Easter, 2011

Easter Homily preached by Frater Brendan Hankins, O. Praem.
Among other things fr. Brendan teaches English.


This Easter I have the good fortune to have a seat just to the right of our Abbot. Last Easter I sat to the right of another abbot and in another church. I sat to the right of the Abbot General of our order in St. Peter’s Basilica. A seat at the Easter Vigil in a section that is typically reserved for cardinals, bishops, and heads of religious orders; rarely occupied by seminarians. It was a remarkable seat and more memorable liturgy.

Just before the vigil begins the lights go out and thousands inside are shrouded in darkness. In St. Peter’s it is an especially moving expression of the significance of the absence of Christ in the Church. Because without Christ, without the light of Christ, the great basilica of St. Peter’s is nothing more than a massive tomb. Built on top of a necropolis, hundreds of dead below in the crypt and lining the aisles along the sides of the church. But once the Holy Father has lit the Paschal candle, and our candles are lit from his, light floods the Church. The tombs are illuminated and united with the larger than life statues of the saints enlightened high above the floor of the Church. In the light of Christ, darkness and death are transformed and the veil separating heaven and earth seems ever so thin. The Church militant and the Church Triumphant, the living and those who have died in Christ assemble to celebrate one common liturgy.

What is it that separates us from those saints whose relics lie beneath the altars of St. Peter’s, throughout the churches of Rome and the world and now reign with Christ. How did they live, better yet how did they die. They lived and died holding fast to the faith that before Christ rose from the dead and, even today without Christ, the world is a tomb. We are a race of men and women born into this world destined for a common fate. That fate is death and is the penalty for sin. With each sin we lay one more stone before the door of our tomb. We bury ourselves a little deeper in false hopes and bind ourselves a little tighter with Satan’s lies. From day to day and week after week life draws to a close. No matter how many medications are prescribed or operations are performed or how far technology advances.

Today, Easter Sunday, the day of the Lord’s resurrection is the day of our salvation. Every Sunday of the year foreshadows and anticipates today’s celebration; every feast, all other Solemnities are culminated in Easter Sunday, the Solemnity of Solemnities, the day of the Lord’s resurrection. And Easter Sunday prefigures the new and eternal day when and where we will reign with Christ forever. For, as Saint Paul writes, if Christ has not been raised from the dead our faith is in vain. For those who do not believe that Christ has been raised from the dead place their faith in a world, and body that are destined for change and corruption.

But with faith in the resurrection of Christ a new sun has risen, a new day has dawned, and the order of the world is shaken. The humble are exalted, the poor are made rich, the devil is cast out, sin is forgiven, fear of suffering has given way to courage, the end is now the beginning and death has become a doorway to life. Before the resurrection the apostles fled to avoid persecution, but after St. Peter returns to Rome to be crucified, St. Paul stretches out his neck to the sword, St. Sebastian goes to Rome because the persecution is fiercest, St. Ignatius of Antioch pleads to be thrown to the lions in the coliseum, a pagan empire becomes Christian, basilicas are built in their honor and millions of pilgrims follow the trail of the martyrs blood from all over the world to venerate them today. Faith in the Lords rising from the dead has the power to change, rather transform the world and it has the power to transform us and how we see the world and live our lives. Christ Jesus, the Son of God and Son of Man, has died, he has risen and he has made all thing new.


During the Easter season the Regina Caeli is prayed in place of the Angelus.

REGINA CAELI
Regina caeli, laetare, alleluia.
Quia quem meruisti portare, alleluia.
Resurrexit, sicut dixit, alleluia.
Ora pro nobis Deum, alleluia.

V. Queen of heaven, rejoice, alleluia.
R. For He Whom you were worthy to bear, alleluia.

V. Has risen as He foretold, alleluia.
R. Pray for us to God, alleluia.

V. Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, alleluia.
R. For the Lord has indeed risen, alleluia.

Let us pray:
O God, You gave joy to the whole world through the resurrection of Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Grant, we ask You, that through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, His Mother, we may obtain the joys of everlasting life. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.