Happy Easter!!

An empty grave. I don't like things that are empty. This morning, on Easter Sunday, just as Mary Magdalene and the disciples found the tomb empty our church is empty. And I don't like it. I like full things. I would like to have the church full every Sunday, but especially this Sunday. I like full things, I like it when I get in the car and find the gas tank full. Last Sunday Leticia made a cake for Brother Tom's birthday, a full plate. I like a full belly, a full calendar, full parks. I don't like empty things. Okay, maybe it's okay that the freeways are empty. 

I don't like to come home and find the house empty, with no one. When I'm hungry I don't like opening the fridge and finding it empty. I don't like days when I have to stay inside with my day empty. At the end of my life I don't want people to remember me saying, ‘his life was empty.” But this is the sign that the disciples found on Resurrection Sunday, the empty tomb. The part of the gospel that we read today doesn't really make much sense, it ends in the middle of the story with verse 9, it isn't until Tuesday we finish the story with verse 10 when it says that Mary Magdalene stayed there in the grave. Today we only have half the story. The disciples left but Mary did not, she remained there, crying. When Jesus appeared to her she thought he was the gardener. But we have to wait until Tuesday for the end of the story, today the story leaves us hanging, with an empty tomb, an empty Church.

Today’s selection of the  Gospel ends with the disciples in the empty tomb and it says that "they saw and believed, even though they had not understood." What did they see? Well, they didn't see anything. So what did they believe? 

The thing about empty things, you have to fill them. When the gas tank is empty, you have to fill it. When the refrigerator is empty, it must be filled. When the belly is empty, you have to eat to fill it. When the house is empty you have to invite people to fill it. When something is empty we have work to do. When we have everything, when we are full, when we have a lot of stuff, a lot of food and a lot of  toilet paper, we don't have to do anything. But when we find nothing, when we have a void we have the opportunity, no rather we have the obligation to fill it. For 127 I have no doubt that the church of Saint Mary of the Assumption was full on Easter Sunday. For 2,000 thousand years, throughout the history of the Catholic church, churches are usually full today. Today all the churches are empty, so we better get to work. Like Peter and the other disciple we don’t stay here, we have to run. We have to go out to fill our church again.

But how? In the midst of this pandemic, how can we fill our churches? We cannot open the doors, so how? What do we have to do? When we finish mass, the last thing the priest says is, "The Mass is over,  go in peace." It is a bad translation of Latin. In Latin we say: Ite Missa est. And the people respond by saying Thanks be to God. Ite Missa est. That is why we call the celebration the mass, because it was the last word we heard. But it doesn't mean, "Mass is over." "We have come to the end." Now go home.  No, mass is a verb and it means send, we are sent in peace to continue being the Church. The mass never ends, the mass simply continues. Today we cannot fill our churches. So we have to fill our streets, our houses, supermarkets, stores and hospitals. We have to fill our families, we have to fill our hearts. With the joy of the Resurrection. The church is empty, the tomb too. But we aren't empty. We are well filled. Filled with the glory of the Risen Christ. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Christ has risen! It's true! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!