Christ is risen – Alleluia! Alleluia! He rose from the dead – Alleluia! Alleluia! This is our faith; it is the faith of Christianity.
The liturgy of Resurrection Sunday is the key to Christianity. It proclaims the good news of Christianity: the victory of life over death, of good over evil, of love over hatred. Rising with Christ we pass from the darkness to the light. The Resurrection of Christ tells us that death does not have the last word. Love was victorious! And Jesus gave his life so that men might have it in abundance. The empty tomb leads the Christian to believe and to live the life of the Risen One. Reborn from the death of sin to a new life in God’s grace. The Resurrection of Christ calls us to a continual resurrection in our lives. To make a daily catechumenal mission. The grace that is Jesus Christ raises everyone who is baptized to eternal life.
In the first reading from Acts 10:34, 37-43, Peter confirms the brethren in the faith of resurrection. Peter affirms that Christ, after the resurrection, appeared to those who had lived with Him. To those who had eaten and drank with Him. That is why they proclaim the good news so that “whoever believes in him receives through his name the forgiveness of sins”. Christianity is not ethics, but it is an experience and an encounter with Jesus, as Pope Benedict XVI affirms. Christianity is to be a witness of life in Christ, which is an experience of life in love.
The second reading is taken from the Letter to Colossians 3:1-4. Paul writes to the Colossians exhorting them to aspire to things above. He wrote this letter because the Colossians were in crisis and were not interested in spiritual but in worldly goods. That is why Paul says: “Be mindful of things above, and not of things on earth”. That the Colossians may live their lives in Christ, because with Christ they must die and with Christ manifest themselves in the glory of God. This letter also exhorts Christians today that materialism and worldliness seem to blind them. Today we need to live Christianity to the full, without dichotomies. The Christian’s being and acting must be the hallmark of Christianity. Christianity is not a religion of stability, but of dynamism. The Christian who feels perfect must know it is because he needs to convert, because Christianity is continuous conversion, it is union with the Risen Christ.
The Gospel is from St. John 20:1-9 and teaches us that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the victory of life over death. It is the birth of the new man, from the death of sin to the life of grace. The Christian’s faith is founded on Easter, on the resurrection of Christ from the dead. Paul is explicit in saying in 1the Letter to the Corinthians 15:14: “And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is also in vain.” The resurrection is a sine qua non of the Christian’s faith, so the feast of Easter is liturgically the center of the Christian’s whole life. So we can sing with the Psalmist: “This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and sing for joy” [Psalm 117 (118)].