In the light of the resurrection

Our Easter gospel narration (John 20:1-9) tells us that our faith in the risen Christ enables us to interpret the contradiction of the cross in our life as Christians. The resurrection is central to our life of faith, and we are called to an ongoing and profound recognition of this mystery in our daily life.

The empty tomb

THE friends of Jesus did not anticipate his resurrection; his disciples despaired of him as the promised messiah when they witnessed him executed on the cross. And when the empty tomb was discovered, there was no conclusion that he had risen. “The Lord has been taken from the tomb! We don’t know where they have put him.” Clearly, the Christian faith in the resurrection and victory of Jesus is not based on the empty tomb, but on the appearances of the risen Lord to his followers. In fact, the empty tomb was not part of the earliest tradition about the resurrection of Jesus as found in Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians (15:4-8).

The ambiguity of the empty tomb is resolved for those who believed in Jesus’ resurrection by virtue of his appearances to them.

Nonetheless, the empty tomb, although proving nothing, hinted at what had happened, the bodily resurrection of Jesus. In John’s account, the disciple whom Jesus loved played the role of the interpreter of the empty tomb and the burial cloths. The body was not stolen; the shroud and veil were all there neatly rolled up. The beloved disciple saw all these and believed. The same Jesus who had taught them, healed the sick and freed the possessed from evil before their eyes, broke bread with them, and was executed and buried, is the same Jesus now alive, who left the tomb and repeatedly appeared to them.

They did not understand

THE evangelist’s editorial comment about the disciples “as yet they did not understand...about Jesus rising from the dead,” can be the most significant statement in our gospel narration of the event. The truth of the resurrection was something that took time to seep in and be integrated into the disciples’ new awareness of things. From the early centuries, even skeptics among the Christians would suggest that the so-called resurrection appearances of Jesus must have been made up by the disciples who were very traumatized by the death of their master. In view of this innate difficulty to grasp the mystery of easter, St. Paul nevertheless spelled out in all clarity the implications: “If Christ has not been raised, then empty is our preaching; empty, too, your faith... you are still in your sins...we are the most pitiable people of all” (1 Corinthians 15:14.17.19).

Unprepared, assisted by signs but still without the proper understanding, the disciples needed to struggle with themselves. But the clear reference was to the guidance available in the Scriptures. It was in the light of Sacred Scriptures that they would come to recognize that the resurrection of Jesus was not simply a return to his pre-execution life, nor the last act of a life vindicating the previous humiliation, but the first moment of a new and eschatological dimension intended for all humankind. Jesus has become by virtue of his resurrection the norm for our relationship with God and with one another that will culminate in our own resurrection. And the Word of God is the basis of our faith.

Alálaong bagá, Jesus lives. Our celebration of easter is our commemoration of his resurrection. The fact that he rose in glory and triumphant over sin and death vindicated who he was and what he had done. We rejoice in the fact that through him and with him and in him we also live today with the life of love that is from God and for an eternity of tomorrows. We know we are graced in the assurance that not death but life in its fullness is to be the final word for us because of the risen Christ.

Join me in meditating on the Word of God every Sunday, from 5 to 6 a.m. on DWIZ 882, or by audio streaming on www.dwiz882.com.