Breaking the Word

Easter Sunday – 17^th April 2022 — Gospel: Jn 20,1-9

Seeing is Believing

The Gospel tells of the experience of the first “witness” of resurrection. Each of the three disciples have something to do with their vision. First comes Mary Magdalene, who is shocked to discover that the stone has been rolled from the entrance. She imagines that someone – Roman soldiers, religious officials, grave robbers – must have rolled back the stone and carried off his corpse. Then comes Peter, even though he comes late, was allowed to enter the tomb respectfully. He saw the linen wrappings lying on one side and the cloth that covered Jesus’ head rolled up by itself in another place. Lastly comes the beloved disciple, who was energetic to reach fast and first. He waited to go into the tomb and “he saw and believed”. What was proclaimed to them, what they had read and heard in the Scriptures, they experience now, yet they did not understand, because they have differences in their perception. Here, seeing means much more than physical sight. In truly seeing, the beloved disciple, was led to believe. While all were enthusiastic about their personal experience, the beloved disciple alone sees the evidence and comes to believe in the resurrection.

Saturday Vigil – 16^th April 2022 — Gospel: Lk 24,1-12

Absence and Presence

In the good news of the “empty tomb”, Jesus shifts the forms of presence and absence. We have all experienced when someone is physically present, but mentally absent or vice-versa, when someone is not literally present, but somehow, we sense their presence with us. Sometimes we tell people, “I can’t be there, but I’ll be with you in spirit.” In the last two years, increase in Zoom and other online meetings has complicated the notions of presence and absence. We join people from around the world in digital spaces or keep our cameras off but assure that we are, in fact, present and listening.

In the Lukan narrative of the empty tomb scene, a group of female disciples go to the tomb with spices to pay their respects for the deceased. They go with the surety of finding the dead body because they have done this act before many times. Yet, to their great surprise, the women do “not find the body of the Lord Jesus” (24,3). Jesus is absent and his body is missing.  Jesus’ absence unexpectedly points to his presence in a new way. Two angelic messengers urge the women not to fear, and echo Jesus’ own prediction (24,6-7). Here, the messengers meet the women and remind of Jesus’ own spoken testimony. As a result, “the women remembered his words” (24,8).  Next, their memory of what Jesus has said earlier prompts them to go and “tell all these things” to the eleven (24,9). The women understand correctly that Jesus’ absence from the tomb means he is present on earth again; whereas, the male disciples do not initially believe.  They do not go to the tomb at all until the women testify to what they have witnessed. The men think that the women’s proclamation of the empty tomb is an “empty talk” (24,11). They misunderstand Jesus’ missing body, thinking it represents an absolute absence; that’s why Peter, who runs to the tomb to see for himself, simply “wonders what happened” (24,12).

Jesus’ absence from the tomb creates the opportunity for the women to speak boldly and faithfully on his behalf, and they do. Their proclamation that Jesus is present – he is alive on earth again, is an act of redemptive remembering. It is remembering in two senses: their recalling of Jesus’ earlier teachings and also becoming a re-member to the body of Christ. Therefore, they seek to draw together the community that has been torn apart (dismembered) by fear, confusion, grief and distress. The women’s experience and their response to it, reminds of their love of God, neighbor and themselves. Their words and actions render Christ visible in the world. In fact, it is a deeper reality that is often hard to remember or believe, because God is still present and working in the world, even though all too often seems absent.