Easter Sunday Homily

Fr. Tom Lucas, S.J.

April 5, 2026

Who will take the stone away? With downcast eyes and broken hearts, Mary Magdelene women wondered. as they went on their sad way in the dawning of the first day of the week, to perform one last hopeless office of service .

How many times have we asked that same question this past year? Who will take the stone away?

But when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back;
it was very large.

this past year, we ask ourselves again and again, the same question:  who will take the stone away? For the stone is very large. 

Who will take the stone away? The stone is very large: the stone of war and oppression that crushes hearts and nations, the stone of our disbelief, the stone of our doubt, the heavy stone of our fears and sorrows, the stone of isolation and loss, the stone that keeps us from seeing the bright light that shone out of the place of death, the now-empty place where they had laid him. 

Who will take away our hearts of stone, and make them beat like festive drums with the music of life again, with the warmth of love, with the brightness of hope? 

The stone is very large, but larger still is the love of God that raised Jesus from the dead. 

Last night, all around the world, many of us kept vigil in the darkness, preparing to welcome new members into our community. We heard the recounting of the long, slow wonderful works of God. God created all, and saw that it was very good. God delivered our ancestors from slavery, and sent the prophets to remind us of those wonderful works. We heard our family story, with its gifts and its trials.  Yet we hear that our ancestors were, and we know that we are hard-hearted. Words are not enough. We need to see god’s love made flesh in order to believe. 

And flesh is tender, flesh weak, flesh is mortal, and that mortal flesh taken on by God suffered, bled, and died. And was consigned to the place of death by hatefilled people .

And yet we find ourselves here on this bright morning. Trembling in wonder, we hear that the stone was rolled back,the tomb was empty, and we celebrate the witness of Mary Magdeleneand the apostles, who told the truth of what they saw and what they came to believe. 

God has raised up this Jesus from the dead, and his spirit is upon us: here, The spirit is present in this light we share, here in this wáter that washed our cathechumenans and will be sprinkled on us, here in one another as we sing and pray and hope together,  here most of all in bread and wine that become the risen body and blood of the Lord Jesus shared for ournourishment and our life.  Here our our hearts of stone are made flesh again by God’s Word made flesh who died with us and rose from the dead for us. 

On entering the tomb they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a white, and they were utterly dumbstruck.
He said to them, "Do not be amazed! Why do you seek the living among the dead?  You seek Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified. He has been raised; he is not here.

Not there:  

He is here. 

He is Here. 

He is Now. 

He is Always. 

He is Forever. 

He is Alleluia. 

He is Amen.