Homily – Easter – Year A – Fr Jeremiah Browne (national Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies #SouthAfrica #Swaziland #eswatini #Botswana)
As I reflected in preparation for Easter, the question of what the resurrection is all about kept coming up. Is the resurrection wishful thinking? Did it really happen? Was it a real event in history, or simply a beautiful story created by the disciples to keep hope alive?
Have you ever thought about that? Maybe these are questions that we don’t ask too often but they are worth exploring, because if Christ isn’t risen, as Paul reminds us in his 1st Letter to the Corinthians, “then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. (15:12-19).
Today’s Gospel (Matthew 28:1–10) tells the story of how Mary Magdalene and the other Mary go to the tomb. They’re NOT expecting resurrection. We hear that in all the gospels. They’re going to mourn and do what is customary for the dead. What they find is not what they had prepared for. The stone is rolled back. The tomb is empty. An angel speaks and tells them: “He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said.” Then something even more striking happens!
As they run to tell the disciples, they meet Jesus himself who greets them. They approach him fall before him, embrace his feet, and worship him. In other words, he wasn’t just a figment of their imagination – he was someone you could touch – you can’t embrace a ghost.
If the resurrection was a story invented to convince others of some fraud, the people telling the story could have come up with a better storyline.
In the first century, the testimony of women carried little legal weight. Yet all four Gospels place women as the first witnesses. That’s not how you construct a story to cover up a lie. It’s how you report what actually happened.
It is also striking that their first response is not certainty, but a mixture of fear and joy. The Gospel says they departed “with fear and great joy.” That tension feels real. It reflects the kind of response that comes not from careful invention, but from a moment when something unexpected happens and left the women trying to make sense of what it was all about. The Gospel doesn’t try to clean up the messy bits, It preserves them – that makes the story more authentic.
There is more. The transformation of the disciples is difficult to ignore. Before the resurrection, they are scattered, afraid, and in hiding. Afterward, they proclaim Christ openly. We see this clearly in Acts of the apostles (2:14–36), where Peter – who had denied Jesus – now stands and declares before a large crowd gathered in Jerusalem: “This Jesus … whom you crucified … God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses.”
Think about it, something profound must have happened because no one risks and ultimately gives their life for something they know to be false. People may suffer for a belief they think is true, but not for something they themselves have fabricated. Yet these same disciples, in time, endure persecution, imprisonment, and death.
Their courage doesn’t come from an idea, but from an encounter. Something happened that convinced them that death had been overcome.
So what does this mean for us today? First of all, it means that our loved ones who have gone before us are not lost to nothingness, but held in the life of God. Death is no longer an ending, but a moment of transition. Death is not the end. As Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25).
The resurrection gives us a hope that is real, grounded not in wishful thinking, but in the promise of Christ himself.
The resurrection is not just about what happened after we die, it also means that nothing is beyond God’s power to renew in the here and now – not our failures, not our fears, not even the places in us that feel closed, buried, or beyond healing. It means that no story is finished. Peter’s denial was not the end. The disciples’ fear was not the end. The Cross was not the end. In Christ, God always has the final word, and that word is life.
So today, as we gather here, the Easter story invites us not to admire from a distance, but rather to step into a new way of living, a way of living that reflects hope rather than fear, a way of living that reflects life rather than doubt. It asks us to put our faith in the living God, not only with our words, but with the choices we make each day – the courage to forgive, the willingness to begin again, the trust to step forward even when the path is unclear.
So, what does the resurrection mean to you? And how will you live your life differently because of the faith you profess here today? Think of the difference we can make in our families, our places of work, in the world, when we live with the reality that life is stronger than death, that love is stronger than hate, that good is stronger than evil, that there is no God as powerful as our Good.
So, let us pray for the courage to live as Easter people, people of the resurrection, people that trust that the risen Christ walks with us, and that his life is already at work within us. 🙏🏼🙏🏼
*****************
If you would like to make a donation to support the Mission of the Church you can do so on our website using the ‘Donate’ button: https://missio-sacbc.org/donate
**************
Please consider praying a decade of the rosary on a daily basis for the evangelising Mission of the Church and the Pope’s intentions.
The Pope’s prayer intention for April is for priests in crisis
Let us pray for priests going through moments of crisis in their vocation, that they may find the accompaniment they need and that communities may support them with understanding and prayer.
*****************
Blessed Pauline Jaricot, Pray for us. 🙏🏼🙏🏼
*****************
Batswana Catholics Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference Diocese of Francistown Catholic Diocese of Mthatha Catholic Diocese of Mthatha Catholic Diocese Of Kroonstad Catholic Diocese of Kimberley Youth & Young Adults Ministry Catholic Diocese Of Kroonstad Catholic Institute of Education Catholic Diocese of Port Elizabeth Catholic Diocese of Manzini The Catholic Diocese of Oudtshoorn