Today is a great day, a day of joy, a day of victory, a day of gladness, because Jesus is risen! Alleluia.
As I prayed about the Easter glory that we celebrate today and throughout the Easter season, once again the Lord impressed upon my heart the truth that all of history, going back to the very beginning of Creation, is a love story between our Heavenly Father and us lowly humans whom He deigned to make in His image and likeness and now makes His beloved sons and daughters through Jesus. Thinking of that love story made me think about another love story, the one between my Grandma and Grandpa, my mom’s parents.
Not too long ago, my grandpa went to the Lord, and at his funeral they played the recording of a song called ‘Legacy.’ One thing you have to know about my mom’s side of the family is that they are very musical. My mom and most of her siblings have been singing and harmonizing together for basically their whole lives and they make beautiful music when they do. Nineteen years ago, on the occasion of my grandma and grandpa’s 50th wedding anniversary, my mom and several of her siblings got together and composed and arranged a song to sing to them, called ‘Legacy.’
The night of their anniversary celebration, my grandparents were seated near the front in the big top tent set up in their backyard. They were surrounded by their children, relatives and many friends. At one point my aunts and uncles all got up and sang a couple of original songs for them, ending with the song ‘Legacy.’ It was such a lovely tribute to them, recounting how they had left a beautiful legacy of love for all of their children. Here are some of the lines, which have stuck with me through the years:
What can we say
What can we do
What are the words
How can we thank you
You’ve given us a legacy
You’ve given us a legacy
You’ve given us a legacy, a legacy of love
I can see so many ways that the legacy of love continues on in my family. Just recently I gathered with a bunch of cousins from both my mom’s and dad’s sides of the family and there was so much love in the air. We are blessed to be inheritors of that legacy of love from both of my parents’ families and remain close because of it!
The legacy of love in my family is an echo of what we all are gathered here to celebrate tonight, the legacy of love that has echoed throughout human history and reached its fullness when Jesus stepped forth victorious and glorious from the tomb almost two thousand years ago. The story of God’s love shows us just how powerful God is and how much He desires to unite us with Himself.
Since the beginning, God made humanity to perfectly share in love with Him, but out of envy the serpent, that image of our ancient foe, Satan, tempted them to distrust in the love of God the Father. Their choice to turn away from God and toward themselves has left a trail of sin, suffering and brokenness all throughout the history of humanity. Their Fall cost us that original justice they were created with, and passed on a wounded humanity to us all. But God never abandoned us or forsook the human race. Throughout history, He continued working with humanity, drawing us to Himself through covenants with Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and finally, with all of humanity, through His Son! What an unparalleled gift we have that even as we have turned away from Him, God has never, never turned away from us. His legacy of love is one which has proven itself time and time again.
Our God’s faithful love is here for us and draws us back, even in our failure. Now we live in the time of fulfillment, because Jesus has conquered our own unfaithfulness by His perfect faithfulness. He came to unite our frail humanity with His perfect Divinity and as the God-man, walked this earth completely faithful to His Heavenly Father, right to the very end. And this is our reason to celebrate today, because He became human precisely to take our humanity not just to the Cross, but through the Cross to a new and glorious life. As St. Paul said in the second reading today: “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory.”
This glorious life of Christ is poured out on us in each and every Sacrament, especially Baptism and the Eucharist. What a privilege it is to gather with the three Waggoner children to baptize them at Mass this morning. Their parents are new Catholics who came into the Church just last night! It is truly a blessing to celebrate these moments of grace with you, as your children are filled with the Holy Spirit and made sons and daughters of God along with you!
There truly are no words we could possibly come up with to thank God for all His gifts, but miraculously we have a Thanksgiving offering that God has given us–the Eucharist, which comes from the Greek eucharistein, which means thanksgiving. So today as you are united to the risen Jesus Himself in the Holy Eucharist, I invite you to offer yourself to the Father, in the Son, through the Holy Spirit, giving your life back to Him in thanksgiving for His love for you!
It is such a precious gift to join in this moment together; to remember that we are beneficiaries of the most awesome gift the world has ever known: a share in the death-defeating love of Jesus!
So today, let us join Christians throughout the world in that sense of awe-filled wonder that filled Mary Magdalene, Peter and the other disciple who ran to see the empty tomb. Let us put our faith in the glorious resurrection that they saw the first sign of in Jesus’ rolled up burial cloth.
I pray that going forth from this Mass, we are filled with fresh confidence in the resurrection of Jesus and share the perpetual newness of His resurrection with others in our lives. May His resurrection continually banish from us the power of sin and death so that through us the world might continue to be changed, as it has been ever since that first Easter morning. Let our whole lives give praise to the Lord as we celebrate His legacy of love, a living legacy in which we all are privileged to partake. Alleluia, He is risen!
+ Father in Heaven, thank you for never abandoning us. Thank You for your steadfast love. Jesus, thank you so much for your victory over sin and the grave that you have allowed us to share in. Holy Spirit, stir up the flame of faith in our hearts so that the overflowing joy of our hearts might lead many more to the new life You offer. We ask this through Christ, our risen Lord. Amen. +