Easter and Resurrection give us freedom to pursue good

Easter Sunday, Apr. 24, 2011
Fr. Joseph Eddy, O. de M.
Gospel: John 20:1-9 “They have taken Him from the tomb.”
(Sorry, no audio)

Full homily text: We began this liturgy in darkness. As we have heard from the first reading, darkness characterized the creation of the world. “The earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss….” How this darkness reminds us of all that is wrong in our world today. Look what has happened over the past year: A terrible oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Which one of us was not distraught at the images of oil flowing out destroying wildlife and ruining the beauty of this vacation spot?

Fr. Joseph Eddy is the vocation director of the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy, founded to redeem Christians whose faith is in danger. The Order’s student house in the U.S. is in Philadelphia.

Is God calling you to become a Mercedarian friar? Visit Fr. Joseph’s Facebook page, or the website of the .

Recently, the tsunami and earthquake have devastated parts of Japan leading to a nuclear disaster. Wars and conflicts have raged in Egypt and Libya. These events remind us of the darkness and disorder which characterized the beginning of the world. But the world was not left in darkness in Genesis. God brought light and life to the world, creating all things. Man and woman are the crowning achievement of His work. Human beings are created in the image of God, with an intellect and will. We can make choices. This is God’s gift to us; that we can reason and make choices in freedom. With this freedom comes a certain responsibility, we have dominion over our environment. The world suffers or prospers based on our use of freedom. Freedom is to be used to pursue what is good.

Adam and Eve had greatest freedom

In the Garden, our first parents lived in communion with God and each other. It was here that our freedom reached its highest point. Adam and Eve chose to pursue what is good. But, eventually sin enters in. They seek to be God. To determine what is right and wrong. The darkness enters into the world, because of man’s free choice. This is what we experience still today. All that is evil is not of God. God does not cause evil; he cannot because it is against his nature. God is all good and all loving. Yet, he respects the good of freedom. The sin of the human race has brought darkness into the world: death, suffering, illness, natural disasters. All of these things were not in the original plan of God for man.

And so we come to the need for a Savior: “Oh happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam, which gained for us so great a redeemer.” But to the followers of Jesus on that early Easter morning, it did not seem that Jesus was that redeemer. Over the past several hours, Jesus lay in the darkness of the tomb in the garden. His body had just been anointed with oil and spices. Jesus was dead and buried. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary come to the tomb, not in any expectation. They fully expected to see a stone rolled over a tomb; a body lying within decaying.

But Christ is “the Morning star which never sets.” He is no longer there. Lightning flashes and the angel of the Lord appears in brilliant white. Once the angel cast our first parents out of the Garden of Eden forever, but now the angel gently welcomes the women saying do not be afraid, Jesus “has been raised just as he said.” These women must have been in utter shock at the scene of that morning. Light shown in the darkness! Jesus, the light of the world, appears to them on the way. Stunned, the women listen to the Jesus’ instructions: “go quickly, and tell his disciples.” They exercise their freedom to do as Jesus has instructed. The news is joyful and they must tell it “quickly.” Yet, their emotions and feelings are mixed. We are told that they are “fearful yet overjoyed.”

Fearful yet overjoyed

We cannot help but experience that same sense of being “fearful yet overjoyed.” We are overjoyed tonight because, as the Easter proclamation says, “Jesus Christ our King has risen.” By his passion, death, and Resurrection we are freed from our sins. All creation, just as it suffered at the sin of our first parents, now experiences a certain restoration. Yet we can’t help but also feel “fearful.” We know ourselves and we know our world. Over the past few weeks of Lent, we have come face to face with our sinfulness. We have made some progress, but real tendencies to sin remain in us. And our world, now more than ever seems far from the restoration that is promised by the resurrection. Wars, suffering, immorality, and injustice still remain.

We do not reside in the Garden of Eden. Jesus came out of the tomb and the first joyful message of the Resurrection came from a garden. But, the full experience of the Resurrection is not yet felt. This is why we are fearful. This is why we are told by St. Paul to “work out our salvation in fear and trembling.” In the meantime, as the world longs for complete restoration at His second coming, Jesus will not force himself upon us. He will not take away the precious gift that we have of freedom. By the sanctifying grace and the sacraments, we are given all that we need to seek that which is true, beautiful, and good. Often times, though, people still choose evil which is an abuse of freedom and leads to the slavery of sin. This can lead to the total loss of eternal salvation.

Use freedom to pursue good

This Easter as we experience the gift of new life given at the Resurrection let us be determined to use our newfound freedom to pursue what is good. We are called to put on Christ Jesus. We are called to experience the first fruits of eternity today. As we do this we await the full realization of a new heaven and new earth. Where we will experience true freedom, glorified with the Risen Lord for all eternity.