Happy Easter! Happy Resurrection Day! Love has conquered evil. Sin is defeated. Jesus Christ is risen! Amen! Alleluia! Jesus Christ lives!
You cannot have Easter without Good Friday. Good Friday is when the evil plot was fully hatched. The evil plot towards Jesus’ life was real. The Pharisees agreed among themselves that Jesus needed to be silenced. John 18:14, “It was Caiaphas who had counseled the Jews that it was better that one man should die rather than the people.” Officials in the Roman Empire agreed that Jesus needed to be silenced. John 19:12, “Consequently, Pilate tried to release him; but the Jews cried out, ‘If you release him, you are not a Friend of Caesar. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.’” The devil wants to silence Jesus. Genesis 3:15, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; They will strike at your head, while you strike at their heel.” The evil plot is to train people to be citizens of Hell—self-serving agents rejecting sacrifice. For satan to accomplish this goal, he needed people in power to decide the worth of human beings based on worldly standards—slave, citizen, rebel, zealot. You will find your worth as a human based on what we tell you it is worth. Jesus fought against this evil plot to have His identity defined by a cold, calculating, self-serving bureaucracies.
The year 2020 is when an evil plot was hatched. The evil threat towards humanity is real. The Chinese Coronavirus is a manmade biological weapon. It is the new Roman empire. It has accomplished a worldwide shutdown, death, chaos, separation of communities, and untold financial damage. I am heartbroken to not be able to celebrate public Easter Mass with my congregation. Why does someone or somebody want to hurt humanity? A person or persons or whoever is in charge of this evil plot wants a world where every single person is labeled: positive, negative, critical, essential, non-essential. You will find your worth as a human based on what we tell you it is worth. It is the same old story. satan wants control of humanity.
You cannot have Easter without Good Friday. Easter is when the heavenly plan was hatched. Out of this Easter egg came heavenly freedom. The dark tomb may look scary, but we no longer need to be afraid. John 20:1, “On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb.” We will have ‘Mary of Magdala’ moments in our life where we believe the old lie: ‘There is no point in being a Christian since your Savior is dead. Give into the fear, because you have been abandoned.’ The dark tomb is scary. What does Mary of Magdala do in the face of this lie? She runs to St. Peter. Mary of Magdala runs to the Pope, the head of the Catholic Church. What are the words spoken to Mary of Magdala? Revelation 12:10, “Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: ‘Now have salvation and power come, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Anointed. For the accuser of our brothers is cast out, who accuses them before our God day and night. They conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; love for life did not deter them from death.’” Mary of Magdala refused to leave the tomb. She refused to believe the lie that Jesus abandoned her. She refused to believe the lie that Jesus did not love her. She refused to believe the lie that she was worthless. She continued to search for her Savior, Jesus Christ. Mary of Magdala’s faith in the risen Christ is proclaimed to the whole world: ‘Love for life did not deter them from death’.
The year 2020 is when a heavenly plan was hatched. Out of this Coronavirus Easter egg has hatched heavenly freedom. The virus no longer looks scary, we now respect it and understand the threat. We know that wearing masks and gloves may be the new norm for now. I invite people to create homemade masks with the message: Jesus is Love! Jesus is Risen!
The Chinese Coronavirus has caused a ‘Mary of Magdala’ moment where we are staring at the tomb. With 2020 vision, the people of the earth are staring at the creed of a suicidal humanity written in the dark tomb declaring a mission to kill sacrificial love. The creed states: I find my worth in what I like to hear other people tell me about myself, because I do not know who I am, and I do not care to figure this out. Where do we run in the face of the darkness of this self-serving tomb? We join Mary of Magdala in running to St. Peter. John 20:6-9, “When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed. For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.” If we are still in doubt and confused by the death of Jesus, we keep vigil with Mary of Magdala. Eventually, the Risen Christ would appear to Mary of Magdala. Eventually, the Holy Spirit would inspire St. Peter to confess the truth of the Resurrection as we see in the Books of Acts chapter 10. With patience and prayer, Jesus will inspire us to embrace sacrificial love—the purpose of His death. Trust the Martyrs and Saints in the Catholic Church who model sacrificial love. Trust in the Sacrifice of the Eucharist. Embrace sacrificial love during this crisis. Hear the words of St. John: ‘Love for life did not deter them from death.’ The tomb is no longer dark but filled with light. The time is now to stop reciting the self-serving creed and throw off the false identity of selfishness. I find my worth as a human in the one who has made me worthy, Jesus Christ! I am worth dying for, for Jesus out of love died for me. Love never dies! Jesus is Risen! Amen! Alleluia!