Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord
Fr. Ben Riley
When I was a junior in high school, I had a teacher, a Franciscan brother, Brother Richard Senker.
And he would begin his talks the same way.
He would say, “Men, I want you to listen.”
And then he would say, “Tonight, there is going to be a full moon. I want you to go outside, look up at that full moon, and remember this:
That is the same moon that Jesus saw when he walked the earth.”
And I remember the first time I actually did that.
I went outside. I looked up.
And for a moment, everything felt… different.
Because suddenly, Jesus was not just an idea.
Not just a story.
But someone who actually walked under the same sky.
Saw the same moon.
Lived in the same world.
And that is what the Gospel is telling us tonight.
This did not happen in some distant, imaginary place.
This happened here.
In this world.
Under this sky.
And yet, this world is vast.
We are told the universe is ninety three billion light years across.
Billions of galaxies. Billions of stars.
So big that we cannot really hold it in our minds.
And we are not very good with big numbers.
We say “million,” “billion,” “infinite” but we don’t really grasp what that means.
Let me give you a simple example.
If I asked you, “How long is a million seconds?” most people might guess a few months, maybe a year.
But a million seconds is only about eleven days.
Not that long.
But what about a billion seconds?
Now we are not talking about days… or even months.
A billion seconds is about thirty-one years.
That is the difference between a million and a billion.
And that is still not infinity.
And when you begin to feel that…
you begin to feel something else.
How small we are.
How short life is.
How quickly everything passes away.
And if we are honest, that can lead to a real question:
Is this only a very big universe…
or is it a meaningful one?
Because sometimes life feels like the night sky.
Vast…
and dark.
And into that darkness, the Gospel speaks.
The women come to the tomb at dawn.
Not in triumph.
In grief.
They come expecting death.
And instead:
There is an earthquake, an angel, the stone rolled away.
And a sentence that changes the universe:
“He is not here. He has been raised.”
This is not an idea.
This is not a symbol.
This is an event. The greatest event in history.
Something happened.
And everything depends on it.
Because if Christ is not raised…
then this universe remains closed.
Life remains short.
Death remains final.
Love remains unfinished.
But because Christ is raised.
Our vast universe is not so dark and desolate anymore.
It has been opened.
Scripture tells us that before anything existed…
there was the Word.
And that Word entered into this world.
Not because He had to.
But because He loves.
And not in a small way.
Not in a measurable way.
But in a way so immense…
that a lifetime cannot contain it.
That is why heaven exists.
Because God loves you so much that even a million years would not be enough.
Even a billion years would not be enough.
That would only be the beginning.
And that is what happened on Easter.
Death was not removed.
It was transformed.
It became a passage.
It became a gate.
Jesus says it is a narrow gate.
Because it requires something of us.
Faith.
Trust.
And Following him.
But hear this:
That gate has been opened from the inside.
By His death and resurrection, Christ has passed through it.
And because he has passed through it…
it will never be closed again.
Now everything has changed.
This is not just a vast universe.
It is a redeemed one.
This is not just a short life.
It is the beginning of an infinite one.
And in the darkness of that tomb…
A light arose.
The light of Christ burst forth upon our universe.
And that light remains.
Enough for you to see.
Enough for you to believe.
Enough for you to follow.
Christ is risen.
And if you follow him…
you will live forever.