The Resurrection of the Lord, Easter Sunday, 2025

When I was six years old, I experienced a miracle. It was 1993 in the month of May: My oldest brother was having his ninth birthday party, and my parents had their friends and family over with neighbors; my brother's friends were there too. We were in our backyard when my father started a baseball game for the kids. He made the baseball diamond out of any items he could find and saw that our brand new Blessed Mother statue looked good for first base. So, he swiveled the concrete statue over as my mother's parents looked on in anger. My grandmother, my mother's mother, ended up standing by the statue to make sure none of the kids would knock it over while rounding first.

The game went on and it ended; the statue was fine. So, my grandmother started returning the statue to its rightful place but, as she was doing that, she started screaming, “Look at the sun look at the sun!” And, turning around and looking up at the sun, I saw an explosion of color: The sun was moving violently in the sky, pulsating and spewing out every color you could think of. 

I stared at this for a few moments and, then, I turned around wondering what everybody else was doing behind me. And I saw everyone standing as still as statues; their mouths were wide open and their faces were reflecting the colors that the sun was spewing out.

My mother said she started to lead everyone in a Hail Mary because she saw it as a miracle from God through the Blessed Mother.

…The memory of that miracle has never left me and has been something I have fallen back on countless times when I would question our faith or even God’s existence; I would easily remember that miracle; I would think of that moment as a proof that God did exist and that our faith was true.

Years later, when I was writing my autobiography, which was a requirement for entering seminary, I wrote about that miracle but I wanted to share the perspectives of not only myself, my mother, and my grandmother, but of another relative who was an adult at that party. So, I asked him about it, and he said that he didn’t see anything; that, quote, “It was just a bunch of women screaming.”

…After I finished punching him in the face…figuratively…we ended the conversation.

…But, in all seriousness, I apologize for that less than respectful characterization he made of the women in his memory but I wanted to share exactly what he said because of how similar his opinion was to the Apostles’ when they heard the women’s report about the vision they had in the empty tomb.

The Gospel read that the women returned after being terrified from what they saw to tell the eleven Apostles that Jesus was raised from the dead.

And this is how the Apostles’ response was described: It says the Apostles thought the women’s story, quote, “seemed like nonsense and they did not believe them.”

…But can you blame them? They were not there to see something that never happened before; they were just hearing someone else’s report.

So, what changed their minds, then?

Real encounters with the risen Jesus.

…And that’s what will make us believe as well: When we experience miracles; when we encounter the risen Jesus for real, we will not doubt anymore. Jesus may not appear right in front of us, although He could, but all of us can experience Jesus in profound ways, in life-changing ways during prayer and in our daily experiences if we pray during the day. And that’s not a platitude; it’s the truth. And as ordinary and as great a sinner as I am, I have experienced Jesus so many times; experiences which have changed my life.

The Apostles were normal human beings. The women who accompanied the Apostles were also normal human beings but they all experienced something extraordinary because they were open to it. 

…If you want to believe, you have to make space in your life for Jesus. And an example of what that looks like are the beautiful people who, last night at the Easter Vigil, were baptized, received into the Catholic faith, confirmed, and received first Holy Communion. 

Their names were Amber, Alec, Camille, Ina, Jason, Jonathon, Joshua, Nicholas, Patrick, and Valerie: They were willing to take time out of their busy lives to meet once a week for several weeks to learn about their faith and, to hopefully, grow closer in relationship with Jesus. 

And, I encouraged them, and all of you, to keep taking time for prayer with Jesus every single day. Set a timer for 5 minutes of silence. Start there and, I promise, you will experience the risen Jesus over and over again in life-changing ways.