His Excellency,
The Most Reverend Edward K. Braxton, Ph.D., S.T.D.
Diocese of Belleville
Easter Sunday
April 5, 2026, 9:00 AM Mass
St. Luke Parish
Be Not Afraid: He Has Been Raised
(This is the text as originally written. During the actual delivery, some passages were omitted and other comments were added spontaneously. Nota bene: This text has not been thoroughly proofread. Therefore, there may be errors in spelling, grammar and punctuation.)
Dear Sisters and Brother in Christ:
Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen are the four astronauts floating amid the flaming stars of heaven powered by 700,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen on a 238,900 mile journey on Artemis II to view the other side of the moon while sending back to us dazzling photographs of Earth, the fragile speck of dust on which we live. Do these words “Be not afraid, I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified, He is not here, He has been raised” mean anything to a world so advanced in knowledge and complex technology that it can accomplish so great a feat as sending human beings to the far side of the moon and back? Is modern American culture marked by post Christian agnosticism able to see beyond the empty tomb to embrace the mystery of the resurrection or do many Americans think of Christ’s resurrection as a myth believed by the naïve and the foolish who are unwilling to accept the inevitability of death?
Paradoxically, in the United States, on the one hand, the number of active Catholics has declined significantly. On the other hand, this year, most dioceses have seen a significant increase in the number of new Catholics, especially young people, who were baptized, confirmed and received their First Communion last night at the Easter Vigil in parishes all over the country. Could it be that, at least for some, there is a new interest in and devotion to the Man who left behind the world’s most famous empty tomb?
Mary Magdaline and the other Mary in this morning’s gospel (Matthew 28:1-10) were not looking for an empty tomb. They were looking for a dead body, the lifeless body of Jesus of Nazareth so they could perform a Jewish anointing ceremony. Instead, a divine messenger rolls back the stone shows then the empty tomb and tells them, “Be not afraid, I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised, just as he said.”
These women have every reason to be afraid. The Man they admire and love, and whom they think is the long-awaited Messiah, is dead, crucified, like a common criminal. They fear what will happen to them now that He is gone. Will the Roman authorities begin executing them and all of Jesus’s followers?
The messenger tells them: “Be not afraid!” But their fears were not suddenly erased. The startling message that Jesus had been raised to new life challenged them to allow a glimmer of hope to overtake their fears. They leave the tomb quickly, with fear partially transformed by great joy. Then, while on their way, the risen Jesus appears to them and repeats the messenger’s words, “Be not afraid!” He tells them to go and tell His brothers and sisters to go to Galilee, where they will see Him. This seems like a strange message. Why should they go to Galilee? Why not stay in Jerusalem rather than travelling sixty miles to Galilee, so far from where they have just seen Him?
But Galilee is where Jesus’s ministry began, where the community of his followers is gathered. It is home, far away from the hostilities of Jerusalem. Jesus is telling them to go back to your families and your daily lives. It is there that you and the apostles will see the risen Lord. Jesus is telling us that we will experience the joy and hope of the resurrection fully in the community of our friends living out our daily lives as the Body of Christ.
The much needed but difficult to accept message of Easter morning to all of us is “Be not afraid.” Return to Galilee, return to your lives of Christian love and service and there we will encounter the risen Lord. (“Where two or three of you are gathered in my name, there am I in your midst.”) (Matthew 18:20.) Be not afraid of those who ask you questions such as: why do the gospels not give us more information about the Resurrection mystery? Why do only about five hundred disciples experience apparitions of the Risen Lord? Why is the risen Christ seen only by those who ALREADY believe Him to be the Messiah? Pontius Pilate, King Herod, the Roman Soldiers at the tomb, the leaders of the Jewish people who rejected Him: NONE of them see the Glorified Christ! Why not? Wouldn’t the testimony of unbelievers be more powerful than the testimony of believers? If the Risen Christ had appeared to Emperor Tiberius Caesar in Rome, the Emperor could have commanded the entire Roman Empire to embrace the new faith. But the Risen One did not appear to the Emperor. Be not afraid of those who do not understand that Jesus was only seen by those with eyes of faith.
This is what Luke tells us in the Acts of the Apostles: “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power. He went about doing good, for God was with Him. They put Jesus to death by hanging Him on a tree. This man God raised on the third day and granted that He be visible, NOT to all the people, but only to us, the witnesses chosen by God. He commissioned us to preach to the people and testify that He is the one appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead.” (Acts 34, 37-43.)
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Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
It is only by returning to Galilee, that is, to the Christian community and to lives that are conformed to Christ’s life that we can see the risen Christ with eyes of faith. A Blessed Easter compels us to be not afraid of confronting our real-world challenges with indestructible Easter faith and hope. Today, we should be not afraid to pray with Easter hope for those who continue to suffer in deadly wars in Ukraine, Iran, Israel, the Gaza, and beyond; be not afraid to give voice to the uncountable number of children who are dying each day from malnutrition because the United States Agency for International Development is no more. Be not afraid to call the names of migrants imprisoned or deported without court hearings. Be not afraid to be concerned about fellow citizens who are suffering due to higher prices of food, gas, and other essential goods do to the blockade of the strait of Hormuz.
On this Easter morning, we must be not afraid to unite our voices with the prophetic voice of our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV who declared throughout holy week, “I invite world leaders to come back to the table, to dialogue, to looking for ways to end violence and bombing, to removing the hatred that is increasing in the Middle East. I am told that President Trump recently stated that he would like to end the war with Iran very soon. Hopefully, he is seeking an off ramp so that we might have peace in our hearts and in our world by Easter.” Then, with anguish in his voice, the Pontiff said, “Dear brothers and sisters, we hear the painful groans of all those who are oppressed by violence and are victims of war. The risen Jesus, the King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: “Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood” (Is 1:15).
On this Easter Sunday, when our churches are filled with people, when beautiful, fragrant Easter lilies surround the new life-giving waters of the Baptismal Font and the Paschal Candle, when parish choirs are singing the great “Alleluia” chorus from Handel’s Messiah, when we renew our baptismal vows, we, like the apostles, must be not afraid to ponder what being raised from the dead might mean. When we, the baptized members of the Body of Christ, gather for the Eucharist and are nourished by the Eucharist, we become what we eat; we become the Body and Blood of the risen Lord.
Our neighbor will only see the risen Jesus when they see us going about doing good.
Be not afraid! I go before you always! Come follow me!
And he shall reign for ever and ever;
King of Kings and Lord of Lords;
Forever and ever; Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Praised be Jesus Christ! Both now and forever. Amen. Alleluia !