Today is Divine Mercy Sunday – however, it is also the final day of the Easter Octave. Therefore, I am going to reflect upon Easter as a whole, rather than on Divine Mercy Sunday in particular.
This year, for one of the few times in nearly 2000 years, the People of God were not able to witness the celebration of Easter. That is, they were not able to witness the Resurrection of Our Lord in sacramental signs through attending the Easter Vigil. This is a great evil – and we should pray to God that it will never happen again. And yet, it is precisely this inability to witness the Easter liturgy that makes this Easter – in a certain sense – like unto the first.
Unlike our typical Easter Vigils, which take place in packed churches throughout the world, the first Easter occurred in secret. In the stillness of the tomb, without anyone to witness the act directly, Christ rose from the dead. Certainly, the guards at the tomb beheld the angel of the Lord and were struck with fear. Certainly, the weeping women beheld the empty tomb. Certainly, the Lord himself – resurrected and glorified – appeared to his disciples. Still, none of them witnessed the Resurrection firsthand. Only through the witness of others, whether it was an angel or the Lord himself, did the first Christians come to learn of the Resurrection.
Our present-day situation, therefore, is not so different from the first Easter. This year’s Easter Vigil was celebrated by priests around the world. Christ was declared the Lord of time; the light of Christ scattered the darkness of sin and death; the Gloria was intoned; bells were rung; water was blessed; bread and wine were offered; and our Lord in His resurrected flesh appeared. Yet, we were not witnesses. We were stuck at home making do with live-streaming on laptop screens. Like the first disciples, a veil sits between us and the Resurrection. What can all this mean? I dare say that God is calling us back to the first Easter. The past 60 or 70 years have largely erased the evangelical gains of past centuries and the Gospel once again lies hidden in the tomb – which is to say, the world is ignorant that Christ, through his death and Resurrection, has delivered mankind from the bonds of sin and death. Frankly, we have no one but ourselves to blame. Too long have we treated the proclamation of the Gospel as an accomplished fact, or worse yet, as no longer necessary or even desirable. Too long have we trusted in institutional momentum, cultural heritage, or convoluted theology. But now our institutions have crumbled, our culture is dead – or at least well on the way – and even convoluted theology begins to wear thin. If evangelism is going to happen, therefore, it must happen the good old fashion way – by preaching. In a word, God is inviting us to proclaim the Gospel anew, with all the fervor of the Apostles.
Of course, this responsibility to proclaim the Good News belongs to all Catholics. But in a special way, this responsibility lies on those who have experienced the Easter Vigil firsthand this year, namely, priests. Having witnessed the Resurrection of our Lord firsthand and having touched his sacramental flesh, priests now serve as witnesses of the Resurrection – and they should act like it. They are the angels who sit in the empty tomb and proclaimed, He is not here; he has risen (Mt 28:6). And as with the angels, the Gospel must first be preached, not to complete strangers, but to those who are already Christ’s disciples. That is, Catholics must hear the Gospel and be converted. The laity, for its part, must realize that its faith is dependent on the ministry of priests. This has nothing to do with clericalism, but is simply the recognition that God has specifically entrusted priests with preaching the Gospel. How could it be different? How could the priests who witness our Lord’s Resurrection through the eucharistic sacrifice not be given a special role in proclaiming this same reality? During this time, then, may priests who are true witnesses of the Resurrection take up the message of the Gospel and proclaim it proudly. May the paschal flame, which is now so small and obscure, grow in the hearts of the faithful in the world over. And may this Easter, which is very much like the first, sustain us as we press on towards the final Easter, when Christ will put off the obscurity of sacramental signs and appear before us with all the brilliance of eternity.
Ian Mahood – St. Joseph Seminary, Edmonton, Alberta