Towards the end of The
Lord of the Rings (a famous and great epic novel written by an English
author, Tolkien) there comes a remarkable moment. Frodo, the hobbit-bearer of
the Ring of Power, has fulfilled his task. The Ring has gone back into the
fire, and the Kingdom of Mordor, a king of evil and death, has imploded. It is
“the end of all things”. So, Both Frodo and his faithful companion Sam now
expect to die, and collapse exhausted as the mount dissolves around them. And
then some morning later[1]
Sam wakes up[2].
Then, more astonished, he sees Frodo asleep in the bed beside him. Then he says
in a loud voice: “‘is everything sad going to come untrue? What’s happened to
the world?’[3]
This is fiction, fantasy, of course but take that
question: Is everything sad going to
come untrue? It’s the question a child might ask. It isn’t a fictional
question, it is important: is everything sad going to come untrue?[4]
My brother, my sisters, today, Easter Sunday, all the
elements of the liturgy give us the right answer. The Paschal candle, the chant
of Alleluia, the beauty of the Liturgy gives their answer. Our own presence
here, our faith, it is also an answer too… All those throughout the world who were
baptized and confirmed and made their first Communion will stand up and will speak
up. The Church throughout the world and throughout the ages, give their answer.
So, is everything sad going to come untrue? Yes! In
Christ, who in obedience and love has gone before us, it already has. And if, we by faith and baptism are found in
Christ, everything sad will come untrue for us as well.
The power of sin and death has already been broken.
The end of all things has already come. Something has happened to the world.
This is precisely what the New Testament claim for the Resurrection. A mutation
-as our Pope emeritus Benedict XVI has often said- has taken place in the
person of Christ. One of our race has
been changed from mortality to immortality, one of our race has entered into invincible
overflowing life.
But let us be realistic, there are also our doubts,
our fears and of course our sins. The real difficulty of our Christian life lies
in our “nah! Too good to be true”… I once asked a man, “Why can you not
believe?” I have never forgotten his answer. “My hands are too small.” There is the difficulty! So, is everything sad going to come untrue?
How hard that can be to answer with a ‘yes’! We are so committed to, so steeped
in, so expectant of the sad… however
if we want, if we are really open, the Holy Spirit, the Joy of God in person, can enlarge our hands to accept the joy,
or, if you like, re-open in us the open heart of a child.
Christ is risen. He is truly risen! And so we can say
even now: everything sad will come
untrue. We have a sure and certain hope.
My brother, my sister, this is the most important and biggest
Sunday of the year; from this Eucharist celebration comes all the strength we
need for the rest of the year.
If we are really open, the Holy Spirit, the Joy of God
in person, can enlarge our hands to accept the joy, or, if you like, re-open in
us the open heart of a child. Happy Easter to each one of you ■
[1]And it happened at the second week of April, according
to the book, by the way.
[2]
To his astonishment “he
found that he was lying on some soft bed”, and “over him gently swayed wide
beechen boughs, and through their young leaves sunlight glimmered, green and
gold. All the air was full of a sweet scent”. “‘A great Shadow has departed,’
said Gandalf, and then he laughed, and the sound was like music, or like water
in a parched land; and as he listened the thought came to Sam that he had not
heard laughter, the pure sound of merriment, for days upon days without count.
It fell upon his ears like the echo of all the joys he had ever known. But he
himself burst into tears. Then, as a sweet rain will pass down a wind of spring
and the sun will shine out the clearer, his tears ceased, and his laughter
welled up, and laughing he sprang from his bed” (The Return of the King, pp. 930-1).
[3]
The Return of the King,
p. 930
[4]
Saturday 30th March, 2013, Easter Vigil.
