A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint John. Mary stood weeping beside the empty tomb. Even as she wept, she stooped to look inside. And there she saw two angels in dazzling robes. One was seated at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had lain.
Woman, they asked her, why are you weeping? She answered them, because the Lord has been taken away, and I do not know where they have put him. She had no sooner said this than she she turned around and caught sight of Jesus standing there, but she didn't know that it was Jesus. Woman, Jesus asked her, why are you weeping? Who is it you are looking for?
Mary supposed that it was the gardener. So she said, sir, if you are the one who carried him off, I will take him away. Then Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned to him and said in Hebrew, rabboni, meaning teacher. Jesus then said, do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to my father.
Rather, go to my brothers and tell them, I am ascending to my father and to your father, to my god and to your god. Mary Magdalene then went to the disciples and announced, I have seen the lord. And then she reported everything that he had said to her. And this is the gospel, the good news of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit.
Amen. The opening prayer of this mass referred to our enjoying eternal happiness because of our faith and the grace of the resurrection of our Lord. And, of course, I agree with that, and I think it's a very wonderful thought. But do we think enough of this fact that our eternity is now? We're in eternity now.
I admit that death brings about some changes, and those who have experienced it can verify that statement. But the fact is, we are not told to wait until we die and go into this state that we call heaven to enjoy, to have, to rejoice in, to be sustained by, to be encouraged by, to be saved from suicide by the risen lord, the broken tomb. I have not exaggerated one statement there, not even this suicide. Because suicide is a perfectly rational, sensible thing to do if all there is is this world. Why suffer?
It's crazy. We don't treat dogs and cats and even well behaved snakes that way. So at least we ought to treat human beings if we treat a common animal, shouldn't we? Remember, Thomas More in Utopia allows for euthanasia, either self inflicted or a friend of yours can do it for you. So what sustains an intelligent and reasonable person to put up with life in all its horrors?
I mean horrors. As I stand here now, I can give you names and telephone numbers. A lot of people of our very midst who were out in those pews of four months ago, three three or four months ago, and are now having a hell on earth. What sustains it when a pill or two could just evaporate the whole thing? As Saint Paul said, if Christ be not risen, your faith is in vain and my preaching is worthless.
That's I put the word worthless, isn't it? He used the word vain. And he's absolutely right. Absolutely right. And so when we pray that God will give us the joy of the resurrection, make it present tense.
You're to enjoy it now. It's to be part of your daily living now. You do not live as men and women without hope. Because if you do live as men and women without hope, then what if there's nothing to hope for, then you deal with life on its own terms. And when it gets too tough, get out of it.
When the water's too hot in the shower, you turn on the cold or you turn the hot off. You don't stand there and suffer unless you're masochist. And if you want to if you're going to go in for that kind of thing, well be a sadist. That's my recommendation. So let us face it.
The church is bringing home to us the great truth of the resurrection of God's son To give us courage, to give us fortitude, to give us perseverance, to give us all of these things with joy, with joy. You say, that's crazy. I am not crazy. I can give you the names of plenty of people. We call them saints.
But remember, let me tell you, the number of saints that we have by name, and they are a multitude, if ever seen the Roman martyrology, they are a multitude, but they are nothing in my opinion compared to the reality. Nothing. The older I get and the what miter the wider my circle gets of people I know and get I get reports of how people have lived and died, and the more I admire the heroic lives of many unsung, anonymous saints. Anonymous. They'll never be known as saints even by their family.
But in many instances, their families do know who their fathers and their mothers and their aunts and their uncles and their grandparents and what wonderful people they were. And the younger generations know it and remember it to some extent. But that's not the point. The point is these people lived and they will they have no tombstones with with any kind of great markings. Here lies a saint.
Here lies John Smith or Mary O'Brien who lived heroic lives of holiness. Walk through your cemeteries. You won't see anything like that. But let me tell you, there have been countless men and women down the centuries who have lived heroic lives. As I as I've mentioned, want to bore you stiff.
I mean, I don't have to go to extremes to do that. But I've been reading the Saint Augustine Bishop, a frightfully long book and it's not easy reading. But it's an extremely rich book in all the details of Augustine's life. Now remember his 50 March to 04/30. And it and the information is based upon all that you can draw from his voluminous writings.
He left over 300 works plus 200 letters that we have. Now here's the point I want to make, that in in reading this, I get the impression it's not more it's more than an impression. How many people in Hippo who were belonged to this to the Diocese of Saint Augustine. How noble what noble Christians they were. They're not called saints, but they're given in there by name and what they did and how they lived.
So and that's way back then. And every century, every year, every town, every village, every parish, every diocese has them. The unsung, the unknown, the anonymous men and women plugging along, putting up with their daily living. Why? For god's sake.
And in many instances, that's all they can say for it. I'm doing it for God. But let me tell you, if you can say that, what more can you say? In the name of the father, the son, and holy spirit, amen.