Easter Sunday
During the past week we have, in various ways, travelled the path with Jesus as he lived out the first ‘Holy Week’. As we read the account of the Passion on Palm Sunday we may have been struck by the number of times Jesus predicted precisely what was about to happen; seeing the anointing by Mary at Bethany as a preparation ‘for his burial’: predicting that the apostles would see a ‘colt tethered’ waiting for them and the ‘man carrying a jar of water’, in whose house they would eat the Passover meal: the identification of his betrayer.
We can, to some extent, identify with the many emotions that these events provoke and, though we cannot ever know what it was like to be there, the writings of the evangelists and the portrayals of painters and artists give us a ‘virtual experience’ of what it might have been like. The morning of the Resurrection is different! There are no witnesses, it is not possible to pen a description or paint the scene. We must rely on our Faith, strengthened by the Sacred Scriptures and the conviction of our fellow disciples of the past two thousand years.
Let us go to the tomb with Mary of Magdala or with Peter and John! Mary is full of grief and can’t wait till dawn to go to pray at the tomb. She is a faithful disciple and feels the loss of her Master and friend. All that concerns her is that ‘they have taken the Lord out of the tomb’.
When Peter entered the tomb he took note of the facts; ‘the linen cloths lying on the ground and the cloth that had been over the face of Jesus beside them’. He noted the evidence like a detective. He only saw the emptiness. Then John went in. He saw and he believed. What he saw was the ‘fullness of truth and life’ just as Jesus had promised.
The disciples went home then, each with their thoughts. Mary of Magdala remained grieving and praying until the Lord revealed Himself to her in the intimacy of addressing her by her name, ‘Mary’! She went and told the others that the ‘Lord has risen from the dead!’
Saint Paul says that if Jesus ‘has not risen from the Dead our Faith is in vain’. Today we come in Faith to celebrate His Resurrection.