One of my earlier Easter Sunday homilies

Alleluia !  We can sing it again !  Alleluia!  Today is Easter.  Today, Our Lord rose from death, and in doing so, He destroyed death, forever.  And so we sing, we cry out, Alleluia! 

            This word Alleluia comes from Hebrew; it means Praise ye the Lord.  What better can we say then today but Alleluia?  What has happened, what we have commemorated over these last three days, is beyond words.  It is a great mystery, a series of mysteries, that is beyond our understanding.  We can only hope to grasp it through faith, and our faith is often so weak.  Our faith can wax and wane through our lives, moment by moment, just like the moon.  But like the moon, the object of our faith, God, always remains.  Even though we cannot see Him, we can know through human reason that He exists, and that He is always there.  God gave us reason, and He gives us faith.  Both are gifts.  Both lead us to truth.  But while reason lets us perceive Truth, faith is a higher gift, a spiritual trust in Truth. 

            Today, Christ gives new birth to faith, and He strengthens it, through His resurrection.  Christ gives us faith, and our hearts are lifted up by it.  We cry out in praise of Him.  We sing out Alleluia!  Today, every creature is called upon to rejoice.  Every creature is summoned to bow down before Jesus, Who is God and man.  Every angel, every man, woman, and child, even every bunny bouncing through the fields on Easter morning, is called to kneel before the Risen Jesus. 

As the Gospel tells us, the tomb, like an Easter egg, is opened to reveal a surprise inside.  But rather than jelly beans or other sweets, the tomb holds a more precious surprise; it is empty.  All that remains are the burial cloths.  Jesus is gone.  Why?  Because He has risen, and the world begins again.  All things are made fresh and new, but there is a special urgency as well.  Jesus warned us that the end would come soon, and so we must prepare ourselves.  While we live the joy of Easter, we must remember that it points to a greater joy to come, the joy of final salvation in Heaven.  Let us strive to live each day with our eyes on that joy, and hope that each of our choices will bring us closer to it.  Then, we will be able to sing again, in a better and more eternal way, the joyful word we have sung today:  Alleluia!

Happy Easter!