Dominica Resurrectionis Domini Nostri Iesu Christi
Sacellum Immaculatae Conceptionis apud Seminarium Sancti Philippi Neri
Gricigliano
20 April 2025
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
This morning, we mystically come with the holy women to the tomb of Jesus. Over the days of the Sacred Triduum, we have contemplated all that Jesus, God the Son Incarnate, suffered – the cruelest humiliations and physical tortures culminating in the most ignominious execution by crucifixion – for no other reason than His pure and selfless love of God the Father and, therefore, of us, the children of God the Father. Although all that Jesus suffered and His death on the cross would lead us to think that His enemies had prevailed in eliminating Him from among the living, we find the tomb empty and in the custody of an angel who declares:
Do not be amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here; see the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you.[1]
Divine Love could never be destroyed by the forces of evil, by the wickedness of Satan and of sinful men. Through the Passion and Death of Jesus, Divine Love triumphed over evil, winning for us forever the grace of the Holy Spirit to conquer evil in our lives.
The many and deadly wounds of Jesus, by the glory of His Resurrection, have become forever radiant like precious jewels, inviting men to be one with Him Who goes always before us in the Church and Who sends us to make Him known to all, to the nations. Before the Mystery of Faith, the Mystery of the Passion, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ, we declare with Saint Paul: “But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”[2]
Having first been buried with Christ in the waters of Baptism, let us, by the sevenfold gift of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, purify our lives of all sin and attraction to sin, and give our lives in pure and selfless love of God the Father. Let us truly live for God, doing His will in all things. Let us in every moment respond to the command of Our Savior: “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”[3]
Let the words of the hymn Vexilla Regis Prodeunt be our prayer throughout each day: “O crux, ave, spes unica!” (“O Cross, our only hope, all hail!”)[4]
Commenting on the Epistle of today’s Holy Mass, Blessed Columba Marmion exhorts us:
Therefore, like the Jews, who, the Pasch having come, abstained from all leaven in order to eat the Paschal lamb, we, Christians, who would be partakers of the mystery of the Resurrection, who would unite ourselves to Christ, the Lamb Who was slain and rose again for us, we must henceforth live no longer in sin; we must keep ourselves from those evil desires which are like a leaven of malice and perversity: Non ergo regnet peccatum in vestro mortali corpore [Rom 6, 12]; we must preserve within us the grace which will enable us to live in the truth and sincerity of the Divine law.[5]
Celebrating the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ, we must never give way to discouragement or cowardice before the trials and temptations which we face in striving to follow Christ with an undivided heart. Rather, we must have confidence in the purification from sin which He has won for us by His Passion and Death, and in which we share in virtue of our baptism. Saint Paul’s exhortation to us in today’s Epistle is totally realistic. It is not just for a few extraordinarily holy Christians but for all who would follow Christ. The sevenfold gift of the Holy Spirit won for us by Our Risen Lord is at work in every soul, especially in the souls of those who are greatly tried and severely tempted.
What is more, the grace won for us by the Risen Christ inspires and strengthens us to give our hearts ever more completely to the glorious-pierced Heart of Jesus, to serve God the Father ever more generously, to be, each day and throughout each day, “fellow workers [with Christ] in the truth.”[6]
Saint Paul teaches us the strict rapport between the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Our Lord and of grace in our daily life:
The death [Christ Jesus] died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.[7]
Blessed Columba Marmion helps us to understand the dynamism of divine grace at work in us:
Jesus came in us as King on the day of our baptism, but sin disputes this dominion with Him. When we destroy sin, infidelities, attachment to the creature; when we live by faith in Him, in His word, in His merits; when we seek to please Him in all things, then Christ is Master, then He reigns within us; as He reigns in the bosom of the Father, so He lives in us. He can say of us to the Father: “Behold this soul: I live and reign in her, O Father, that Thy name may be hallowed.”
Such are the most profound aspects of the Paschal grace: – detachment from all that is human, earthly, created; the full donation of ourselves to God, through Christ. The Resurrection of the Word Incarnate becomes for us a mystery of life and of holiness. Christ being our Head, “God hath raised us up together” with Him; CONresuscitavit nos [Eph 2, 6]. We ought then to seek to reproduce within ourselves the features that marked His Risen life.[8]
Let us pray especially today, the most holy day of the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ, for the grace to follow Our Risen Lord in all things. Let us reflect anew on His Parable of the Vine and the Branches,[9]
never doubting that, by Baptism and Confirmation, we are branches securely grafted into Him, the Vine, and, therefore, we can always draw our inspiration and strength from Him. So may we, with Saint Paul and with so many heroes of the faith along the Christian centuries, fight the good fight of Christian living, stay the course on which we have set forth with Christ on the day of our baptism, and keep the faith in which we were baptized and confirmed.[10]
Alive in Christ, let us now place our hearts, one with the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, His Virgin Mother, into His Eucharistic Heart. May our communion in His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, purify our hearts of sin and inspire and strengthen us to take up the cross with Him, to live in Him for love of God the Father.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Raymond Leo Cardinal BURKE
[1] Mk 16, 6-7.
[2] Gal 6, 14.
[3] Lk 9, 23. Cf. Mt 16, 24; and Mk 8, 34.
[4] “Hebdomada Sancta, Ad Vesperas,” Liber Hymnarius cum Invitatoriis & Aliquibus Responsoriis (Sablé-sur-Sarthe [France]: Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Solesmes, 1983), p. 60. English translation: The Breviary and Missal Hymns, tr. John Fitzpatrick (London: Sands & Co., 1931), p. 61.
[5] “ C’est pourquoi, comme les Juifs qui, la Pâque venue, s’abstenaient de tout levain pour manger l’agneau pascal, « vous de même, chrétiens, qui voulez participer au mystère de la Résurrection, vous unir au Christ, Agneau immolé et ressuscité pour vous, vous ne devez plus désormais vivre dans le péché ; vous devez vous garder de ces mauvais désirs qui sont comme un levain de malice et de perversité : » Non ergo regnet peccatum in vestro mortali corpore [Rom. VI, 12] ; vous devez conserver en vous la grâce qui vous fera vivre dans la vérité et dans la sincérité de la loi divine.” Columba Marmion, Le Christ dan Ses Mystères. Conférences spirituelles liturgiques, 8ème éd. (Paris: Ste St-Augustin, Desclée, De Brouwer & Cie, 1922), p. 352. [Marmion]. English translation: Columba Marmion, Christ in His Mysteries, tr. Mother M. St. Thomas of Tyburn Convent, 9th ed. (London: Sands & Co., 1939), pp. 292-293. [MarmionEng].
[6] 3 Jn 8.
[7] Rom 6, 10-11.
[8] “Il est venue en nous comme Roi au jour du baptême ; mais sa domination lui est disputée par le péché ; quand nous détruisons le péché, les infidélités, l’attache à la créature ; que nous vivons de la foi en lui, en sa parole, en ses mérites ; que nous cherchons à lui plaire en toutes choses, alors le Christ es le maître, alors il règne en nous, comme il règne dans le sein du Père, il vit en nous ; il peut dire de nous à son Père : « Voyez cette âme : je vis et règne en elle, ô Père, pour que votre nom soit sanctifié ».
Tels sont les aspects les plus profonds de la grâce pascale : détachement de tout ce qui est humanin, terrestre, créé ; pleine appartenance à Dieu par le Christ. La résurrection du Verbe incarné devient pour nous un mystère de vie et de sainteté. Le Christ, étant notre chef, « Dieu nous a ressuscités avec lui » : CONresuscitavit nos [Ephes. II, 6]. Nous devons donc chercher à reproduire en nous les traits qui marquent sa vie de ressuscité.”
Marmion, p. 356. English translation: MarmionEng, pp. 295-296.
[9] Cf. Jn 15, 1-17.
[10] Cf. 2 Tim 4, 7.