Bishop Untener's Homily

Too Big For Words

What we celebrate at Easter is too big to be put into words. That's why the main Easter celebration - the Easter Vigil - is full of symbols: darkness, light, fire, the Easter Candle, candles held by everyone, water, oil, Baptisms, Confirmations, alleluia's, music everywhere.

That's why we have all those readings that tell the core stories of Creation, Abraham, the Exodus, the prophecies of Isaiah.

And that's why the homily shouldn't be very long. Words won't do it. Let the symbols and the stories speak for themselves.

So I offer you just one thought. It is small in length, but it is a large thought.

Think of People Who Have Died

To appreciate what we celebrate at Easter, we have to think of real people who have died: our father, mother... or grandparents... or a child. We think of them, and we take in all these symbols, and the full realization comes over us, "They're alive, really living. They're with God. They're with us in a living bond, and a love that still runs back and forth between us." And somewhere deep down inside us we say, “I really believe this. I know it to be true."

But there's more to it than that.

Human Life is Transformed

It's not just that they go on living, or that we will go on living. There are a lot of people who don't want to go on living, because the life they've got is hard. Some people are sick, in constant pain, or depressed, or unsuccessful at just about everything they try, or hungry, or lonely, or terribly poor... and just to go on living isn't attractive at all.

That's why the cross means so much. Jesus didn't die a peaceful death in his sleep. He was crucified. The body of Jesus was a wreck in the last hours of his life - broken, beaten, bloody, ruined. But Jesus went through death to a new, transformed, impossible-to-describe human life. On Friday he was a wreck, and on Sunday this broken body was glorious.

The crucifixion, death, and glorious resurrection of Jesus teach us that this human existence is not just continued. It is transformed. This human existence, which for us may not have been so good at all... this human existence that I've been unsuccessful in figuring out or working out... this human existence that has been plagued by mistakes or just bad breaks... this human existence is transformed into something magnificent, something that eye has not seen and ear has not heard. By his dying on the cross and his rising to a transformed human life, Jesus has opened the door, and shown the way for us.

We Celebrate "That We Exist"

That is what we celebrate at Easter.

We don't celebrate this or that "blessing" we may have received along the way - that we live in a free country, that we have a good family, good health, good friends, food on the table, a roof over our head, money in the bank. No. That's what we celebrate on Thanksgiving Day, and we ought to be thankful, but to tell the truth, it doesn't get to the heart of it. And besides, a whole lot of people in this world don't have those "blessings." And besides those who have them in spades still have problems. And besides, we leave them behind at the tomb.

No. At Easter we go to the heart of it. We celebrate the fact that we exist. By the gift of God, we have the gift of human existence. What a gift. It's all that matters. It's the beginning of a wondrous human life that will be transformed and go on forever and ever and ever. And we are assured of it if we place ourselves in the hands of the Lord.

Whatever our condition now, this is only a flicker of time. It's only a tiny mustard seed destined to blossom into something strong and beautiful.

Oh, we care about things here and now in our world - sickness, poverty, hunger - and we need to do everything we can to help make things better in this world. It's like what we do when a baby is crying. We do everything we can to help them. We don't say, "Well, when they grow up they won't cry like that." We help them here and now. So, we try to make this world a better place here and now.

But our existence here is only a flicker of existence. Even if no one helps us, even if we're flat on our back in misery, we celebrate Easter. We exist! Christ through his Incarnation, life, suffering, death and resurrection has given human existence a destiny that is wondrous, and is forever and ever and ever.

Imagine that. Let bad luck do its worst to me. I can handle it. This life is only the blink of an eye. I exist, and because I exist I am destined to be transformed and exist forever as a glorious human being.

I exist. Say no more. There is no greater gift than this. I exist. You exist. We have a destiny beyond words. Happy Easter!

Originally given on April 23, 2000