Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord – April 20, 2025

St. Paul – Lyons, KS

The Narrative of Our Life

Happy Easter to everyone! It is always a joy to celebrate this day with so many of you—today, the most important celebration of our Christian faith. Easter, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead—this is the most important celebration. Why? Well, because as St. Paul says, “If Christ has not been raised your faith is in vain.” Church buildings, Mass, the Bible, homilies, sacraments, priests, all of this—all of this (as St. Paul says) is an absolute waste of time if Jesus was not actually raised from the dead. And so to see so many of you here is always a great joy for me because (unlike Christmas where there are lights, and songs, and presents, and all of that)—because Easter (aside from the eggs)—Easter still maintains a sort of simplicity and purity: we come today because we are affirming, “Yes, I believe that Jesus did indeed rise from the dead.” We come, maybe not entirely sure what we’re looking for at church or why we come, but we come with at least a basic, simple, purity of, “I believe a dead man walked out of the ground after there wasn’t any blood pumping through his veins for three days.” Again, maybe that’s all we’ve got, maybe believe that and don’t really know what else to believe. But that simple belief—that’s the beginning of something incredible.

Something that I’ve been thinking about a lot recently is the idea of narrative, of story, of meaning. Every one of us, whether we’re super conscious of it or not—every one of us has a story or narrative that gives meaning and purpose to our life. When I was growing up (you know this) my narrative was that I would be a doctor and get married and have twelve kids—live life as a big Catholic family, running my own clinic, just loving life. Ok. For a lot of people, and that included me, we live according the narrative of the American Dream: if you work hard you can achieve success, prosperity, and happiness; house, kids, a job you love, giving your kids a better life than you had, financial independence, chasing your dreams. And that’s a beautiful thing!

And think, like honestly right now, think: what is the narrative, the story, the plan you have that gives your life meaning, and purpose, and direction? Honestly, name it. I’ve told you mine: that was my underlying narrative. What is yours? Or you could answer the question: What are my three biggest goals in life right now? If I had to guess (and I don’t have to guess, because there’s data on this)—the most common goals you have are: something financial (paying off debt, saving for retirement); find fulfillment in work (so a job you love, or at least that you enjoy); improving your physical health (diet, exercise); personal comfort (so house and car); and then just being happier. Ok: so your answers to these questions are the details of your narrative, the story you believe will give meaning and purpose to your life. And we need that! We need that or we fall apart!

When Our Narrative Fails

We all have this narrative that gives us meaning and purpose. But then think: what happens when our plans, our goals, our story, our narrative fails or gets derailed? What happens when you don’t get into the school or you don’t get the job you want? Or when you don’t get married? Or when you get married but then the marriage breaks down? What about when you get married, but then can’t get pregnant? Or you get pregnant then lose the baby? What happens when you lose a child? (On the same day this past week I did a funeral for a 13 year old boy as well as an elderly lady who had lost two children when they were quite young.) Or what happens when your narrative, your plan is going perfect, life is amazing, but you’re still not happy? (I’ve told you before the experience of meeting that guy on the plane to Chicago and everything in his life was perfect—huge job, beautiful wife, house, car—but he wasn’t happy.) What happens when life is going well, but then cancer, or an accident strikes? Or everything is plugging along, but then a pandemic shuts the world down? Here’s a common one: what happens when the politics of our day just ruins your day? Or for me: what happens when all of my plans are going swimmingly and then I feel this call to be a priest?

What is our response when our narratives, our stories fail? Well, we try to force it, through anger and frustration or whatever—we try to force it. We start over: new wife, new job, new town, new whatever. We self-medicate: alcohol, TikTok, food, gambling. We isolate ourselves, or we join a new club. And maybe we get back on track. Ok.

But the thing is all of our narratives are eventually going to fail. Because we will die. I’ve shared the story before of this world famous author and playwright who was nearing death. And the person interviewing him asked him, “Given the possibility that you aren’t going to live much longer, what is your greatest hope now at this part of your life?” And he said, he was not a believer but he said, “My hope, my one and only hope—if I believed in God, the one and only thing I would ask him now is for time to finish my play.” And then the interview cuts away and the interviewer says, “Fred passed away this last week…but he had time to finish his play.” And that is so depressing! Because even though this guy lived his plan, his narrative—he died! And that’s what I mean: all our narratives fail because we die! And even this guy, even though he “accomplished everything he wanted”—that is the most depressing thing ever because now he’s just dead! Life, even the best life, the life we dream of—life is still haunted by the problem of death.

“Seek what is above…”

But then comes the announcement that changes everything: “He has been raised.” Again, the reason you’re here today is because—at least at a basic level—you believe a dead man walked out of the ground, you believe that Jesus has been raised. It is a simple fact, but a fact that changes everything. Like I said, we may not be entirely sure why we come, or what we’re looking for at church—but we know there is something in this announcement for us!

And if I could be so bold, I think if we were to put words to it, it would be this: this announcement opens a new horizon in our life, a new destiny, a new “narrative” that can never be threatened. “Death,” the failure of our narrative—why’s nothing new, that’s the norm! We are sure of four things in life: death, taxes, Patrick Mahomes, and that life isn’t always going to go according to plan! None of that is new! But today, the resurrection, this dead man walking out of the ground—that is new. And because this is what Jesus promises to those of us who follow him, who are his disciples, who are baptized, and receive his Holy Spirit, and eat his flesh and drink his blood, who follow his commandments, who know him and love him and serve him, who place their faith in him, who know him and abide with him—because Jesus promises resurrection to us…our lives can now be different, our narratives can, they must change.

St. Paul tells us that in the second reading: “If then you were raised with Christ [in baptism], seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.” Paul tells us, “Look at the world differently. See things differently. Evaluate your life and your “plans” and your “narrative” differently. Allow this fact to change the narrative of your life.”

[For those of you who are going to be baptized tonight, all of this is especially directed toward you. Today is not the culmination of your journey, really it is just the beginning. I often make fun of what I call the Pokemon theology of the sacraments: you gotta catch ‘em all! Get baptized, confirmed, communion—and then leave! No, this is the beginning. And your stories, the stories that have led you here to ask to be baptized, to enter into this new life that Jesus Christ offers—think how God has led you here. Through friends, through a community, through growing in knowledge and understanding. Don’t abandon those once tonight ends! Don’t abandon the method through which God has chosen to reach you. Continue on in this faith!]

Georges Bernanos, a French novelist, a deeply Catholic man—Bernanos wrote a very famous book called The Diary of a Country Priest. And in that book there is a line which really sums this up. In that book—written almost a hundred years ago! long before we were freaking out about people don’t go to church or seem to care about God very much—Bernanos wrote, “Faith is not a thing which one ‘loses,’ we merely cease to shape our lives by it.” The issue isn’t so much that we “lose” faith. More precisely, we stop shaping our lives by our faith. We abandon that new horizon, we abandon that destiny—we go back to our old narratives, narratives we know aren’t going to work out in the end. In other words, the challenge, the challenge of this Easter Day, is to allow this pure and simple faith to shape our lives, to continue to shape our lives, to shape every part of our lives.

The stories the world and everyone give to us are powerful! We’re bombarded with them, our parents engrained them in us (even the most Catholic and Christian of parents). But we can allow our faith, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the overwhelming confidence and strength that comes from this pure and simple fact—we can allow the faith to shape our lives once again. We can allow this joy to pervade our lives once again.