The Royals were winning 2-0 in the top of the 9^{th
when I shut the radio off to get things ready for Holy Thursday this week.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> I sacrifice a lot during Lent. As I walked across Cedar Street, J=
ack
and Sue Morris were sitting there inside their car. Jack rolled down the window, not t=
o say
hello, not to say happy Easter, but to tell me the score was now 2-1. I really had to get things ready f=
or
Holy Thursday, so I kept going. I
wasn’t worried. The Roy=
als
website sends an email to my phone immediately after every game, giving me =
the
final score. So even though I=
left
the game behind, I knew I would get the news. In one sense, it doesn’t mat=
ter if
the news is good or bad, we just like to get the news first. We won, incidentally, 2-1.}

If you’re the first one to hear the news, you’= ;re the first one to tell it. Usu= ally we can’t wait, especially if it’s good news. Being first to hear the news makes= us feel special, chosen and wise. We also become responsible to tell other people.

Both these themes – hearing good news and telling g= ood news – are the core of the gospel for Easter. Saint Mark’s account of the resurrection starts simply enough: the women have gone shopping; the stores were closed for the Sabbath, but now they’re open; nothing changes. They buy spices and go to anoint t= he body of Jesus. But they are startled by what they see – the large stone rolled away, a young man inside, the body of Jesus gone. But they hear good news: “Jesus has been raised,” and they set off = to tell it.

There were skeptics.&nbs= p; No one saw the resurrection take place; all people saw was an empty tomb. Some said the disciples= stole the body. Others said Jesus didn’t really die; he was wounded and escaped during the night. Still others said the women just w= ent to the wrong tomb. The gospels t= ake up all these theories and discard them one by one. They insist that Jesus died, that = God raised him up, and the very place where they laid him was now empty. This was news, and the women were anxious to spread the word.

We have received their word. Our faith is a gift from other peo= ple who told us the good news. Our faith has grown this Lent. We= have prayed more deeply and more often. We have performed works of charity for the good of others. We have learned more about our fai= th. We have confessed our sins. We have fasted because we believe = that God is more important than anything else, even the food on our table.

We believe because God uses ordinary experiences as occas= ions of powerful grace, whether it’s baseball or shopping. We believe because the sun rises e= ach day with new possibilities. We believe because the risen Jesus has appeared to us in our hearts, in our ho= mes and in our love. But most of = all we believe because someone else rolled back the large stone of unbelief from o= ur lives, because someone else told us about Jesus. Every time we share our belief, ev= ery time we give others hope, every time we roll away the large stones that keep people in the darkness of despair, every time we sing alleluia, we create n= ew life with God, and we make that day Easter day.