’s forgiveness of our sins. The forgiveness of sins is the revelation and reality of the key to eternal life. In today’s Epistle, St. John reminds us that this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.  He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. (1 John v. 11,12) Eternal life, if we would receive it, demands the forgiveness of our sins. It is offered by Jesus from the Cross and beyond into His resurrection.

The hard part for all men in all ages is to discover the key that opens the door to Christ’s Resurrection. The key is our need to be forgiven, and our willingness to be forgiven by Jesus Christ. Pride, after all, tempts us to think that we were not the cause of Christ’s passion, or that we were, and that our sins are too great for even God to forgive. Humility acknowledges, with the Apostles, that our sins were the cause of Christ’s passion and that we have more often than not abandoned Christ. Humility repents and opens our souls to Jesus Christ, the forgiveness of sins, the first moment in that liberation that leads from sin to righteousness and from death to new life in Him.

Amen. 
©wjsmartin

Easter Day
April 20, 2025

Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.  For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. (Col. iii. 2)

Our journey through the Lenten Season to Good Friday will have been of no use if it has not been characterized by affection. Set your affections on things above and not on things of the earth, proclaims St. Paul this morning. (idem) Affection is an appetite that draws us, attracts us, and captures our attention. Throughout the Holy Season of Lent, we have prayed that the Holy Spirit might purify the thoughts of our hearts so that we can follow Jesus up to the  Jerusalem of His Cross and beyond. Our affections have been set…on the things above [and] not things of the earth, things which have come down to us in the passionate heart of Jesus Christ to lift us up higher. Out of the unquenchable love of His heart, Christ desired that our affections should rise up to embrace Him in the Death He died for you and me on Good Friday. From there to here, on this Easter Morn, Christ now longs that our affections might rise higher still into His Resurrection Love.  
But setting [our] affections on things that are above and not on the things of the earth is no easy business.

And it is not that affection is evil. God made it for a reason. But affection is fickle, unreliable, and uncertain. Affection, like all good things, must be ordered and disciplined lest it meander into the realm of evil. God’s affection and desire for us is pure and perfect. From the Divine Depths, articulated and expressed in the incessant, loving Passion of Jesus on the Cross, the uninterrupted longing of God for our salvation has persisted. The Word has gone out. God’s desire and affection have never swerved from His Great Unseen Eternal Design. The Word of God came down from heaven to live in man’s heart. His Good Friday is but one moment in the unfolding drama of our Redemption and Salvation.

Our affection, as a response to Jesus Christ, was tried and tested on Good Friday. The mighty engine of Caesar’s Rome tried to bind our affection to an expeditious peace, the Pax Romana, a peace that demanded the death of Jesus Christ. Even God’s chosen people, the Jews, tried to tether our affection to a tradition of cheap Grace and earthly morality. The fear and cowardice of Jesus’ Apostles then lured us into a superficial affection that fails in the hour of trial. Human affection carries with it a kind-of loss of self-composure and meekness. Solomon, in Proverbs, tells us A fool giveth full vent to his affection, but the wise man quietly holdeth it back. (Prov. Xxix. 11) Affection threatens us with losing something or all of ourselves in order to know the good and love it with our whole heart.

And yet, God’s affection for all men persisted on Good Friday with a Passion that longs always to call forth and redeem the affection of men in all ages. The affection of God for us in Jesus Christ proclaimed from His Cross, Father forgive them for they know not what they do. (St. Luke xxiii. 34) From the Cross, Christ’s affection reached the Good Thief. Come follow me. Today, thou shalt be with me in paradise. (St. Luke xxiii. 43) From His Cross His affection reached out to His Mother and the blessed disciple. Come follow me. Women, behold thy son…son, behold thy mother. (St. John xix. 26, 27) His affection even identified with our weakness, desperation, and dereliction. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me. (St. Matthew xxvii. 46) With ongoing affection for us in His heart, Christ said, I thirst. (St. John xix. 28) From the Cross, He concluded, with unbounded affection, It is finished. (St. John xix. 30) Father into thy hands, I commend my spirit. (St. Luke xxviii. 46) Come follow me even into my death, as my death that shall become yours also. On Good Friday, God’s uninterrupted affection for us men took suffering and death up into the abyss of Holy Saturday.
And through it all, our affection was, no doubt, hesitant and halting. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. (Genesis i. 2) Sin and death seemed to have swallowed up our affection for the life, light, and love of God in Jesus Christ. As in Adam all die (1 Cor. xv. 22) seemed to have consumed our affection for Jesus Christ.

As we move from Good Friday to this Easter Sunday, this first day of the week, something strange begins to happen. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. (Genesis i. 4) In the beginning, God divided the light from the darkness. The same Light now has conquered the darkness of sin and death. The pure Affection and eternal desire of the Father of lights have moved the Son from death into New Life. The old Man is Dead, and the new Man has come alive.

At first only angels and nature sense the strangeness of this Light. The elements stirred, the air was parted, the fire blazed, and the earth shook and fell before the rising Light that dispels all darkness. The Father’s immortal, immutable, and immovable course of affection for man’s redemption is on course and thus is still at work in the heart of Jesus. Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. (Romans vi. 9, 10) The words spoken to Isaiah the prophet are remembered. Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. (Isaiah xliii. 1) Christ is the dfulfillment of the Father’s unceasing affection for us.

And yet, in this morning’s Gospel, we learn that man’s affection for God in Jesus Christ, now risen from the dead, will take time to perfect. Christ’s death had seemed like a victory of darkness over light. We read that The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre. (St. John, xx 1,2)

At first, Mary Magdalene was moved still by her limited affection and love for Jesus, to anoint his dead body. She finds the stone rolled away. Her affection remains in darkness. She runs to Saints Peter and John exclaiming they have taken away the Lord out of the sepulcher, and we know not where they have laid him. (St. John xx. 2) Her affection for Jesus can sense only the darkness of His enemies. But she remembers the words of the prophet: And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have…brought you up out of your graves, And I shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live. (Ezekiel. xxxvii. 12-14) Her stirring affection for things above begins to run to find John and Peter. Their affection and love run to the empty tomb. As Eriugena says, John outruns Peter because contemplation completely cleansed penetrates the inner secrets of the divine workings more rapidly than action still to be purified. John’s affection already begins to rest in contemplation and hope. Peter’s affection outruns it with action and faith. The affection of Peter must enter the tomb of darkness first to test John’s contemplative affection. (Hom. Gospel of St. John, 283, 285)         

God’s uninterrupted affection and desire for all men’s salvation is always at work in Jesus Christ. Stirring within the hearts of Mary Magdalene, Peter, and John are the affection for the one who said, I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. (St. John xiv. 18, 19) Soon the Apostles will see God’s unfading Light in Him, find God’s Life in Him, and discover His incessant Love. Christ is risen from the dead. The Son of God made flesh, made man is Risen from the dead.

In the Resurrected Light that shines through the transfigured flesh of His new life, we must remember that we are dead and our life is hid with God in Christ. (Colossians iii. 2,3) In the Resurrected Light, as our faith seeks to understand what has transpired, let us reckon [ourselves] to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans vi. 11) In the Resurrected Life, let us allow our affection for Jesus Christ to be purified and cleansed, increasingly confident in His affection for us, now seemingly transparent, obedient to His Holy Spirit…as an apt and natural instrument of His will and way. (The Meaning of Man, Mouroux, p.89) If we set out affection, the thoughts of our hearts, on things above, not things of the earth, (idem) we shall begin to remember that we come from God, and now, by God’s Grace in the Resurrected Christ, can return to God, through Him, where our affection will be made perfect forever.

Amen.
©wjsmartin