Christ by His resurrection destroyed sin and death, we participate in Christ's death and resurrection through our baptism; may we enjoy through this Eucharistic celebration the full powers of Christ's resurrection through our docility and generosity in doing God's will and showing love to our needy neighbours.
Happy Easter!
DOCTRINE AND FAITH
(Acts 10,34.37-43; Col 3,1-4; John 20: 1-9: Easter Sunday, Year A, April 12, 2020)
Today we celebrate the resurrection of the Lord. The feast of Easter is the most important of the whole liturgical year. It is a feast of light: the risen Lord illuminates us, puts immense joy, and hope in our hearts, and also fills them with love.
The Gospel tells us about the events of Easter Sunday morning. After Saturday, Mary of Magdala goes to the tomb early in the morning, when it was still dark. On Saturdays, there were no movement, according to a very strict precept of Jewish law. But the day ends in the evening; therefore, when it was still dark, Maria moves to go to the sepulchre. Mary was full of love, but also full of pain. When she got to the grave, she had a surprise: she realised that the stone has been overturned by the sepulchre. The whole passage wants us to understand that the resurrection is an unexpected event for the disciples. They thought it all ended with Jesus’ death, they did not understand Jesus’ predictions about his resurrection. Indeed, it must be recognised that these predictions, as we read in the Gospel, were not so clear. Jesus spoke of getting up, which is not necessarily interpreted as rising; he spoke of awakening, and the disciples did not understand what these words referred to. Therefore, they were completely unprepared for the event of the resurrection of the Lord. From the vision of the overturned stone, Mary of Magdala does not draw the conclusion that the Lord has risen, but that they took the Lord away from the sepulchre. For her, resurrection is a strange and unthinkable thing. The Lord is dead; he could not get out of the grave alone; so they took him away, and we don't know where they put him. It is a violation of the sepulchre. This was the conclusion reached by Mary of Magdala. Mary runs to report the matter to two disciples, who immediately went to the sepulchre, to check the story. These two disciples were Simon Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved most. The evangelist points out that the other disciple, while running faster and arriving earlier - probably because he was younger - and full of respect for Peter, truly regards him as the head of the apostles; therefore, he does not, immediately, enter the sepulchre. Meanwhile Simon Peter also came, following him, and I entered the tomb and saw the sheets on the ground, and the shroud, which had been placed on his head, not on the ground with the sheets, but folded in a separate place. The things Peter saw testify to a truly strange fact. What do they mean? If the evil doers had taken away the body of Jesus, they, certainly, would have taken it with all the sheets and the shroud; they would not have left the sheets on the ground and folded the shroud in a separate place. When the other disciple enters the sepulchre, he also saw the sheets and the shroud, but he has an illumination and understands: the body of Jesus has not been stolen; Jesus has come back to life: a life of a specie different from the earthly one; a life in which the sheets and the shroud no longer have any use, The other disciple saw and believed. The evangelist then observes: They had not yet understood the Scripture, which he had to raise from the dead. John wants us to understand that the event of Jesus’ resurrection was not recognised from Scripture, but that, on the contrary, it was himself who illuminated the Scriptures. Only after this event did the disciples understood what the Scripture and Jesus' predictions meant. Before, they could not interpret them. Jesus’ resurrection was the event that illuminated the minds and hearts of the disciples. Risen Jesus is source of light, a very comforting and positive light. His resurrection reveals the meaning of his passion. Without the resurrection, the passion of Jesus would appear as a dramatic, negative event, like a tremendous defeat, a hopeless end. Instead, Jesus’ resurrection shows all the value of passion, that it was not a defeat, but a victory, the victory of love. The good shepherd gave his life for the sheep (cf. John 10,11). As Jesus says, no one has a love greater than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends (John 15,13). Jesus lived his passion with love; therefore, he obtained the resurrection. He got a new life, which is not earthly. He got a mysterious life, an eternal life, full of beauty and power. We welcome this message of Jesus’ resurrection. We know that we cannot understand it except through faith. Humanly speaking, it is an inexplicable event. But faith makes us aware of the divine intervention and makes us welcome this powerful light, which illuminates, not only the mystery of Jesus, but our whole existence.
In the first reading Peter proclaims the message of the resurrection. Entering the house of centurion Cornelius, he takes the floor and makes this announcement: Jesus, who passed by benefiting and healing all those who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him, was killed unjustly, cruelly, but God has him resurrected on the third day, and appeared to many. These apparitions confirm, positively, that the empty sepulchre made one guess. Peter says: God wanted [the risen Jesus] to appear not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen by God, to us who ate and drank with him after his resurrection from the dead. And he has ordered us to announce to the people and to attest that he is the judge of the living and the dead constituted by God. The Risen Jesus is full of power. The first manifestation of his power, however, was not of judging, but granting remission of sins. With his passion, in fact, he has obtained forgiveness for all sins, even the most serious ones. Therefore, the first power of the risen Christ is a power of salvation. In the end there will also be the power to judge, because it is necessary that in the end men are judged on the basis of their acceptance or rejection of Jesus.
In the second reading, Paul reveals to us the consequences of the resurrection of Jesus for our life; he claims that we have risen with him. In the passage that is read in the Vigil Mass of the night (Romans 6,3-11), the Apostle explains that with baptism we were buried together with Christ in death, to be also united with him in his resurrection. We, in a certain sense, have already risen with Christ; the life of the risen Christ has already transformed us internally. We no longer simply live at the human level, carnal level, Paul would say - but we have within us a germ of new life - the life of the risen Christ - which transforms us little by little. Therefore, we have a duty to correspond to this extraordinary grace that we have received. Paul says: If you have risen with Christ, look for the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God; think of the things above, not those of the earth. We must understand the expression used by Paul well: the things above. It is not a matter of imaginations, or having one's head in the clouds, but rather having spiritual values. The Apostle wants us to understand that, after the resurrection of Jesus, we must not only seek earthly goods, have thoughts of greed and material satisfaction, but must also be aware that our life derives all its value from the union with Christ in love. Looking for things up there, then means living in faith, in union with the risen Christ; it means to live in the hope of God's grace every moment of our life, and of the glory of God at the end of it; it means to live in charity and divine love, which come to us from the heart of Christ. The things up there that we have to look for are very concrete things. Looking for things up there means living with generosity, spirit of service, great attention to the needs of others, a truly worthy way of Christ, who gave his life for us. And when Christ, your life, becomes manifest, you too will be manifested with him in glory. The resurrection of Christ is the source not only of faith, but also of a wonderful hope. Our hearts must be filled with gratitude to God for this extraordinary gift. Happy Sunday! +John I. Okoye
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