Top photo: An image of the Resurrection of Jesus is depicted in this stained glass window in St. Catherine of Siena Church, Farmingdale. Monitor file photo
By Father Garry Koch
Gospel reflection for April 5, 2025, Easter Sunday, the Resurrection of the Lord
From the dawn of time, God intended an eternal covenantal relationship with his created order. He made the heavens and the earth and all that fills them. From the most majestic of galaxies to the smallest microorganism, everything “was good” and called to existence for a purpose. While the fullness of that purpose is not known to us, we have, as the Letter to the Hebrews notes, “varied and fragmentary” images through the prophets and the writings of the ancient Israelites.
The intended purpose of creation was ruptured by Adam and Eve as they chose their own path over that of the covenant that God had offered them. Their history was a cycle of repeated ruptures with God, and God continued to offer the promise.
Through the great mystery of the Incarnation, the completion of those promises begins to unfold in real time. The Son of God, Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, carries the weight of both the sins of humanity and the promises of the Father to the entire created order, on his shoulders.
This past Friday we again observed the consequences of the weight of sin. The man, Jesus, scourged and beaten, was saddled with the cross, one that no human being could bear, to restore all things to the Father. Jesus fell under the weight of the cross and needed the aide of another man, Simon of Cyrene, to carry that Cross with him. Simon stands as representative of all of us as we share in the suffering and death of Jesus through our own lives of disciplined faith.
Through the Paschal Events, Jesus fulfilled the promises of the law and the prophets revealed to Israel by God from the foundation of the world, and the establishment of the covenants through Abraham, Moses, and David.
This fulfillment occurs in two distinct ways. First, there are prophecies that point to specific moments and events in the life and ministry of Jesus. Secondly, there are legal obligations around sacrifices for giving adoration, thanksgiving, and those for atonement and reparation of sins, all of which meet their total completion in the Paschal Events. Jesus restores all of creation to the Father, pointing to the final restoration of all things in the Kingdom of God.
The darkness that covered the earth on Friday afternoon as the Son of God is “pierced for our offences and wounded for our sins” points us to the chaos of the disordered world resulting from the fall of Adam and Eve. All of creation is in an upheaval as the great exorcism of the world occurs, preparing for the streak of light to come forth from the tomb of the resurrected one just three days hence.
While Satan expected that he brought an end to the work of God in the world by taking Jesus on the cross, the cross instead plunged into the earth and through the heart of the Kingdom of Satan, thereby restoring all things in Christ.
Now, it is the first day of the week, The disciples cowered in fear in the Upper Room were startled by Mary Magdalene as she frenetically announced that the body of Jesus was missing, presumably stolen so that he would be deprived of a proper burial according to the Jewish custom.
It was Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved that took off and ran to the tomb, with the beloved arriving there before Peter. The tomb was indeed empty, but the shroud was in place, and the facecovering rolled up. It immediately appeared that this was not the result of a disturbance, but rather that Jesus had been raised from the dead. Peter did not yet understand, but the beloved disciple did.
Mary Magdalene will soon arrive and after the others have returned to the Upper Room, she will mistake the Resurrected One for a gardener and will inquire of him what he knows about the body of Jesus.
Here, in this garden where Jesus had been buried, history comes full circle. The New Adam, is in the new Garden. The Paschal Events have brought to completion the plan of oneness with the Father intended from creation. The Kingdom of God is at hand — it is now present, though not yet complete.
We live as though we are not of this world; the Kingdom of God enters our lives through the Sacramental actions that draw us beyond this space and this time to the throes of eternity.
We continue to enter into this mystery each time we celebrate the Eucharist or receive the Sacraments.
The old order has passed away even as we await the final fulfillment of the Kingdom as God brings the created order to a close and ushers in the eternity for which we long.
He is Risen — Alleluia!
Father Garry Koch is pastor of St. Benedict Parish, Holmdel.