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Resurrection




The Lord Has Truly Been Raised
And Has Apeared to Us!


Easter Sunday Worship
Saginaw County Jail


By Philip D. Ropp


April 4, 2010

     This claim that Jesus is risen from the dead was as radical in the days of the original disciples as it is in our time.  In the reading from Acts, Peter, speaking on behalf of all of the disciples, proclaims boldly, “We are witnesses of all that he did...” These words are most significant because they are spoken in the home of Cornelius, a Roman centurion converted to the faith, who has had the risen Lord appear to him as a man in dazzling robes who has asked that Peter be summoned.  And in the greater context of the story, this encounter between Peter and Cornelius, between apostle and pagan soldier, marks the movement of the Church's witness to the risen Christ from the Jewish community of the original disciples, to the rest of the world, and, ultimately, to those of us here today who are witnesses to this same Jesus, risen from the dead.

     I know the question that has arisen in the minds of many of you: “Chaplain, when did we see Jesus, risen from the dead, standing in our midst in his dazzling robes?” The answer to this fair question does not come from me, but from the Lord Himself:

     In Matthew 25, Jesus tells those gathered before him that, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him.” And on that day, all will behold the glory of the Lord in the person of the risen Jesus. And Jesus tells them that those who know him and belong to him have seen him already, “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.” And those gathered at the throne respond, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?  When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?  When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?” And the King upon his throne answers, “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.”

     Today, the Church proclaims to the world that Jesus is risen from the dead, and that the King of Kings and Lord of Lords sits upon his glorious throne, and will one day come to judge the living and the dead.  And when we gather before his throne on this most glorious day of the year, and pose the question of the multitudes, “Lord, when did we see you?” The answer from Jesus Christ himself is that we have seen him every day, for he stands unavoidably in our midst in the person of these least brothers of his: You.

     The incarceration experience is many things, but above all it is humbling.  No matter the status achieved in the world, when we are bound and held behind these walls and caged behind these bars, the result is the ultimate humiliation that society has to offer.  And we know Jesus is Lord and love him like no other, because we know that he is at once the Master of the Universe and has appeared in our world as God Incarnate, and, at the same time, he identifies himself as man and becomes, in a most personal way, the least and most humble among us: the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the ill and the imprisoned.  And at the cross, he became all of these and suffered every indignity and cruelty that the world has to offer, so that those of us who see him for who he truly is might fall to our knees, beg his forgiveness, and be saved unto the everlasting glory and honor that is also his – and, in turn, ours.

     Take a moment and turn and look at the man next to you or in back or in front of you.  Look each man in the eye and know him not only as a cellmate and fellow traveler in the world of crime and punishment, but see in him the truth that Jesus is telling us today, that in each of us there dwells the potential for life eternal in the greater glory of God, or the death of the soul in the great, yawning abyss of hell.  And the love of God is such that in the form and substance of his own son, he came and stood in our midst as one of us, and went to the cross in our place, so that through him we might be saved.  And know also that on the third day this same Jesus, because he was God Incarnate, rose from the dead as the first born among many, and to this day chooses to stand in your midst in the guise of the least of these your brothers, so that you might see him for who he really is, love him and minister to him as he intends, and so be saved, which is his goal for each and everyone of us.

     Every man here has the ability to come to the cross of Christ and offer up to him all of the sins and human degradation that has brought him to this place of wailing and gnashing of teeth; this underground tomb and netherworld of lost souls that is the jail and prison system.  If this ultimate hope of eternal damnation at the cross turned into everlasting life in paradise is not something you are able to comprehend and accept, then ask yourself why does this Jesus love you enough to come here and stand in your midst in the form of the least of these your brothers, and why does he, on this glorious Easter Sunday, choose to appear to you in them, in his risen form, to offer you this chance of redemption?

     The call to discipleship echos from the garden of the empty tomb down across the centuries and comes in here to us today.  The voice of Jesus can be heard as clearly in here right now as on the dusty roads of Palestine, and he calls out to us now as then, “Follow thou me!”  And those who have chosen to follow him and who have ended up in this state of incarceration know full well that, like Judas, they have betrayed him.  And those who know him and keep returning again and again to crime and sin like the dog of Proverbs returns to its own vomit, know full well that, like Peter, they have denied him.  And the choice that confronts everyone here today, and which must be made at once, is to be either like Judas, who, believing his sin too great and his Master's power to forgive too small, perishes.  Or to be like Peter, who, professing Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of the Living God, begs for mercy and forgiveness, and becomes the greatest of disciples and the leader of the Church on earth.

     The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to us.  And in the place of each inmate here, he continues to stand and asks only to be recognized for who he is.  I am often told of plans made in here to put one's life in order on the outside and live as God intends, and I am just as often confronted with these same individuals' failures when they return because they “caught” another charge.  Those who are successful don't make plans to change on the outs, but make the changes here and take this changed life out into the world with them.  We know there are those who do well in here and talk a good game, but the moment they're back out on the street the devil's old temptations trap them all over again.  Perhaps what we need to do is to begin living like Jesus intends right now, today, and carry this forward when we leave here.  If Jesus has deemed us worthy and appears to us in the form of our brother, then perhaps we should recognize this brother for who he is and, like Simon of Cyrene, help him carry his cross rather than increasing his burden by mocking and jeering as did the crowds along the street.

     So, your question has been answered.  You have seen Jesus, risen from the dead, standing in your midst not in dazzling robes, but in an orange jumpsuit with “Saginaw County Jail” stenciled across the back.  And today, his call to discipleship is your invitation to proclaim to the world, beginning right here and now, that, “We are witnesses of all that he did...”  Accept this invitation as did Peter and Cornelius, and the greater context of your story will be the movement of your witness of the risen Christ from this jail to the streets of Saginaw and the world.


April 4, 2010
Easter Sunday
The Resurrection of the Lord
The Mass of Easter Day


Reading 1

Acts 10:34a, 37-43

Peter proceeded to speak and said:

“You know what has happened all over Judea,

beginning in Galilee after the baptism

that John preached,

how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth

with the Holy Spirit and power.

He went about doing good

and healing all those oppressed by the devil,

for God was with him.

We are witnesses of all that he did

both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem.

They put him to death by hanging him on a tree.

This man God raised on the third day and granted that he be visible,

not to all the people, but to us,

the witnesses chosen by God in advance,

who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.

He commissioned us to preach to the people

and testify that he is the one appointed by God

as judge of the living and the dead.

To him all the prophets bear witness,

that everyone who believes in him

will receive forgiveness of sins through his name.”


Ps 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23
Responsorial Psalm

R. (24) This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.

or:

R. Alleluia.

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,

for his mercy endures forever.

Let the house of Israel say,

“His mercy endures forever.”

R. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.

or:

R. Alleluia.

“The right hand of the LORD has struck with power;

the right hand of the LORD is exalted.

I shall not die, but live,

and declare the works of the LORD.”

R. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.

or:

R. Alleluia.

The stone which the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone.

By the LORD has this been done;

it is wonderful in our eyes.

R. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.

or:

R.  Alleluia.

 

Col 3:1-4 or I Cor 5:6b-8
Reading 2

Brothers and sisters:

If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above,

where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.

For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

When Christ your life appears,

then you too will appear with him in glory.

 

 

or

 

I Cor 5:6b-8

 

Brothers and sisters:

Do you not know that a little yeast leavens all the dough?

Clear out the old yeast,

so that you may become a fresh batch of dough,

inasmuch as you are unleavened.

For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed.

Therefore, let us celebrate the feast,

not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness,

but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Jn 20:1-9 or  Lk 24:1-12 or Lk 24:13-35
Gospel

Jn 20:1-9

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.
So she ran and went to Simon Peter
and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them,
“They have taken the Lord from the tomb,
and we don’t know where they put him.”
So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb.
They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter
and arrived at the tomb first;
he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in.
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.

or

Lk 24:1-12

At daybreak on the first day of the week
the women who had come from Galilee with Jesus
took the spices they had prepared
and went to the tomb.
They found the stone rolled away from the tomb;
but when they entered,
they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
While they were puzzling over this, behold,
two men in dazzling garments appeared to them.
They were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground.
They said to them,
“Why do you seek the living one among the dead?
He is not here, but he has been raised.
Remember what he said to you while he was still in Galilee,
that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners
and be crucified, and rise on the third day.”
And they remembered his words.
Then they returned from the tomb
and announced all these things to the eleven
and to all the others.
The women were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James;
the others who accompanied them also told this to the apostles,
but their story seemed like nonsense
and they did not believe them.
But Peter got up and ran to the tomb,
bent down, and saw the burial cloths alone;
then he went home amazed at what had happened.

or

Lk 24:13-35

For afternoon or evening Mass
That very day, the first day of the week,
two of Jesus’ disciples were going
to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus,
and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred.
And it happened that while they were conversing and debating,
Jesus himself drew near and walked with them,
but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.
He asked them,
“What are you discussing as you walk along?”
They stopped, looking downcast.
One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply,
“Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem
who does not know of the things
that have taken place there in these days?”
And he replied to them, “What sort of things?”
They said to him,
“The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene,
who was a prophet mighty in deed and word
before God and all the people,
how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over
to a sentence of death and crucified him.
But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel;
and besides all this,
it is now the third day since this took place.
Some women from our group, however, have astounded us:
they were at the tomb early in the morning
and did not find his body;
they came back and reported
that they had indeed seen a vision of angels
who announced that he was alive.
Then some of those with us went to the tomb
and found things just as the women had described,
but him they did not see.”
And he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are!
How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!
Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things
and enter into his glory?”
Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets,
he interpreted to them what referred to him
in all the Scriptures.
As they approached the village to which they were going,
he gave the impression that he was going on farther.
But they urged him, “Stay with us,
for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.”
So he went in to stay with them.
And it happened that, while he was with them at table,
he took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, and gave it to them.
With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him,
but he vanished from their sight.
Then they said to each other,
“Were not our hearts burning within us
while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?”
So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem
where they found gathered together
the eleven and those with them who were saying,
“The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!”
Then the two recounted
what had taken place on the way
and how he was made known to them in the breaking of bread.

 

Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, second typical edition, Copyright © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; Psalm refrain © 1968, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium, including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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