The DayAfter

 

God raised this Jesus; of this we are all witnesses. So proclaimed Peter in the reading we just heard from the Acts of the Apostles. Every day for the next seven weeks - from Easter to Pentecost - the Church reads from the Acts of the Apostles, Luke's wonderful sequel to his Gospel. It is Luke's artful account of the experience of the very first Christians, the first ones to experience in their own lives the effects of Jesus' resurrection. Acts also recounts the early growth of the Church, as the good news of Jesus' resurrection spread from Jerusalem all the way to Rome.

During the 40 days of Lent, we identified ourselves with our catechumens preparing for baptism, renewing our own experience of conversion to Christ and his Church. Now, during these 50 days of Easter, we identify ourselves with the newly baptized, recalling the experience of the very first Christians, gathered like them into one Church by the power of the Risen Christ present among us.

(You surely noticed the reference in the Opening Prayer to the newly baptized. In ancient Christian Rome, this whole week was especially devoted to them. They wore their new white robes to Mass every day. On Saturday, back at the Lateran Basilica where they had been baptized, they removed and stored their white robes.Then next Sunday, at St. Pancras, they would appear for the first time in ordinary clothes.)

Yesterday, the Gospel reading proclaimed the discovery of an empty tomb. That was an essential but incomplete sign that God had done something new and wonderful in raising Jesus from the dead. The disciples needed to experience more, and so do we, which is why we need to hear this wonderful story of how the disciples were transformed from frightened followers of a dead man into Spirit-filled witnesses of Christ's resurrection.

We read and hear the resurrection’s effects on the disciples in the Gospel accounts of the Risen Lord's appearances and in the preaching witness of Saint Peter and others in the Acts of the Apostles. We rad and hear the resurrection’s effects on the world n people’s responses to the apostles’ amazing story and in how the story has since spread, in the dynamism at the heart of the Church’s existence that has propelled it outward in 2000 years of world-transforming activity.

Finally, the resurrection's effects become evident in us, transformed in mind and changed in heart, by the unique power of this utterly unexpected event, which has glorified (almost beyond recognition) the humanity Jesus shares with each of us, and which has brought us together in a way in which nothing else could have, empowering us (despite all the world's bad news that competes for our daily attention) not so much with new knowledge as with a new hope.  If, as the saying goes, “knowledge is power,” hope - Christian resurrection hope - is even more so!

Homily for Easter Monday, Saint Paul the Apostle Church NY, April 6, 2026.