Homily: Easter Sunday

April 5, 2026

My dear brothers and sisters, we are celebrating the Paschal Mystery today, the central mystery of our salvation. It is the resurrection of Jesus that liberated us from the shackles of death. Just like St Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 1 Cor. 15:17-19, “if Christ has not been raised (….) if it is for this life only that we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people the most to be pitied.” However, the good news came on a day like this, on a Sunday morning, on the first day of the week. Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. Who removed this stone? In Mk 16:4, we read that this stone was very large. In Mt 27:66, we read that the chief priests and the Pharisees had made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting guards in front of the tomb. The tomb also has strong seal and armed guards.

Who removed this large stone, the greatest obstacle to the salvation of God’s children? In Revelation chapter 5, John saw a vision of a scroll sealed with seven seals, and there was a search of the one who would be able to open the scroll and break its seal. Unfortunately, no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll and break its seal. In that state of despair, something miraculous happened, John saw the four living creatures and the twenty four elders prostrate before the Lamb seated on the throne and began singing a new song, “ you are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals for you were slaughtered and by your blood you ransomed saints for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.” Yes, Jesus is the lamb of God who has removed the stone, Jesus has broken the seal and transferred us to the kingdom of the saints in light.

In our time, there can be many unjust structures, a trend of iniquity that tend to seal our salvation with a heavy stone. Perhaps many contemporary Pharisees and Chief Priests may be setting guard on the gospel message of Christ to prevent this message of life from leaving the tomb of darkness. Brothers and sisters, the good news today is that the tomb of Jesus is empty, Jesus has risen. In Luke’s account of the resurrection, Mary bent down looking for Jesus in the empty tomb and the angel asked her, “why are you looking for the living among the dead?” We should search for Christ in the company of those spiritually alive and not in the midst of those that are spiritually dead for we are the children of resurrection and not the children of death.

In the ceremonies of yesternight, we relived the Old Testament experience where God led the people of Israel with a pillar of light through the wilderness from their land of slavery to the Promised Land through the Paschal Candle Procession that we had. Jesus is the light of the world, Jesus is the Pillar of light illuming the darkness of the world and leading us to the Promised Land, Jesus has done for us the unthinkable, the unimaginable, the impossible, ours now should be to follow this light of life.

I read once on the social media about this scientist who performed an experiment with a big fish and many small fishes. He brought a very big transparent container filled with water and divided the container into two with a transparent glass. He put the big fish in one side of the container and many other small fishes on the other side of the container. Because the glass barrier was transparent, the big fish saw the small fishes and struggled enormously to go and feast on the many small fishes, but the glass was an obstacle, the big fish made multiple attempts, hitting itself on the transparent glass and wounding itself but was not successful. Finally, it gave up and stopped attempting. The scientist quietly removed the transparent glass that divided the container into two such that all the fish were now inside one container, but the big fish did not eat any of the small fishes again because this big fish had been conditioned to see eating any of the small fish as an impossible task.

Different factors in our world and in life can condition us to think that the gospel message of salvation ended in the grave of Jesus, that Christianity is archaic, that the tenets of Christianity does not match the scientific and developmental strides of the modern times. Brothers and sisters, this is a lie. The truth is that Jesus is risen, Christianity is forever alive. In Matt. 28:10, the risen Jesus told Mary Magdalene and other women who came to see the tomb, “go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, there they will see me.” One day, we all will go to the heavenly Galilee where we shall reunite with the risen Savior.