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Easter Sunday at Corpus Christi Cathedral
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April 10, 2023Mass on Easter morning was, perhaps, the most crowded mass of the Triduum, with almost every pew in Corpus Christi Cathedral filled with the faithful in colorful Easter clothes. Holy Thursday and Good Friday had been dark, rainy days, but with the glad tidings of Easter, the sun had finally come out. “‘God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son’,” said Bishop Michael Mulvey during his homily, quoting John 3:16. “He sent His Son to redeem us and to ransom the slave.” He encouraged the faithful to meditate on this sacrifice, the reason for our Easter joy. Just as the sun reveals its light on Easter morning, by rising from the darkness of the tomb, Jesus reveals that He is the Light of the world.
Bishop Mulvey spoke of our slavery to the darkness of sin, and how we can become distracted by conflict all around us like politics and war, new-age agendas, and familial tensions. “We must turn our attention to the God who gives,” he said. In 2 Corinthians, Bishop Mulvey said, St. Paul says that Christ “became sin”: He became like us, his sinful creation. But this was to save us from the consequences of sin and to become righteous through Him, through His sacrifice on the Cross. By turning away from the darkness of sin and looking to the light, we cooperate in Jesus’ redeeming grace.
“Jesus conquered everything, including death,” Bishop Mulvey went on. “Do not live in despair.” As he did the night before at the Easter Vigil, the bishop told the faithful to appeal to the Lord in the way St. John wrote in Revelation: “Come, Lord Jesus.” We must hope to experience the light of God. Mulvey reminded us that even Jesus, before he died, said, “Why have You forsaken me?” But in the end, He still looked to the light of His Father when he said, “Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.” This shows that Jesus knows our darkness, but he also shows us who to go to when we face that darkness. All we have to do, said Bishop Mulvey, is ask Him to come and be the light.
