The universe changed when Christ was born into the world more than two millennia past. It changed radically with His resurrection on that first Easter Sunday as did our world when we celebrated that event three weeks ago.
More than being happy people during a happy season, we are people of joy living in a joyful season. And how so? Lent was not a happy, nicey-nicey, cheerful and upbeat time, but one of tumult, when the worst tendencies of human evil manifested themselves with Christ’s crucifixion on Good Friday. But beginning with His resurrection on Easter Sunday, joy rose to the forefront. Joy being that overwhelming state of fullness despite having experienced the devastating feeling of emptiness.
We all know the emptiness we feel because of our sins. The harm, the destruction of relationships, the guilt of our sinning. In Acts 3, Peter explains how all the Gods of the Old Testament, the wrathful Gods, take glory in Jesus. And how Jesus has revealed a forgiving God and by following Him our sins will be wiped away. Our emptiness, sometimes in an instant, will be filled with the fullness of joy.
In the Second Reading from 1 John, God’s forgiveness extends beyond our individuality to the whole world, for those who choose to try and keep Christ’s commandments. Our church founders believed this and called their revelation Catholic, meaning “universal”, “world-wide”, “throughout the whole”. To this we Catholics belong.
Luke’s Gospel describes the evening of Easter Sunday when the resurrected Jesus appears and walks with his two disciples who were empty, “startled and terrified”. He greets them, “Peace be with you.” Then He eats and instructs them at supper as He did similarly at the Last Super. Making them aware of His divinity by opening their minds to understand Old Testament Scripture and the fulfillment of that scripture by His resurrection. Past is the God of wrath; now and forever is the God of love and forgiveness. Like his disciples on that first Easter evening, we “are witness to these things” and disciples as well. Jesus has prepared us to confront the destruction of evil and literally flip it over into the construction positive being here and now. His message to the world is now as it was then, one of joy in spite all life’s difficulties. “Be not afraid”, we are being led to the fullness of eternal life with our God of love.