Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church


Homily for April 20, 2003
Year B - Cycle I
Easter Sunday
By Fr. John Carney
Topic:  Coming Back Home to Jesus Christ
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Gospel Reading: 
John 20:1-9
"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.  So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, 'They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don't know where they put him.'  So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb.  They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first; he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in.  When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.  Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed.  For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead."
 
I imagine many of you, if not most, have seen the return of the seven prisoners of war to Fort Bliss.  They got in last night about 8:00 or 8:30.  Perhaps you watched it yesterday evening or saw some clips on it.  It’s a familiar scene, but even thought it is a familiar scene, it always seems to grasp our hearts to see these beautiful reunions.  The C-17 aircraft landed, and dramatically pulled up to the thousands of people, and a couple of the POW’s opened the top hatch of the C-17 and were waving the flag.  After a delay of some minutes, the men and the one woman were mobbed by their parents and their kids and their nephews and nieces.  It was beautiful.  It’s hard not to cry when you imagine the happiness of those families.  One of them, of course, was Joseph Hudson from Alamogordo.  His mother, Philippine, was very emotional.   She said, “My Joseph.  Oh my Joseph.  My baby, my baby’s home.”  There was one clip on Fox News where Joseph was talking to her, saying, “OK, Mom, Mom, Ma, settle, settle down, Ma.  Chill.  I’m OK, Mom.”  Just like us. By the way, get used to your mom always thinking you’re always 8 years old.  I figured that out when was 50, and the last several years with my Mom were much better than the first fifty.  Just do what she says, because if Mom ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy!
 
It reminded me though, last night, of a scene almost exactly 30 years ago in 1973.  You remember, some of you, Operation Homecoming.  We had hundreds of POW’s in Vietnam, many of whom were not disclosed by the North Vietnamese.  When the Paris Peace Accords decided that the Americans would be repatriated, a list of names was published.  On that list was the name of a Marine Sergeant named Ronald Ridgeway.  His parents thought he had died in 1968, five years earlier.  Ridgeway was stationed in Khe Sanh, the infamous Khe Sanh.  He was on a patrol outside the base and they came under heavy enemy contact, and the patrol was eliminated.  They, the bodies, were left there for several days.  They couldn’t retrieve them.  Finally, when the Marines were able to retrieve their fallen comrades, it was impossible to identify them.  They sent the remains back to the United States where forensic experts thought they had Ronald Ridgeway, and they didn’t.  He was alive, but not well, in the hands of the North Vietnamese in Hanoi.  The remains, because they were indistinguishable largely, were buried in a mass grave.  The Ridgeways celebrated the life and had the funeral for their son and five years later, his name came out.  I’m sure his family must have said, “Well, no.  It’s got to be a mistake.  Maybe, well maybe.”  Maybe it just may be that their son was alive, and indeed he was.  When he was repatriated, when he stepped off that airplane, I just can’t begin to imagine this son who was dead is now alive.  He who was lost was found. 
 
I think you see where I’m going with this on Easter, for Jesus Christ rose from the dead.  He who was truly dead, not mistakenly dead, but truly dead, was now risen.  He was alive and that’s good news.  That’s why we’re all here today.  Our presence today says together that we believe that He rose from the dead and that Jesus Christ is Lord.  He has returned home after death to his family, to us.  I can imagine how the Apostles and how Mary felt.  We don’t know what Mary knew and when she knew it.  But certainly the Apostles had high hopes for Jesus.  It was not only a personal love and affection for him, but also they thought he was the Messiah.  He was going to deliver them from the bondage of Rome and lead Israel to greatness, the greatness experienced under King David, and he was dead.  Not only that, but they were next, they feared.  They were hiding behind locked doors.  They feared that the authorities would come and take them.  They must have been devastated, those who loved Jesus, when he died and they saw his cold body being placed in that tomb.  How did they feel? 
 
Easter is even more than that.  Easter involves each and every person here today.  Easter involves you and me if you are a Christian, because you too were once spiritually dead.  You were born dead, as I was, because of the sin of Adam.  Because of the sin of our forefathers, we were born dead.  In Baptism, we became alive in Christ Jesus.  With the exception of very, very, few, if any, after Baptism, we died again spiritually because we sin grievously.  We’ve turned our backs on God for any number of reasons, and left the family.  To a greater or lesser extent, that’s true of just about every person here.  It’s certainly true of the person speaking now.  Even after Baptism, many have become like the prodigal son.  You know we were given everything.  We were baptized into this family of Christ, we were given grace, we were given every spiritual opportunity, but we left, many of us.  We went our own ways.  We took the share of the inheritance and we went out and experienced the life of pleasure.  We turned away from Jesus Christ and we turned our back on our spiritual family.  But we’re home now.  We’re here today.  We’re safe and sound with the family and with Christ.  Others left the family through apathy and indifference.  The opposite of love is not hatred; the opposite of love is apathy.  The opposite of passion is apassion, lack of passion.  Hatred usually involves love, interestingly enough.  Some of you people have had arguments, perhaps even one or two married couples here today have had a fight at some time in their married history and said, “I hate him.”  But that’s because you love him, and I hope you still do.  Apathy and indifference…that’s when we are not interested in the things of God. 
 
Then something happened, maybe a baby came along.  You know there is a scripture that says, “A little child will lead you.”  That is so true.  People go out they go to college, they fall away from their faith, and then there’s a baby.  They want that baby to know God, but that baby will never know God if Mom and Dad don’t know God.  So here they come, they’re back.  Oftentimes you’re back because your mother nagged you to death, but you’re back. So you’re home again.  You’re safe and sound again with your family, with your savior, Jesus Christ.  Others left on a journey of ceaseless wandering.  That seems to be something that’s happened in my generation.  You know I blame everything on the 60’s, so there you go.  I have relatives, and I don’t know, it’s like their religion is the “flavor of the month.”  I don’t know what they are this month.  One relative was into I Ching and he would play with quarters all day.  He’d say, “Well, I don’t know if I should do this or do that.”  I’d say, “Well, what god is at the end of that formula?”  Others are out there looking for God in crystals or in nature.  You can find him in nature, but you’ll find him up close and personal in the Eucharist.  It’s much better, really.  Ceaseless wandering…kind of the mark of our age. 
 
I’m reminded of Psalm 4, where it says, “Oh man, how long will your hearts be closed; will you love what is futile and seek what is false.”  You’re home now because you found something along the way.  You found that you needed a Savior.  You can’t save yourself, and at some point, actually a lot of people return to the Church because of self-discovery.  When you find out how weak you are, when you find out how fallible you are, then you find out how sinful you are.  You say, “I can’t do this myself.   I need a Savior.”  And you are not going to find a savior in a crystal, in an I Ching formula; you’ll find him in Jesus Christ. 
 
And some, too, fell away, left the family, and became spiritually dead out of fear.  I did a funeral a couple of years ago, and it was sad.  Many funerals are very joyful, they really are.  This particular funeral was sad.  The wife of the deceased told me, “You know, Father, he never lived because he was so afraid of death.  He never lived in fear of dying.”  That doesn’t count for us, we’re not afraid to die, because when we close our eyes in death, we open them up to the face of Jesus Christ.  That’s good news.  That means we can live these years we have on this earth in joyful anticipation, not in fear.  We don’t have to hoard things up and save things as if we’ll live forever on this planet.  We don’t want to live forever on this planet.  Do you?  If you could take a pill tomorrow and be assured that you could live to be 500, you’d wake up the next day with the biggest hangover you’ve ever had in your life and you’d say, “Oh no, not another 444 more years of this.”  It ain’t bad, but there’s got to be more, and there is more in Jesus Christ.
 
You know, Easter is about experiencing the power of God changing a tragedy into a glorious moment.  I hope you can look at your life, and the older you are I think, the more capable you will be, to look at your life and see the tragedy that have come your way, admitting most cases that they are your own making and thanking God for this glorious promise of Eternal Life in Christ Jesus.  So we’re not afraid.  We have a reason to live and a reason even to pass through life temporarily in death to eternal life with God.  Nothing can hurt us.  Nothing.  If God is for you, who can be against you.  If you know Christ, how can you be afraid?
 
There is a story told by a Jesuit priest named Fr. Mark Link about an old woman.  Some of you have heard this.  I’ll just read it to you. 
 
She was a flower lady, a poor woman selling flowers.  The lady’s face was old and wrinkled, but radiant with an Easter smile.  Taking a flower, Pat (the individual in this story) paid her and said, ”How happy you look this morning.”  The flower lady replied, “Why not?  Everything is beautiful.”  Pat was startled by her reply because she was dressed so shabbily and seemed so frail.  Pat said, “You surely wear your troubles well.”  Again what the flower lady’s reply was startled Pat.  “When Jesus died on Good Friday, that was the worst of days.  Then three days later was Easter.  So when trouble comes my way, I simply wait three days.  Then everything gets all right again.
 
Try that next time you are in a crisis.  Wait three days and pray.  I bet you you’ll wake up that third morning and everything will be all right again, regardless of how great that problem is.  We are a people of hope.  We are a people of peace and of joy.  Easter tells us that we share in Jesus’ resurrection.  If we are rejected, we can love again.  If we are betrayed we can trust again.  If we are dead, we can live again.  So today we recommit ourselves, all of us, to live life to the fullest to focus on what is truly important, and that is God, family and community, and to live our days out in joyful anticipation.  You know the song Because He Lives?  “Because he lives I can face tomorrow; because he lives all fear is gone, because I know he holds the future and life is worth living just because he lives.”