EASTER SUNDAY, YEAR C
Acts 10:34a,37-43; Ps 118;
Col. 3:1-4; Jn 20:1-9
THE RESURRECTION IS VICTORY FOR YOU
Verse 1
Low in the grave He lay,
Jesus my Savior,
Waiting the coming day,
Jesus my Lord!
Chorus
Up from the grave He arose,
With a mighty triumph o’er His foes,
He arose a Victor from the dark domain,
And He lives forever,
With His saints to reign.
He arose! He arose!
Hallelujah! Christ arose!
This Easter hymn written by Robert Lowry in 1874, is one of my favourite Easter hymns. It speaks about the victory of Jesus.
Today we celebrate that victory over death. As we followed the life of Jesus especially his arrest, passion and death, it would seem that all was lost. But he rose on the third day giving us victory and joy.
In like manner many of us who have gone through the season of Lent faithfully can say that, there is some victory for us also because we may have achieved some virtue. We would acknowledge that sometimes it was not easy to carry out the discipline and abstinence we imposed on ourselves but today we celebrate our perseverance. What is important and instructive is that when we keep our focus on Christ, we can attain virtue. A new day begins for us. A new day of victory over ourselves and to be better. Did you set aside lent to learn to forgive? Keep forgiving, keep being kind and generous. Indeed, this is the true victory.
The celebration of Easter is the celebration of the reversal of the disobedience of man and the curse laid upon us. In his pronouncement, God laid a promise of hope for redemption but it would not be without a fight. He told the woman “I shall put enmity between you…” (Gen. 3:15). Since then, there has been a struggle between good and evil, light and darkness. Throughout history God has not forgotten man, he has been sending help through prophets and his other servants. But in the fulness of time he sent his own son, to end it once and for all.
Jesus came to preserve and to restore. Since man sinned by eating from a tree, Jesus went to the tree to bring restoration, freedom, peace, joy and divinity. For all of us who celebrate Easter, what we celebrate is this: that the place of our doom becomes the place of our redemption.
When Jesus died all seems lost and done. The disciples themselves were devastated and seemed lost, but God was not done with them. that could not have been the end of the story. Jesus rose on the third day. ALLELUIA! For you reading this, you too may feel your life is done, overcome with evil. You may be at your wits end and you feel like giving up especially in a world where people pass judgement and cancel quickly. People may have written you off. But wait on Jesus. The power that raised Jesus from the dead will cause victory for you.
In Jesus there is no half victory. Jesus’ death alone was enough to grant us forgiveness of sins and salvation. But he put an icing on the cake by rising from the dead. By his death he did not only heal wounds of sin but by his resurrection he has taken away the shame of the scars of sin.
By his death he did not only reconcile us to God but by his resurrection fills us with infinite joy and the gift Holy Spirit.
The death and resurrection of Jesus brings transformation into the life all the faithful. When we truly accept him as our saviour, he will truly transform our lives.
God bless you.
BY Rev. Fr Delight Arnold Carbonu
