Bishop: The risen Christ is our firm foundation

Editor’s Note: Diocese of Wichita Bishop Carl A. Kemme delivered the homily on the morning of Easter Sunday, April 5 at Wichita’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. After offering Easter greetings to the congregation and a brief reflection on how the beauty of the cathedral and the liturgy testified to the risen Christ, Bishop Kemme’s homily was as follows:

On this Easter Sunday, I would like to speak just for a few moments on foundations. Foundations are vital and important in the world, and in our lives, but the reality is that foundations largely are unseen or invisible, but they are truly there. 

Consider for a moment the foundation of our cathedral church. We may see a little bit of it, but we don’t see very much of it. Most of it is deep beneath us. There beneath us, it is set solidly in order to hold all of this up and it’s immense, the weight that is on this foundation, the walls, the flooring, the pillars, the roof, the domes, all of this – including ourselves – rests now on this foundation that is below us. Perhaps it is the most important part of our cathedral. The architects and the builders of this grand cathedral over 100 years ago were masterful in providing the solid foundation that has withstood the test of these many years, and – God willing – will continue to do so for many, many years to come. 

The buildings such as ours in which we find ourselves today are not the only realities in the world that require foundations. Indeed, everything is founded on something. Institutions like our country and nations or other institutions or communities within our country, and indeed, each and every person, is founded on something, maybe not necessarily on stone, concrete, or rocks such as this building, but something nonetheless upon which we build those institutions and upon which they grow and develop and flourish – and for us individually, on which we can build our lives. 

Your life and mine is founded on something. Sadly, when we look around us today – and perhaps more importantly, look within – we see that so many of us build our lives not on strong foundations, but on weak foundations: such things as money, pleasure, power, even our own health and security. So many, it seems today, build their lives on these things, and while they are not evil enough in and of themselves, they nonetheless will fail us eventually. They will not stand (as we all know) the weight of our human experience, because these things are just that: They are things. They perhaps are here today, but could be very easily gone tomorrow. 

We live in very volatile times. You and I have felt that volatility very strongly over the last month or so if we’re paying attention. The world is shaken. The ground beneath us seems to be shifting, and we wonder, “How will we survive this?” or “What will sustain us through these volatile and turbulent times?” 

But for us who are Christians – and that’s why we are here today – we are invited and challenged to build our lives in this world, even as the ground shifts beneath us in our human experience, we are invited and challenged to build our day – our lives – not on something, but on someone: Jesus Christ. 

We follow him, maybe not perfectly, maybe not as faithfully as we would want, maybe not as lovingly or devoutly as we are called to, but we follow him. You would not be here today, nor would I, if Jesus Christ were not some part of our life. It is in him alone that we can build our firm foundation of life and in which we can be truly secure, and it is his saving death and resurrection that gives us this firm conviction, the faith and the hope that will sustain us throughout our entire lives. 

We come here today because, to some measure or degree, we believe that he who died on the cross on Good Friday, and was buried in the tomb, was raised by God three days later. This is the faith of billions of Christians around the world, of which Roman Catholics alone comprise now 1.4 billion. We are in good company, my friends. Billions and billions of people around the world share this faith and this conviction, this foundation in Jesus Christ, risen from the dead. 

Cynics and atheists – they are growing in our world and culture – would argue that this foundation is very weak and uncertain. For, after all, all you have, Christians, is an empty tomb and a handful of fairly unreliable witnesses. And they would be right, but the foundation of our faith is still strong. For that faith has ignited the minds and hearts of countless men, women, and children for nearly 2,000 years. We stand among them as believers in this truth that Christ is alive. 

The empty tomb and the witnesses of it, they say that they saw him, spoke with him, and even touched and ate with him. Their testimony was enough – more than enough – for those who came immediately after the apostles, the early bishops of the Church, who didn’t meet Jesus, who didn’t see the empty tomb, but believed because what they had heard. 

One by one, that message was passed on down through the centuries, and it was enough. It was enough for the martyrs of the early Church and the martyrs of today’s Church, who witness to faith in Jesus, in the risen Christ, in a heroic way. It was enough for those men and women whom we call the Desert Fathers, who went away to pray and contemplate the truths of our faith. It was enough for the great founders of the religious orders and monasteries who called men and women together to live in community and to be strong witnesses in their times – and in our times – to the faith that holds us together. It was enough for many of the explorers of nations and faraway lands, including our own, who brought our faith to native peoples. And yes, it was enough for your ancestors and for mine, perhaps your grandparents, great grandparents, parents, your brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, your teachers, your priests, and anyone else who witnessed to us this faith.

It was enough for all of them. Will it be enough for us now in this 21st Century? Will it be for us, as it was for them, a firm foundation upon which to build this life of ours, so that when it is finished, we will take our place among the great cloud of witnesses in the Kingdom of Heaven? 

My dear friends, in seven years we will celebrate the 2,000th anniversary of all the events that we commemorate each year during Holy Week. In 2033, mark your calendar, we will have in the Church throughout the whole world a great jubilee, realizing and rejoicing that there has been now 2,000 years of faith in Jesus Christ, a faith in his saving death and glorious resurrection that has changed human history, one heart, one mind, one soul at a time, including yours and mine.

But we do not wait until then to praise God for giving us this faith, for it is a gift. So, let us go forth with Easter joy now this day and every day that will follow it to live out our faith, because for each of us – as it has been for so many who came before us – this faith of ours in the risen Lord is truly the firm foundation of our lives. Praised be Jesus Christ.