5 April 2026

5 April 2026 - Easter Vigil / Easter Sunday

Transcript

Reading:  

Saturday: Matthew 28:2

Sunday: John 20:1

Write:  

Saturday:

And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, approached, rolled back the stone, and sat upon it.

Sunday:

On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb.

Reflect:   

Among the Eastern churches, there is a tradition that on Easter the priest tells a joke. The reason for this is because the Resurrection is the biggest joke that God pulled on Satan. Satan thought he had won. Instead his entire kingdom was overthrown. Unfortunately for us, the fight still goes on.

But there is victory to be declared! Christ is risen! He has truly risen! In fact, there is a story told about a communist leader, when communism was becoming dominant in some countries, who stood up and gave a speech declaring that religion – especially Christian religion – was an irrelevancy, and that communism had become the solution to the useless nature of Christianity.

Well, when he finished, in his arrogance he decided to open up the microphone to anybody who want to speak. A young Orthodox priest stepped up to the microphone. The Communist with a sneer as he walked away to give room for the priest said something like, “don’t take too long!” This priest’s response was, “oh, I will not take long at all.” He stepped up to the microphone, raised his hands in benediction, and said in his native language two words – in English it is three: “Christ is risen!” And the entire crowd, after having listened to this communist tell them how stupid they were for believing, responded: “He is truly risen!”

I think that’s a pretty good joke! Satan tries to make us think that Christianity is an irrelevancy. But we know the truth.

Apply:   

There are people today who want to fight against Christ and his church. There are many attacks that have been made in recent years in “the West” where Christianity used to thrive. Now it has become acceptable to fight against Christianity, to mock it, to dismiss it.

Yet, at the Easter Vigil around the world there are thousands – thousands – of people choosing to join the Catholic Church. What explains this desire on the part of these thousands to choose to come to a church that is embattled? I imagine if you asked even the five that are joining us here at Midtown Catholic this year, you would get a slightly different answer from everyone.

For those of us who were born into the faith, it may not seem like a “big thing” to make this choice. But for many who have made the choice to join the Catholic Church they faced a major struggle with family members who do not understand.

Christ’s Resurrection from the dead was more than just a joke pulled on Satan. It is where we become justified before God as Christ fully united humanity with divinity. Yes, that was done with the Incarnation. But it took the death of Jesus to complete the work of the Christ.

Without His Death – and especially His Resurrection – the cycle would remain incomplete. The events of these days that we commemorate every year are meant to bring us deeper into the mystery of the God-man, Jesus.

Each of us needs to discover the empty tomb for ourselves. Mary Magdalene and the other women who were privileged to stand before the empty tomb were the first to receive the miraculous news. They did not bottle up the information, they did not hide it, but went to declare to the apostles the Good News of the Resurrection.

Now, it comes to us. Satan has been humiliated. The power of sin and death has been overthrown. And, as the priest said: Christ is risen. And the people’s response needs to be our own: He has truly risen. Our joy should know no bounds. Our voices should be raised in that word that we could not use throughout Lent: Alleluia! Christ is risen! He has truly risen! Alleluia! Amen.

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