Easter Sunday

  • Father Joseph Komonchak
  • Apr 12, 2009
  • Series: Father Joseph Komonchak Homilies

    Easter Sunday - April 12, 2009 - Blessed Sacrament

    “This is the day the Lord has made: let us rejoice and be glad!”

    That verse is taken from one of the Psalms used most frequently during this season of Easter, a practice in which the Church today continues what the very first group of disciples began on the first Easter day. The wonder of the day had led them back to their Scriptures for texts in which they might find anticipated the events they had just witnessed: the arrest and execution of the one whom they had hoped might be the Messiah, and now the astonishing reports that he had been raised from the dead and now was vindicated as Lord and Messiah.

    Among the texts they found was the one we sang as our response to the first reading. It is the exultant prayer of one who had been under attack and who had fled to the Lord for refuge and been heard:

    The right hand of the Lord has struck with power,

    the right hand of the Lord raises up.

    I shall not die, but live,

    to proclaim the works of the Lord.

    The Lord did not surrender me to Death.

    The stone which the builders rejected

    has become the chief cornerstone.

    By the Lord has this been done,

    it is wonderful in our eyes.

    This is the day the Lord has made;

    let us rejoice and be glad in it.

    That last verse can also be translated: “This is the day on which the Lord has acted,” and that would have an Easter meaning, too: this is the day on which God has done the decisive thing, overcoming death, what St. Paul called “the last enemy,” and in so doing has overcome every lesser evil. And because of this victory, a new day has dawned, so that the other translation is also valid: “This is the day the Lord has made!”

    St. Augustine reflected on this same Psalm one Easter day. He recalled the act by which God had created light out of the primordial darkness, and then he asked whether there was not another day that the Lord had made in which his Church was to rejoice and be glad; and he answered: “It was said to those who believe in Christ, ‘You are the light of the world.’ If ‘light,’ then ‘day,’ because he called the light the day. Yesterday the Spirit of God here moved over the waters, and there was darkness over the waters when these new-born [one can see him pointing to those baptized at the Vigil] still were bearing their sins. But when their sins were forgiven them by the Spirit of God, then the Lord said, ‘Let there be light, and there was light.’ Behold ‘the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.’ We are speaking to this day in the words of the Apostle: Oh day that the Lord has made, you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.... Walk then as children of the light.”

    We today are still living in this Day the Lord has made. If we have made our Lenten way behind our Lord, then we too can sing, as true of ourselves: “I shall not die but live, and declare the works of the Lord.” The very ancient hymn that St. Paul quoted is then true of us: “Awake, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine upon you.’” Jesus himself said that resurrection was not something reserved for the last day when he said to Martha: “I am resurrection and life; anyone who believes in me, even though he die, shall live, and anyone who lives and believes shall never die at all.” In our second reading, the Apostle echoes Christ: “If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.... You have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” A life stronger and surer than death has already begun in us. The Day that will have no end has already dawned. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.