April 4, 2021 – Easter Sunday

Click here for the readings (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/040421.cfm)

Alleluia. The Lord Has Risen. Alleluia. Happy Easter to All.

Holy Week has just finished. Easter Season has just get started. We come to realize now that our story of salvation is more than just about us, but all about God and what He has done for us through our Risen Lord Jesus Christ. Our redemption & faith-life now are more than just about what we have done in life but rather what Christ has done for us. Remember Jesus on the cross did not say: “I am finished” but rather said, “It is finished.” He has just getting started. So, Abangan. Beware. Be Aware. There are still more yet to come & to happen to us and for our life ahead. Brace ourselves then for God is not finished with us Yet.

As the Lord has risen now & always in our lives, ours now is to be a witness to God’s acts & messages yet to happen in our lives. Since God is not finished with us yet, ours now is to bear witness what is yet to be revealed in our lives now through our risen Lord.

For what is it to be a witness? Like a witness to an event or an incident & like those who first witnesses of the Lord’s resurrection in our gospel today, to be a witness and to bear witness is….

First, to experience first-hand what is being & yet to happen & be revealed. Mary Magdalene, Peter & the beloved disciple saw in person the burial cloth left on an empty tomb. Important thus is the personal direct encounter– what you see, hear, think & feel of the incident & God’s actions in our lives. Second, to allow the incident to happen as it unfolds. We are but bystander witnesses and not active actors. Like Peter, never tamper the scene & evidences or control/program the incident for if so, you become an accomplish – a compromised witness. Third, to allow the incident affect, disturb & move you. Useless is the incident if it has no effect & meaning to you. The other disciple went in, saw & believed. What he experienced makes him realize & understand now (as Paul would call, from above) the meaning of the empty tomb & the rising from the dead. Lastly, to be a witness is to testify to others what you have experienced. Mary Magdalene saw and told others. As in the Acts of the Apostles, Peter & other disciples shared & testified to others what they experienced & believed. What we witnessed & believed then must be claim & proclaim, given & shared with others, so that others may also witness the risen Lord in us from & through what we have witnessed & believed.

As Easter People – believers & proclaimers of the Lord’s resurrection, we now bear witness to our faith by our personal & communal experience of God’s continuing work in us, by our obedient participation to His plans & ways, by being transformed by our encounter of God’s revelation & by sharing to others what we have received by the testimony of our faith in the risen Lord.

In the same spirit & attitude, today we also begin our year-long celebration of our five decades of Filipino Christianity this year. With deep gratitude, we thank our Father for continually revealing Himself to us, doing His work of salvation to us, and making us witness & bear witness to what the Lord Jesus Christ has done & continually doing for us now. We are indeed gifted with Filipino Christian faith. This is the time the Lord has made. We rejoice & we are glad.

With the risen Lord, we believe that there are more yet to come & happen in our lives now and ahead. The risen Lord is not finished with us yet. With this, we, Filipino Catholics pray that may we always be worthy & fruitful witnesses of the risen Lord to our world here & abroad today & always.

So Help us God. So May it be. Amen.