Easter Sunday 2026 Homily: New Life, Eternal Hope, and the Empty Tomb
Readings and Virtual Homily for April 5, Easter Sunday; My Favorite Week of the Year
Readings for Easter Sunday:
Acts 10:34, 37-40
Psalm 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23
Colossians 3:1-4
OR
1 Corinthians 5:6-8
John 20:1-9
OR
Matthew 28:1-10
OR
Luke 24:13-35
Dear Friends and Family,
Lot of options for the readings each Easter, and those listed above do not include the readings for the Holy Saturday Vigil. The options there can get downright dizzying -- we are only doing three Old Testament readings, for instance, at the Vigil, here at St. Clement, but other parishes will be doing all seven...
The central theme of the readings for Mass during the day (the readings listed above) is, of course, the Resurrection; is new life, eternal life, in Christ. The passage from Acts recounts briefly the fact of the Resurrection (vs, 40), in connection with Peter's realization that Christ died for all humanity, not just for the Jews (vss. 34-35, only partly included in today's reading). This realization, of course, is what leads to the scenes of vibrant joy, of truly Easter joy, through the rest of Acts of the Apostles as, in pagan city after pagan city, the Gentiles come to salvation.
Psalm 118 is a joyful celebration of God's saving power and love, a saving love experienced after the psalmist has described a period of great personal peril. Brought safely through that period of difficulty and darkness, the psalmist exults, in words that clearly resonate with the event we celebrate today, "I shall not die but live and declare the deeds of the Lord" (vs. 17).
That the psalm specifically references the Resurrection joy of the Savior is attested to by a famous verse, included in today's passage: "The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone" (vs. 22). The psalmist goes on to declare, "By the Lord has this been done; it is wonderful in our eyes" (vs. 18).
The psalmist, in other words, foresees the rejection of Jesus by the "builders," that is, the religious leaders of first-century Israel. The psalmist also foresees Peter's new understanding, in today's passage from Acts, that Jesus died for all humanity. Rejected by his own people, Jesus has become the cornerstone of the faith of the Gentiles, who flock to become disciples -- "By the Lord has this been done; it is wonderful in our eyes."
Of the options for the second reading, I prefer Colossians. The passage from 1 Corinthians reminds us that "the paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed," and then exhorts us to be renewed (vss. 7-8). The passage from Colossians says something very similar, but it says it with an emphasis on the glory of the risen Christ, and the deep hope that glory should give us. "For you have died," the passage reminds us, "and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory" (vss. 3-4).
Of the Gospel options, two are for Mass in the morning and the third (Luke) is for Mass later in the day. I will be preaching on both, on Sunday, as I have the 11 in Pleasanton and then the 630 at St. Clement. It is interesting to note details in the accounts of the Resurrection. Placing John and Matthew side by side this weekend, we may note both similarities and differences.
John says Mary Magdalene went to the tomb where she "saw the stone removed" (vs. 1). Mary then went to the house, to tell Peter and John that "they have taken the Lord from the tomb and we don't know where they have put him" (vs. 2). The fact that John uses the plural here ("we don't know") suggests that other women were with Mary, though John never names them.
John then tells us that he and Peter ran to the tomb, found things as Mary had described and though John tells us that he "believed," he also tells us that none of the disciples (himself presumably included) understood "the scripture that he had to rise from the dead" (vss. 3-9).
John includes interesting detail about the placement of the burial clothes and especially with regard to the face cloth, which was not with the other linens, but was "rolled up in a separate place" (vs. 7). This detail hardly suggests a hurried or hostile removal of Jesus' body from the tomb. Rather, it suggests that however Jesus' body left the tomb, it was accomplished with calm and with care. It is a detail which, from our perspective, suggests the Resurrection. But at that moment, John indicates, they did not know what to make of it.
John then tells us that he and Peter went back to the house (vs. 9). Maybe the Cheerios were getting soggy? Mary Magdalene, in verses not included in today's passage, did NOT go back to the house. She wanted to find Jesus' body. The result of her loyalty and courage, of course, was her becoming the first witness to the Resurrection (attested to by all four Gospels).
Matthew tells us that "Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb" at daybreak (vs. 1). The "other" Mary here is Mary, the wife of Clopas, the mother of the apostle James and his brother, Joseph, also a disciple, and the "sister" of the Blessed Virgin Mary -- that is, most likely, the Virgin's sister-in-law, that is, the sister of St. Joseph and therefore, Jesus' aunt.
In contrast to John, Matthew tells us that the stone was in place when the women arrived. He says that there was an earthquake, and that "an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, approached, rolled back the stone and sat upon it" (vs. 2). Just as an aside, I love the detail of the angel taking seat on the stone. He sounds like a cool dude, relaxed and informal, despite his huge mission and message. The angel's appearance, Matthew tells us, was dazzling (vs. 3). The Roman guards, Matthew writes, "were shaken with fear of him and became like dead men" (vs. 4).
The angel announces the Resurrection to the two Marys. He invites them to "come and see the place where he lay" and then instructs the women to "go quickly and tell his disciples 'He has been raised from the dead'" (vss. 5-7). The women "went away quickly from the tomb, fearful but overjoyed, and ran to announce this to his disciples" (vs. 8). Before they reach the house, Jesus appears to the women, greets them, and repeats the instructions of the angel; to tell the disciples that he is risen, and that they will see him (vss. 9-10).
Of the four Gospel accounts of the Resurrection, only John mentions that he and Peter went to the tomb on Easter Sunday morning. Only John mentions the disposition of the burial cloths. I only recently came to understand (on one of the women's Lenten retreats I gave at Soquel last month) that this detail is significant in Catholic mystical tradition. The face cloth that was set aside from the rest of the burial linens is said to have survived all these centuries and is a venerated relic at a remote shrine in the mountains of Italy.
There are only two other artifacts from the tradition that assert that they offer us a reliable image of the face of Jesus: the Shroud of Turin (at the cathedral in Turin) and Veronica's veil, which is kept at a chapel in the Vatican. I know a lot, a lot, about the Shroud of Turin. Until encountering a couple of retreatants, last month, at St. Clare, more versed in these matters than I, I had no idea that the Church maintained that either artifact -- the burial face cloth or the veil of Veronica (who does not appear in any of the Gospel accounts) might actually exist. I am planning to research some of this over the summer, when I have time. Meanwhile...back to today's homily.
Only Matthew says an earthquake occurred (likely an aftershock of the powerful earthquake that Matthew reports occurred Friday afternoon, the moment that Jesus died -- Matt. 27:51-54).
Only Matthew says anything at all about the Roman guards. His account goes on (beyond today's passage) to tell how the guards reported the angel and the empty tomb to the Jewish leaders. The leaders gave the guards a "large sum of money" to put out the lie that Jesus' body had been stolen during the night by his disciples, as the guards slept (vss. 12-15).
Matthew likely included this anecdote because he was writing his Gospel for a Jewish audience; he hoped to persuade his audience that Jesus fulfilled the Messianic prophecies of the Hebrew Scriptures. Knowing that many of his Jewish readers would have heard the tale of how the disciples stole Jesus' body while the guards slept, Matthew includes it in his narrative, adding "this story has circulated among the Jews to the present day" (vs. 15).
Matthew is, in effect saying, to his intended audience, "Look, I know the story you've heard and believe, about Jesus' body. I am telling you how it originated and I am begging you to set it aside and consider the alternative. Consider that the Roman guards witnessed something so overwhelming that they 'became like dead men' and then, when they came to their senses and ran to report the astonishing events to the religious leaders...they were bribed. Bribed with an offer so generous that they really could not refuse it, to put out the story you have heard."
Finally, there is the passage from Luke, to be read at Sunday evening Masses. This is the account of the two disciples who encounter Jesus without recognizing him, on the road to Emmaus, Easter Sunday afternoon. I have written on this passage in these homilies in previous years and feel that everyone knows what I have to say about it. The disciples are Clopas and his wife, Mary, the "sister" of the Blessed Virgin, the mother of an apostle, the (very likely) blood sibling of St. Joseph, and so Jesus' aunt, and finally and most significantly, a major disciple who stood at the foot of the cross and who was one of the first witnesses the Resurrection. Mary and Clopas have left the gathered community in Jerusalem at Clopas' insistence. Luke tells us the two were "debating" as they walked the road (Luke 24:15). We know from the other accounts of the Resurrection that the men (all of whom had been in hiding at the Crucifixion) did not believe the women's report of the risen Jesus. So, Mary and her husband, Clopas, walked toward Emmaus, debating.
Along comes Jesus (but they were prevented from recognizing him) and he explains the whole suffering servant thing to them, quoting passages from the prophets and the psalms that predicted a victim Messiah. "Were not our hearts burning," Mary and Clopas ask one another, after they have recognized Jesus, as he explained the Scriptures to them (Luke 24:32).
I always end any discussion of this passage with the question, "As they started out again, in haste, for it was getting dark, to Jerusalem, do you think, maybe, just maybe, Mary said to her husband, 'I told you so'?"
Holy Week is my favorite week of the year and the day that I am writing this homily -- Good Friday -- is my favorite day of the year. I saw an item on the news feed on my iPhone this morning, showing photos of Good Friday celebrations around the world. It was inspirational. I was especially taken with photos of contemporary Passion Plays enacted in locales as diverse as Nigeria, Indonesia, Australia, Mexico and the Czech Republic. I was a little overwhelmed at the photo of a young Filipino, actually crucified for just a few minutes, being brought down from the cross by the hundreds (maybe thousands) of disciples who had gathered for the re-enactment. This business of young men actually offering themselves for crucifixion -- largely, it seems, a Filipino thing -- deeply moves me. I have to admit, though, that I doubt I could bear to be a witness to it, myself.
In any event, it is the week when we celebrate the events which brought about our rescue. Good Friday is the day when both the history and the destiny of the human race changed forever, the day when God from God and Light from Light, the Second Person of the Trinity, a man as human as any of us, took those nails for us and for our salvation. It is impossible to fathom the love.
As today's psalm recommends, let's just rejoice in it.
He is Risen!
Love,
Fr. Brawn