Christ is Risen, Alleluia! – Easter Sunday – Sermon by Father Levine

Fr. Joseph Levine; Holy Catholic  Church and Missions, Burns, Oregon; March 31, 2024

In a few minutes, we will have the opportunity to renew our baptismal vows, to renounce again Satan and the way of sin and to profess our faith in Jesus Christ. Then we shall be fed with the bread of life, the bread of the children of God, the true Body of Christ.

Baptism delivered us from slavery to the devil; washed away our sins, including the inheritance of Adam; made us part of the mystical Body of Christ, the Church, which has Christ himself for her head, source of life, and ruler; bestowed on us the gift of the Holy Spirit, who dwells in us as in a temple and makes us to be true children of God in Christ; baptism gave us a new birth to the life of grace, which is nothing less than a sharing in the very life and nature of God, the Most Holy Trinity, through Jesus Christ, the Son of God made man; baptism marked us with a sacred seal that enables us to take part in Christian worship and receive the Body of Christ in holy communion; baptism opened for us the gates of heaven.

What a great gift it is to have been baptized! We can scarcely grasp the greatness of this gift. We can scarcely give thanks to God for such a great gift. When we look up at the Cross, we should give thanks for the gift of baptism, because it derives all its power from the Cross of Christ. When we attend Mass, we should give thanks by uniting ourselves to the holy sacrifice, by offering our lives to God, through, with, and in Jesus Christ. When we receive in him holy communion, this is the fulfillment, in this life, of the gift given us in baptism.

Baptism has given us a new life, life in Christ, life in the Holy Spirit. It would be an act of base ingratitude to return to the way of sin from which baptism delivered us. Imagine taking a shower, then jumping in a sewer; that is what it is like when a baptized Christian commits a mortal sin. St. Peter compares it to a dog returning to his vomit or a pig, after having been washed, wallowing in the mire. (cf. 2 Pe 2:22) St. Paul compares mortal sin among the baptized to crucifying the Son of God anew and holding him up to contempt.

Rather, if we have been raised with Christ, we should seek what is above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Now, at present we cannot see the glory of the life that was given us in baptism; it is rather an object of faith, something we believe because Christ has made it known to us.  So it is that through our baptism we have died and our life is hidden with Christ in God, but when Christ our life appears we will appear with him in glory.

Consequently, St. Paul exhorts us: Put to death what is earthly in you: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry. (Col 3:5) Rather, we should put on as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience, forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven us. Above all we must put on charity which binds everything together in perfect harmony. Then the peace of Christ will rule in our hearts. Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Col 3:12-14,17)

Really? Why should we believe all this?

Because Jesus Christ has truly risen from the dead.

Those who were his chosen witnesses, the holy Apostles, who fled from him when he was arrested in the garden, ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead, and have born witness to the truth to the point of shedding their own blood.

Indeed, when Peter and John entered the tomb that Easter morning, they found the burial cloths and the cloth that covered his head, but his body they did not find. John saw and believed.

What did John see? What happened to the burial cloths and the cloth that covered his head? Were they simply lost? Or did the Apostles hide them away and guard them as precious treasures?

Perhaps those very burial clothes exist to this day as most precious relics of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Shroud of Turin is well known, beyond all explanation, bearing the image of the crucified, from head to toe. Less known is the Veil of Manopello, hidden away in an obscure church in Italy, forgotten for centuries. Yet, while the Shroud of Turin is kept locked in a casket and displayed only on rare occasions, the Veil of Manopello is now displayed openly in the Church of St. Michael in the village of Manopello. It is a very fine and delicate piece of cloth on which is found an image of a face that matches the face of the Shroud. The image, which again cannot be explained, is in color and shows the face of a living, breathing man, the blood washed away from his face. It seems to fit the description of the image that was once known in the Greek Church and represented in many icons, the “acheiropoieton”, the image not made with hands. For if this is indeed the cloth that covered the face of Jesus, the image after the image on the Shroud; it an image of Jesus Christ, risen from the dead!

On September 1, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI visited Manopello and made these remarks:

“[The dicisples] could not even imagine how profound the mystery of Jesus of Nazareth could be or how unfathomable, inscrutable, his ‘Face’ would prove, so that even after living with Jesus for three years, Philip, who was one of them, was to hear him say at the Last Supper: ‘Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me, Philip?’. And then the words that sum up the novelty of Jesus’ revelation: ‘He who has seen me has seen the Father’ (Jn 14: 9). 

Only after his Passion when they encountered him Risen, when the Spirit enlightened their minds and their hearts, would the Apostles understand the significance of the words Jesus had spoken and recognize him as the Son of God, the Messiah promised for the world’s redemption. They were then to become his unflagging messengers, courageous witnesses even to martyrdom.

‘He who has seen me has seen the Father’. Yes, dear brothers and sisters, to ‘see God’ it is necessary to know Christ and to let oneself be moulded by his Spirit who guides believers ‘into all the truth’ (cf. Jn 16: 13). (Benedict XVI, Address at Shrine of Holy Face in Manopello, September 1, 2006)

Whatever the truth of the Shroud of Turin and the Veil of Manopello, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is a solid fact; a solid reality. It is the proof that he is truly the Son of God as he taught; it is the proof of all his teaching; it is the proof of his work of redemption; it is the proof of the life of grace; it is the proof of eternal life.  To this day, it is possible to visit Jerusalem, to visit the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and see the empty tomb, to see the place where he was laid.

Christ is risen, alleluia!