Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Speaker A: Welcome to Sundays with Bishop Ken, a weekly podcast brought to you by the publishers of Little Books of the Diocese of Saginaw.
Each Sunday of Ordinary Time, the Gospel and Bishop Ken's homily are proclaimed by members of our faith community during the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter. Our Sunday prayer time will be taken from the Little Book's reflections for that season.
We are pleased to spend this quiet time with you today.
[00:01:02] Speaker B: Hallelujah. He has risen.
Easter blessings to you. Today is April 20, Easter Sunday, and our journey through Lent has come to its end.
We end our readings with the excerpts from an Easter homily attributed to St. John Chrysostom.
Come, you all, enter into the joy of your Lord. You the first and you the last, receive alike your reward. You rich and you poor, dance together.
You sober and you weaklings, celebrate the day.
You who have kept the fast and you who have not, rejoice. Today the table is richly loaded. Enjoy its royal banquet.
The calf is a fatted one. Let no one go away hungry.
All of you enjoy the banquet of faith. All of you receive the riches of his goodness. Let no one grieve over his poverty, for the universal kingdom has been revealed.
Let no one weep over his sins, for pardon has shone from the grave.
Let no one fear death, for the death of our Savior has set us free. He has destroyed it by enduring it. He has despoiled Hades by going down into its kingdom. He has angered it by allowing it to taste of his flesh.
Christ is risen and you are abolished. Christ is risen and the demons are cast down.
Christ is risen and the angels rejoice.
Christ is risen and life is freed. Christ is risen and the tomb is emptied of the dead. For Christ, being risen from the dead, has become the leader and reviver of those who had fallen asleep. To him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen.
And now for our final reflection.
On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning while it was still dark and saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved and told them, they have taken Jesus from the tomb, and we don't know where they put him. So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb.
John 21:3.
These are the very next words in John's Gospel after he describes the burial of Jesus on Friday evening.
The tomb is empty. Mary Magdalene, Peter and the beloved disciple don't know what to make of this.
But soon they will experience the risen Lord and the nightmare of Friday will become the joy of Easter Sunday.
It isn't simply that Jesus has gone through death to the other side and now lives a wondrously transformed human life.
The joy of Easter is the realization that Jesus has opened the way for us.
Death, the greatest fear of human beings has been overcome.
We've got a future, a full bodied future that lasts forever.
Death has become a birth.
Which is harder to believe? That there is a God or that for us there is life after death?
It's the latter by a long shot. Believe it. Join with Mary Magdalene, Peter and the beloved disciple and celebrate the good news of Easter.
Join with the other disciples who rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Join with the doubting Thomas who said my Lord and my God.
Join with the whole church as we celebrate this great feast.
Have a blessed and happy Easter. We hope that you will join us for the Easter 2025 season with the little White Book.
