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Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord, April 5, 2015, by Fr. Kevin Anderson

JOKE:  A priest died and went to heaven.  As he is waiting in line to go through the Pearly Gates, there is a long line, so he starts chatting with the man in front of him.  The man tells him that he was a Taxi Cab driver in New York.  “Oh that’s nice.”  The man goes up to the Pearly Gates and St. Peter checks off his name and hands him a beautiful golden harp and sends him through.  The priest comes up.  St. Peter looks up his name and gives him a wooden harp.  “Hey what’s up?” asks the priest.  “How come that cab driver got a golden harp, and I only got this one.”   “Well,” explains St. Peter, “When you did your job (preaching, etc.) people fell asleep.  When that guy was doing his job (driving cab in New York), people were praying. 

 

Well Easter has many meanings but one that is very ancient involves the peacock.  The peacock with its long feathers was a symbol of immortality [Show a peacock feather].  In Medieval times, it was believed that when peacocks die their bodies don’t decay . . . they just stay beautiful forever.    Well I think peacocks serve another purpose in this Easter Season.   And so I invite those in High School and in Middle School to come up and join me.    

 

[Let them take a peacock feathers and try balancing it on their hands, fingers, nose, chin]

 

One of real gifts of Easter is joy.   We are joy filled.  We can be optimistic because we know that the story doesn’t end with Jesus on the cross.   We know that Jesus’ struggle was not in vain.  Too often we hold life like a balancing act . . . trying to balance the bad things with the good, trying to keep an even ledger of what happens to us.

 

I remember a conference that I went some years ago.  It was right after Easter and all there Church people, especially those who worked in liturgies were talking about all the bad things that happened during the Easter liturgies . . . and they just brought up negative things.  E.g. at my parish the server dropped the book.  Oh at mine the readers were awful, etc.

 

Not that it’s not helpful to vent your feelings, but usually that’s only half the story of these past days.  We are not just death people.  For example, we can always look at any event like a glass half filled with water.

 

The optimist will say that the glass is half-full.

The pessimist will say that the glass is half-empty.

The engineer will say that the glass is 2 times bigger than it needs to be.

 

The politician will say that the glass would be more empty if the opposition were in charge.

The IT support person will say that you should try emptying the glass and then refilling it.

The Mother of a persistently demanding five-year-old says, “Sweetheart it's whatever you

            want it to be, just please let mummy have five minutes peace and quiet.”

 

It’s like a school team that doesn’t think much of its season.  Already the players are saying that it won’t be a good season . . . that they will have trouble.  My goodness, what about celebrating the joy of playing.  To enjoy being on a team, being outdoors and having fun.

Or like fans complaining, already, that the MN Twins will have a lousy season.  My gosh, we should rejoice that we even have a professional baseball team.

 

Joy is trusting in God.  That is what Jesus did.  He didn’t create his own resurrection.  The scriptures, especially Paul’s letters say that Jesus rose from the dead.  That is, Jesus didn’t do it

 . . . it was done to him.   It was Jesus trusting that through the darkness of his Good Friday, goodness would come.

 

It is the same with us, it is not trying to get it “all right” by balancing the things in life . . . for example thinking, “if I just get control of this then I will be OK.  Or if I can be perfect in that, then I will be fine.”  No, it is realizing that God raises us up through our own sufferings. Joy is knowing that God raises us up.  Joy is not happiness; it’s something greater. You can be happy when you have something . . . like that chocolate bunny that you received. Or you can be happy because you achieved something . . . that you found your Easter basket.  Those are nice, but that is not joy.  Joy is something greater, something bigger.  St. Augustine says, “JOY IS THE EVIDENCE OF GOD.”

 

There will be Good Fridays in every life.   But there is also Easter mornings.   In the midst of craziness and darkness, when it seems so unreal, Easter will come.   Juliann of Norwich says “All will be well again.”  Just as sure as the days get warmer and longer, we trust that spring will come, that the dawn will break the night.   We as Christians don’t have to depend on some theologian to prove it to us.  We know it over and over again by our own experience.

 

We are constantly being raised up to a new life.  Perhaps like the image that Paul used in the second reading . . . like yeast that we, sometimes, need to throw out and start over.  The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, with each time expecting a different result.  No, don’t stay in your tombs and try to balance everything yourself.  (e.g. If I get this done, then I’ll be happy)   Be joy filled now!.   How did Jesus balance the bad things?   Attack it?  No, he loved it to death.  

 

Easter is all about receiving a new start. It is about being people of joy.  If you want to know where the resurrection occurs . . . look around: the evidence of the resurrection . . . is joy.

 

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