by Fr Fabian Dicom
Theme: Easter – The Greatest Love Story
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we gather today to celebrate the most central truth of our faith.
Jesus Christ is risen, Alleluia!
Now let us pause for a moment. What exactly do we mean when we say RESURRECTION? What is it?
The church teaches that the RESURRECTION is not just a historical miracle or a happy ending to a sad story. It is THE EVENT that changed everything.
The Resurrection of Jesus is the church’s bold proclamation that Jesus Christ truly is the Son of God and that His death was not a defeat but the victory over sin, suffering and death. But more than that, our faith tells us that His resurrection is not the end of the story. It is the beginning of our story. Because one day, we too will be raised.
The general resurrection when Christ returns will be the moment when all things are made new and our broken humanity is fully restored in God.
That is the theology that the church proclaims.
Now, that might sound like something far off. But Easter is not just about what happened in the past or what will happen in the end of time. It is also about what can happen now.
Now the spiritual power of the resurrection is that God refuses to give up on us. God meets us in our lowest moments, in our own little deaths, failures, fears and breathes new life into us. That is what it means to us today, right now.
Every time you are pulled out from despair, every time grace helps you forgive, every time you find strength to carry on, resurrection is already happening in you.
Now this Feast is not just about Jesus getting out from the grave. It is about us being raised with Him, again and again and again ~ every time we choose love over hate, when we choose mercy over judgment, courage over fear, it happens.
We move to the first witnesses of this and thank God for that.
In the First Reading, we see Peter, once broken, once afraid, now standing before others to testify. Paraphrasing from the First Reading,
“We are witnesses” Peter says “We ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead.“
Now Peter is not sharing a theory. He is sharing an encounter. He saw the Risen Lord. He experienced forgiveness. He was the man who denied Jesus. He had the Risen Christ look at him in the eye and loved him anyway.
Peter did not become a witness because he was perfect. He became a witness because he was healed.
And in the Gospel, we see Mary Magdalene, we see Peter, we see the beloved disciple John. They run into the tomb. They don’t fully understand but they are moved. They are awaken. They are stirred. Scripture says,
“He saw and he believed.”
The moment of witnessing begins there. When the heart recognises that something has changed, that love has won, that Christ lives and therefore we must live differently. And maybe that is where we begin too.
Because for many of us, the sign of resurrection aren’t always dramatic. Sometimes, most of the time, it is subtle. Think about it.
~ The moment after great loss, when some peace comes.
~ That time when forgiveness seem impossible, but it happens.
~ When you thought your heart could not love anymore, and it did.
~ When someone reached out to you when you were at the lowest and when you found strength you didn’t even know that you had.
Then you have seen the resurrection. You are a witness.
And like those early disciples, you may not have all the answers. You may still be confused or unsure but if you have felt the stirring of new life, which I believe you have, then you have seen enough to believe. And more importantly, you have seen enough to share. And you cannot hold this back.
And now it is your turn. It is our turn.
Saint Paul in the Second Reading says,
You have been brought back to true life with Christ. You must look for the things that are in heaven where Christ is.
And all that he says, he is reminding us that we are not just spectators of the resurrection. We are participants.
The world often tells us that faith is a private matter. Some of us believe that.
But Easter tells us the opposite. Resurrection is not meant to stay in the tomb or in the church. It is meant to be lived. It is meant to be shared and made visible in how we treat one another.
You might say I am not Peter, I am not Mary Magdalene, I have not seen a vision. That is okay. It is really okay because your story, your healing, your encounter with grace, and never discount that, that is your witness. That is your witness today.
And witnessing does not mean preaching or quoting scripture. You don’t have to be a theologian or a scripture scholar or a prayer leader. Witnessing can be as simple and powerful as these:
~ Not being afraid to speak about what God has done in your life. We don’t do that enough. I believe that God is always working in our lives. And we hold back, we don’t want to share. That is witnessing. Not being afraid.
~ Witnessing is also sharing our prayer, how prayer, our faith or the community helped you through a hard time. Being honest about your brokenness but also your healing.
~ Forgiving someone or asking for forgiveness and letting that become a source of healing for others.
~ Reaching out to someone who is struggling because you have been there too. Refusing to give up on people because God did not give up on you.
~ Choosing to live with hope even when the world feels hopeless.
~ Standing with the poor, the excluded, the forgotten, just as Jesus did. Offering hope not through clichés, not through rhetoric but through presence. Being there.
These are witnessing.
This is what resurrection looks like when it walks into a room, when it visits the sick, with it stays with someone in grief, when it stands up for justice, when it builds bridges instead of walls.
You and I don’t need to be perfect. But if we are alive today with even a little more peace, a little more freedom, a little more trust in God, then we are already witnessing.
Are we doing that?
So today I won’t ask you, “Do you believe in the resurrection?“
I will ask you something more personal.
“Where have you already experienced resurrection in your life?“
and “Who needs to hear your story?“
You don’t need to be loud or dramatic. Just be honest, be real, be grateful because the world doesn’t just need to be told that Christ is Risen. It needs to SEE Him in you, in us.
So now it is our turn to live what we have received, to rise, to witness, to let the resurrection not just save us but send us to be disciples of the Risen Lord.
We pray for that this morning.
Amen.
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