May the Joy of the Resurrection of Christ Be in your Heart Now and Always-the Canção Nova Community

Today is a day that almost two thousand years ago a revolution happened. It is the day that our own anthropology changed and that which is human changed radically. Jesus resurrected from the dead ending the oppression of death forever. It is a day where we begin to realize that we have the gift of eternal life through the loving action of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Until this time, there was no hope for us, we had no hope but to live our lives as we see fit depending on the resources available to us and then die. Indeed, salvation that is promised to us now was only promised to the Jews until this moment, so we who can trace our ancestry back to the gentiles lived in a world that in Jewish terms had no hope at all. In the words of Jesus to the Phoenician woman, He only came for the lost sheep of Israel. Yet, she too discovered the ultimate truth, this salvation is offered to all.

Let me give you an idea of what this means. On Saturday morning, I watched an online philosophy class discussing how we live based on the fact that we die. The bottom line of the class is defining the meaning of life and how we live it from a secular perspective. The meaning of life defined in the secular sphere that does not believe in Easter is radically different than the meaning of life as defined in light of the Resurrection. Everything must be based on what will I accomplish for me by th end of my life. For us, Jesus resurrection teaches us a deeper meaning of life and the definition of truth and happiness. Without the resurrection, everything is different. This is why today’s celebration is so revolutionary. Celebrating Easter puts us at odds with the very definition of our existence according to the world around us that rejects Jesus’ resurrection and even His historical existence. If we embrace those false ideas, we change our anthropology back to a stifling one that benefits a few at the expense of billions. I need to get the most out of my life before I die; but what if those resources are not available to me. For an example, see the Books of Maccabees.

St. Thomas Aquinas, for whom our hall is named, taught that true happiness can only be found in God. It is God that we ultimately seek and only in Him can we find true happiness. Without Jesus’ action on the cross, our quest for happiness becomes one of searching in the dark to find what we can only think will satisfy our happiness only to discover that it just does not quite do it—like being thirsty and surrounded by sea water. We think that will quench our thirst, but alas it won’t. This is the constant state of humanity without the death and resurrection of Christ. Look around you and see what those who reject Christ seek. They find their “freedom” in doing what they feel will full satisfy them, but alas they discover if it does, it does no for only a time and they need to find more satisfaction elsewhere.

Yet, in Christ we can find our satisfaction to a deeper level that nothing on this Earth can deliver to us. This is what Jesus gives us on the cross. This promise is delivered now to all who seek it because as Jesus resurrects from the cross so too do we who seek Him no matter who “we” are.

I remember the words of a man doing some kind of time in one of our “fine correctional facilities” in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and his first words to me were: “I have found freedom here.” Why, because only in Christ does true freedom exist and even bodily freedom when limited cannot undermine the true freedom Christ gives to all.

Evil seeks to imprison us: the evil of sin, the evil of idolatry give rise to the evil of hatred, addiction, violence and war which all imprison and dehumanize us. Its one power over us is death and when we reject the resurrection we live in fear of death. Yet, when we seek Christ we see a truth that overpowers and overcomes all these evils and promises a freedom that cannot be found by us alone. In Christ, we find freedom; without Christ we find, at best, a limited happiness that fails us each and ever time.

We live in a unique time, indeed less than one hundred years ago a simple unpretentious thing appeared that existed in limited form before, what was it? It is was the world’s first radio commercial. TV had not yet become a mass produced consumer good, and radio, which was a mass produced consumer good broadcast the first radio commercial, it happened in New York. From that time, radio and television and of course print, which had offered ads before, promised one thing: happiness. “Hey kids be the first kid on your block to have . . .”

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Each advertising promised the one thing that we all seek: “happiness”. In our environment we see media messages all the time that promise the same thing: “We can find happiness if only we just . . .” Yet, every one fails because it is rooted in the idea that happiness can be found in its most perfect form in this world. That is an oxymoron because true happiness never ends and this world ends. If you want true happiness you must seek it where it is perfected and eternal and that can only happen with union with God. None of that could be fulfilled without Jesus death and resurrection. None of it. What is worse is that if worldly happiness is your ultimate goal, you will reject any risk that can take it from you.

Go back to Fiddler on the Roof, what does Tevye sing: “If I were a rich man.” in his conversations with God, but God’s riches are greater than the world’s. If I were a rich man, I would enjoy the temporal goods that would make me self-reliant, but that comes with a cost. A member of one of the world’s richest families, whose name you would recognize immediately, stated that his family’s riches were a curse. The family by the way does not live in Massachusetts. Relying on God for all things, has transformed my whole look on life. I would not understand God’s presence in human life if I was a rich man.

Today is a day to celebrate the eternal life Christ won for us, but only if we have chosen to embrace His death and resurrection in our lives and teach it to others regardless of risk.

Today is a day to celebrate the eternal life Christ won for us, but only if we have chosen to embrace His death and resurrection in our lives and teach it to others regardless of risk. In our state today, there sits a man in a jail cell who embraced another revolution and killed people and severely injured others a little more than one year ago. He was part of a worldly religion that teaches death to others that Allah may be praised. We believe in something else—the model of seeking Christ at all costs to ourselves that others may live, for the more who are saved so much more is God truly praised.

There is only one way to happiness and that is by embracing the death and resurrection of Jesus. Let us daily embrace that reality that God may be praised, humanity may be saved and true peace and happiness may reign.

A Blessed Easter

Fr. Robert J Carr

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