Easter Message
- April 24, 2011
Again this Easter the Gospel of life proclaims to the disciples of Jesus, “The Lord’s tomb is empty! He is risen!” Grace and life in Christ have defeated sin and death. But the good news calls out to each believer even more intimately, “Your tomb is empty! You can rise!”
Jesus has lived and died and been raised that we might live, die and rise to eternal life with him. But our faith in our resurrection is not confined to a post-mortem moment. One spiritual writer has remarked that when a Christian comes to the end of life, he or she will have left behind a trail of empty tombs, only the very last of which will be the grave. Children grown into young adults, and when they leave home and strike out on their own, there is a dying to one way of living and a rising to another. At times we need to die to old ways of thinking, of judging and relating to others, of handling challenges and difficulties.
When the spirit of Jesus delivers us from doubt or confusion or fear or grief, we leave an empty tomb behind. Whenever we choose with grace to let go of envy or anger or greed, we are raised from “a little death.” Whenever prayer and the help and example of others strengthens us to overcome an addiction or an obsession or a sinful behavior, we step out from a darkened grave into the light of God’s loving regard.
On the first Easter Sunday evening, the risen Jesus spoke to his first disciples the same words he speaks to us together this Easter Sunday, 2011: “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” Let us resolve to think and talk and act as Easter people, bringing Christ’s peace to our families, our communities, and our world.
Most Reverend George Niederauer
Archbishop of San Francisco
April 24, 2011
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