Easter Sunday, Cycle A

Acts 10:34a, 37-43
Ps 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23
Col 3:1-4
Jn 20:1-9

In recent memory, I can’t say that we have not had a more beautiful Triduum! The weather has been just incredibly spectacular.  I think it’s one of the silver linings of having a late Easter in Texas – it really feels like Spring instead of doing all four seasons in one week.  The trees are green, the grass is green – at least for the next four weeks – and Spring is really in the air.  The neighbors are outside working on their lawn – finally raking those leaves that they left there since last Fall.  People are planting, gardening, and really just bringing new life into their landscape and gardens.  It’s just really beautiful.

In this spirit, I would like to reflect on a particular subject: the Garden of Eden – and it has, if you will excuse the pun – been quite fruitful for me.  When we reach Easter Sunday – the day of our Lord’s Resurrection – and we look back at the beginning of Creation to the Garden of Eden we see something quite fascinating.  We all know what happens in the Garden of Eve – it was paradise right?  Where it is all lush and green and creation was found to be just brimming with life; untainted. And there stood in the garden two trees: Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Of course we remember clearly what happens in this garden because it was also in this wonderful garden that mankind fell.  Out of pride and disobedience, our first parents colluded with the devil and ate the forbidden fruit.  In this little garden: this is where sin entered the world and our first parents were banished from paradise.

Let’s fast forward to the Last Supper, of this past Thursday.  You have to remember the details here because it is the second half of Mass.  However, what I want to focus on is what happens after the Last Supper… what does our Lord and His disciples do?  They go to the Mount of Olives and to another garden: the Garden of Gethsemane.   It was there that our Lord prayed His most intimate prayer to His Father that this “cup would pass from His lips”, yet He was resigned to the Father’s will, “Not my will but Thine be done.”  And finally it was there that He was betrayed by a kiss from Judas.  Again, we find the betrayal of our Lord, this heinous sin carried out in a garden.  You might see now where this is going.

The following day, our Lord suffers persecution; is scourged, shamed, and finally crucified, suffering a cruel and horrible death.  But here’s the interesting twist: the Gospel of John notes that at the place where He was crucified there was a garden (cf. Jn19:41) and in this garden there was a tomb, where He was put to rest only to rise on the third day…TODAY!

I believe that it is no coincidence that the setting of our salvation occurs in a garden because it was in a garden that sin entered the world.  God has a way of making things round out like that!!  But I believe that we can go even further in this meditation.  And the reason this theme has been on my mind was because the week before Ash Wednesday at the very beginning of Lent, Fr. Glen Sudano, CFR gave our three-day Parish Mission.  And he gave this analogy for ourselves: that we are a house with a courtyard in the middle of the house and in this courtyard is a garden.  We can dress up this house of ours and make it beautiful inside and out.  We can make it pleasing to the senses for ourselves and for other people to see, and it may seem all well and good.  But what really counts is this little garden that is growing in the middle of our house – at the very depths of our being.  This garden represents the state of our spiritual soul and reflects whether we have really cared for it, nurtured it, and fostered its growth.  This garden can be very beautiful or it can be neglected, with weeds, vines sprawling around uncontrolled, filled with rotten stinky fruit, and other undesirable things.

Isn’t it true that even today, we can put on our Sunday best, we can put on a smile and a happy face for our friends and family, and yet inside we find a rotten and derelict garden of our soul?!?  Sin enters through the garden, but it is also in the garden where our Lord saves us.  It was there that paradise was lost because of the sins of our first parents, but it is also there that we can be led to something even greater by the Cross of our Savior.  Now we not only have redemption, we have a relationship with our heavenly Father – which is greater and more important than anything else in our lives!  The early Church also latched on the theme of the garden too.  In an ancient homily it was preached:

The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise. I, [the Lord,] will not restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven. I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am life itself am now one with you. I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but now I make them worship you as God. The throne formed by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager. The…banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared…. The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity. 

We are ultimately destined to go out from our earthly garden and into the heavenly banquet that the Lord has prepared for us.  He has not only restored and healed our gardens for us, but He calls us to something even greater.  We are called to share in a heavenly banquet with Him.  And what are we going to eat at this heavenly banquet?  [You can bet this is going to be a potluck] and the dish that you bring are the fruits cultivated from your garden in this life.  Take a look at the state of your garden and take the necessary steps to cultivate it.

All of our gardens require a certain tree – that is the Tree of Life.  Not the tree of life from the garden of Eden, but the Tree of Life that is the Cross of Jesus Christ!! Why is it the Tree of Life? From the wood of the Cross, from the side of Christ there flowed blood and water, the sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist.  Let us celebrate the fact that the Tree that represents sin and death is now the Tree that brings us new life in the Eucharist.  He was hung on a Tree for our sins and died for our sins, so that we may look upon this wondrous Cross and marvel in His love for us.  If you cannot look upon our crucified Lord and be moved from sorrow, to gratitude, and finally to joy… I’m sorry, your Christian conversion is incomplete and you will have trouble really celebrating the Resurrection.

In order to truly celebrate Easter, we must start at the Cross that is planted in our garden.  There is no Easter Sunday without Good Friday.  Easter – the Paschal Mystery – means to remember it all: not just His Resurrection, but also His Passion and Death.  I pray that you and your family have a very blessed Easter.  Today, I hope that you can take some time to examine your own garden – look deep within your soul to see where your garden needs work.  Easter is upon us.  Spring is here and our gardens are ripe for work and cultivation, let us strive to truly celebrate this Easter season in the Resurrected Christ!  Today is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad!! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!!