The first funeral I preached during the Easter season made me realize that Easter, which is normally a joyful holiday when family comes together, would typically be viewed as a difficult time to experience the passing of a loved one. However, the reality is that Easter is one of the most fitting times to mark passing from this life, because Easter is a season of great Christian hope. Easter is when we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and we constantly hear it echoed in the readings throughout the season. We hear of Jesus appearing to his disciples, the works of the apostles after the resurrection, and reflections on what the resurrection means in the letters of the New Testament. The whole Christian faith revolves around this central mystery. God became man, suffered, died for our sins, and rose again. This is the great celebration of Easter, that extends throughout the Easter season and really throughout the whole year. Every Sunday is said to be a little Easter as Sunday is the celebration of the resurrection, the day when the world was recreated and a path to eternal life was paved by Christ.
It is precisely the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead that gives us hope even in the face of our own death and the death of our loved ones. Jesus' resurrection allows us to have hope for our own resurrection, that Christ will raise us up to his heavenly kingdom. It is hope for eternal life, built upon the good news of Easter, which allows the words of St Paul to come true “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” These words of St. Paul are a recognition that death no longer has the final victory, death no longer has the same sting, because in Jesus Christ death is not the end. Death becomes the pathway to resurrection and eternal life.
Even though we are all sinners, we can still share in this great hope, because the Lord has promised good to us. And we know that God is faithful to his word. Our hope cannot come from our own weaknesses or imperfections, rather it comes from “placing our trust in Christ's promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit.” We have hope, not because we are good, but because God is good. We do not have hope for our future resurrection because of any great deed of our own, rather we have hope for our resurrection because Jesus invites us into his own death and resurrection. The Easter resurrection to eternal life is not just for Jesus, but for all those who become Children of God and are joined both to his death and his resurrection.
The whole point is that Easter, the resurrection of Christ, changed the world and it strikes at the core of the entire Christian life. We must allow ourselves to become an Easter people where the joy of the resurrection invades all that we do. Our great hope founded on the resurrection of Christ must be a driving factor in our life.