EASTER SUNDAY
Colossians 3:1-40
John 20:1-9
“Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning
…and saw the stone removed from the tomb."
Today, Easter Sunday, is the greatest day of our faith. It is the day of all days, the feast of all feasts. It is the day of triumph when death is finally put to death and life is restored to its gracious state. Resurrection is, therefore, a celebration of life. This life is life in Christ, life in grace.
Our basic Catholic catechesis teaches us that life of grace is that life, which is imbued with the theological virtues of faith, hope and love. These are the virtues we receive so gratuitously upon baptism when we are born anew into the lie of Christ. In our gospel today, the resurrection narrative of St. John tells us how the glorious sign of the resurrection was first revealed to three selected persons and how they responded to this great good news with wonder and joy. These fortunate ones are Mary Magdalene, Simon Peter and John the Evangelist himself. These three people seem to personify the three theological virtues. Let us, then, try to meditate on the faith of John, the hope of Peter and the love of Mary Magdalene.
1. “Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had at the tomb first, and he saw and believe.” Even the gospel narrative is symbolic. The description itself seems to portray the kind of faith John has. John is the first to understand the significance of the empty tomb. We know intellectually that the empty tomb is not a logical proof the resurrection. Had it been the case, Mary could have been the first one to know it. But Mary’s reaction is clear in her anxious statement: “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.” Thus, the empty tomb cannot tell anything more than its face value. Any conclusion derived from it may be a misinterpretation, just like Mary. But for John, the empty tomb gives him a different and definite significance. It enkindles his faith and signals the fulfillment of the greatest event that ever happens. Surely, Christ must have risen! This is the great day of the resurrection! This is the realization of John. And his faith convinces him so.
But John is just next to enter. This is again symbolic. John knows that he is the disciple whom Jesus loved. He knows too that while Peter denied the Lord and the rest simply faded away, he was the only disciple who stood at the foot of the cross. But all this does not give him any sense of superiority nor arrogance of any sort. Instead, he allows Peter to enter first because he knows that from that “empty tomb of the resurrection” shall rise the church of the resurrection of which Peter shall be the first visible head. The divine mysteries have been clear to John because he sees them through the eyes of faith and reads them wit humanity of heart.
2. The empty tomb also becomes the hope of
Peter. We all know how the passion rocked him so much. Peter never thought that
the Christ he had been following would undergo such a tragic fate. If we
recall, Peter himself experienced the glory of the transfigured Christ and so
must have expected a glorious Messiah through and through. He shared with the
rest of the Jews that the cross is nothing but a scandal. Thus, when the final
hour of test came, even his faith, which promised loyalty to the end shattered
into pieces. His weakness prevailed and he faltered. But his denial surely
tormented him too. His feeling, therefore, must have been a mixture of fear,
frustration, shame, regret and others. And he must have been at the point of
despair when the news of the empty tomb awakened him from the depths of
uncertainty. “So Peter and the other
disciple went out and came to the tomb.”
If the empty tomb enkindles faith in John, the same empty tomb brings to Peter the message of hope. Peter mow begins to realize that the cross was not the end of everything. He realizes too that the eyes, which stared at him after the cock crowed, were eyes of compassion and not of condemnation. He realizes indeed that this is the real face of his Messiah. It is that face, which gives consolation over frustration, courage over fear, assurance over shame and hope over despair. With Christ’s resurrection, his vocation as an apostle becomes even clearer to him. Following Christ is not a total absence of sinning, nor an absolute freedom from faltering. Rather, it means a constant call to renewal. The life of the resurrection is a life of hop that promises a second chance, and for a contrite heart, there is always a second chance. After all, life is sweeter the second time around.
3. Finally, the resurrection perfects the
love, which Mary Magdalene always has. It is quite surprising that among all
the people whom Jesus knew and who knew Jesus, it was to Mary Magdalene that
the sign of the resurrection was first revealed. Why? We can propose some
answers to it. Perhaps, it may be pedagogical. Again, Jesus wants to teach
another paradox: his message became acceptable to people least expected to
receive it. He wants to portray that women whom society considered as second
class citizens were the ones who have become more worthy of his gospel. He wants to show that this
particular woman whom people have even branded as “cheap” has in fact proven
herself strong as to stand by him at the foot of the cross. Where were all the
people who followed to Jesus gone? The hungry whom Jesus fed? The lepers whom
Jesus cleansed? The sick whom Jesus cured? The dead he raised? The apostles
whom he considered his own? They were all gone, gone by the wind of terror and
fear. In the mournful breeze at
This
is the woman whom we knew as Magdalene. But if ever Magdalene reached this
level high of loyalty, it was most probably because of her instinct to love.
This she showed consistently in her relationship with Jesus. This is the love
which, enabled her to choose the better
part of the only thing needed (cf. Lk