As we celebrate the Risen Christ!, Fr Mark and Fr Joe share some thoughts on Easter

Writing in the current issue of the Parish Magazine Fr Joe links our calling in this Year of Mission with the task Christ gave the women at the Tomb on that first Easter day to tell the Good news of his Resurrection.

Mary stood outside the tomb weeping

“Mary stood outside the tomb weeping…

The stone had been rolled away, and Jesus’ body was gone. She told Peter and John who ran to the tomb, who saw what she saw, but then went away confused – unsure of what to think… But Mary stayed. Overcome with emotion, her mind racing, not sure of where else to be. Mary stayed…

She bent low to look into the tomb one more time. What was she looking for? Answers? Explanations? Hope?

Suddenly there were two angels where none had been before – and yet Mary seems almost unfazed. “Why are you weeping?” they ask her. “Because they have taken my Lord away, and I do not know where they have put him.”

Who could blame her for thinking thus? Before she had seen the risen Christ for herself, before Jesus had revealed himself to hundreds of people, before his followers would willingly endure torture and death upholding the truth of the resurrection – who could blame her for thinking that the body was simply moved?

She turns around and sees a man she assumes is the gardener. “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him.” But then, Jesus calls her by name. “Mary,” he gently says to her.

And then, there is a moment. The moment.

In a split-second, her entire world outlook changes. She recognises Jesus. She realises that he is risen, that death could not contain him. She comes to understand the victory he has won. In that split-second, the Good News changes her life forever.

Was there a moment like that in your life that you can recall? An epiphany moment? Even for those of us who were raised as Christians since birth, was there a moment where you realised that all you had been told is true”.

I have seen the Lord

He continues “She becomes, in that instant, the first witness. The first bearer of Easter news. God choses her to be the first to carry resurrection hope back to a confused and frightened community.

Notice how simple her message is.  ‘I have seen the Lord!’

That is mission in its purest form. And here is where this connects so directly to us, in this Year of Mission.

Mary did not have a theology degree. She did not have all the answers. She had been weeping only moments before. Her understanding was still forming. But she had encountered the risen Christ – and that was enough.  That’s all the qualification she needed.

Her task was simple: go and tell.

Mission, at its heart, is not about having a perfectly polished argument. It is not about winning debates or having every question resolved. It is about bearing witness to what we have seen and heard. It is about saying, in our own way, “I have met the risen Lord.”

He concludes,”

The resurrection is not just something that happened long ago. It is a living reality that continues to transform lives. The risen Christ still meets people in their confusion. He still speaks into grief. He still turns despair into hope.

And he still says to his followers: ‘Go and tell’.”

In his sermon on Easter Day Fr Mark reflected on the design of Paschal Candle we have gone for this year.

He explains, “The empty cross on our Paschal candle this year is blue in colour and in the shape of water to remind us of the link between Baptism and our benefiting from the Resurrection. Last night at the Paschal Vigil the Candle was dunked three times – the Holy Trinity- to the waters of the Font to bless them. Then we were all invited to renew our Baptismal Promises.

this water symbolises baptism that now saves you also…..It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ

St Peter writes in his Epistle “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits—  to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolises baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God.It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ,’

In his Epistle to the Romans St Paul writes: ‘We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.’

What these Apostles are telling us is that Baptism consists of two symbolic actions closely linked to the Easter story:

-Going into the water represents being buried with Christ, dying to sin, and leaving our old world shaped identity behind us

-while rising out of the water symbolises resurrection into new life with Christ, this is both our spiritual rebirth and our adoption as citizens of heaven.

Jesus tells us that if we follow Him, as we are doing in Baptism, then we too will join Him in Heaven .”

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

He concludes: “But this is not something for keeping to ourselves St Matthew records Jesus last words as being a command to Baptise all. In this Diocesan Centenary Year of Mission of all years we should be doing that.”