“There is grace in our midst”

Most Rev. Paul S. Coakley Easter homily

It's a special privilege to be able to come to you from our Cathedral Church, from Our Lady of Perpetual Help here in the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City to celebrate this Holy Mass, this glorious feast of Easter. These are not ordinary days. Something strange is happening. There is a great silence on earth today. A great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the king is asleep. These are words from an ancient homily for Holy Saturday that the Church's Office of Readings offers for prayer each year on that day, yesterday. It ponders in a palpable and evocative way the silent pause between the Lord's death on Good Friday and his triumphant resurrection on Easter Sunday.
 
I am happy to greet you wherever you are this Easter Sunday. But, I suspect that for most of us, it will seem like the long Lent of 2020 continues. It still feels a great deal like Holy Saturday. We are waiting in hope. There is indeed a great silence on earth today. We're sheltered in place. Out of concern for one another and for ourselves, we are practicing social distancing to slow the spread of the virus. We feel isolated. We feel lonely. We miss our ordinary routines and our social contacts. We miss our friends. We have not even gathered to sing our Easter praises with our parish community. There is not a public Mass being celebrated in any of our parishes for Easter Sunday or for the foreseeable future. The Lenten fast continues in the form of a prolonged fast from the Holy Eucharist. Something strange is happening. Indeed, perhaps something unprecedented, we wonder.
 
Certainly, no one living today remembers that on Oct. 4, 1918 a letter went out to the priest of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia during a similar crisis. A brief letter read, "Reverend dear sir, we hereby direct your attention ‘to the order from the Board of Health’ issued Thursday October 3, which prohibits the assemblage ‘of all persons in the churches and schools of Philadelphia until further notice.’ Yours faithfully in Christ, D.J. Daugherty, Archbishop of Philadelphia."
 
Undoubtedly, such prohibitions and precautions were common throughout the nation and throughout the world during the Great Spanish flu pandemic of 1918. That crisis eventually passed and this one will too. God is with us and even in the midst of this time of suffering and fear and isolation, we dare to proclaim Christ is risen, he is truly risen, hallelujah.
 
COVID-19 cannot suppress our Easter Proclamation. Our proclamation of victory, life over death. We may indeed continue to experience fear and loneliness, vulnerability certainly, economic insecurity and the burden of our own mortality in the wake of this COVID-19 pandemic for quite some time. Our own personal experience of the joy the victory of Easter might be subdued or even delayed this year. But, Christ is risen, he is truly risen. And, so we dare to say and proclaim hallelujah.
 
Jesus the Son God took on our human weakness, he took on our mortality and frailty. He embraced it so that we would not suffer alone. He invites us. He invites us to unite our anguish and sufferings to his, as he offers himself to the Father for our sins and for the sins of the world.
 
This crisis will pass because Jesus Christ is victorious, because God is faithful, because God has not abandoned his people, he did not abandon his only begotten son to the tomb. His mercy endures forever. We may have to experience the waiting of Holy Saturday a bit longer. But, it is a grace filled time. God is with us in the midst of this trial.
 
During this time, I know that we are becoming more aware, more aware of the needs, the suffering, the anxiety of one another, more appreciative of the importance of spending time with our families and loved ones. I hope that we are becoming more patient. I hope that we are becoming more kind, more understanding of one another. We're all inspired and edified by the great example of so many generous and even heroic servants in our health care field, our frontline workers who are risking their lives to serve us. We are all enduring similar burdens. Though certainly some are enduring much heavier burdens than others. I pray that our solidarity or experience of solidarity brought on by this global pandemic continues to find expression in our attitudes, our gestures, our actions, long after this crisis passes. There is grace in our midst at work.
 
I pray that our current hunger and longing for the Holy Eucharist and for the sacraments produces a renewed commitment, a commitment to share fully in the life and the sacraments of the Church long after our live-streamed Masses and closed churches give way to open doors and in-person celebrations of the Mass and the sacraments once again. Most of all, I pray that we may experience a new and in a deeper way, our need for the Lord, who alone can satisfy the deepest yearnings and hungers of our hearts. And, that we might turn to him during this time and find Easter joy. He offers us his friendship. He has given his life for us. And there is no greater consolation than that, to share his life, to be his friend.
 
I pray that the invitation we received weeks ago, it seems like months ago, when we were marked with ashes to begin this long Lent finds new meaning this Easter Sunday and throughout this Easter season. Repent and believe in the Gospel, believe in the good news.
 
Christ is risen, that's the good news. Christ is risen, hallelujah!
 
Photo: Archbishop Coakley celebrated Mass via livestream at The Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Oklahoma City on Easter Sunday, April 12, 2020. Photo Diane Clay/Sooner Catholic.