April 20^th 2014. Easter Sunday.

Gospel: John 20:1-9

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

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A Happy and Blessed Easter to all our regular readers and to new ones as well!

GOSPEL                          John 20:1-9
It was very early on the first day of the week and still dark, when Mary of Magdala came to the tomb. She saw that the stone had been moved away from the tomb and came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved. 'They have taken the Lord out of the tomb' she said 'and we don't know where they have put him.'

So Peter set out with the other disciple to go to the tomb.

They ran together, but the other disciple, running faster than Peter, reached the tomb first; he bent down and saw the linen cloths lying on the ground, but did not go in.

Simon Peter who was following now came up, went right into the tomb, saw the linen cloths on the ground, and also the cloth that had been over his head; this was not with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself.

Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in; he saw and he believed. Till this moment they had failed to understand the teaching of scripture, that he must rise from the dead.

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . Don Fabio focuses on the empty tomb in his reflection. Do we think that the resurrection of Jesus is God’s way of opposing our sinfulness – the sinfulness that led to the death of Jesus? No! The resurrection should not be thought of as being in conflict with sin and death. There is perfect continuity between the crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection. By our sins Jesus was crucified. He submitted himself to death out of unconditional love for us. His resurrection is the perfect continuation of this saving work. Out of love for us God raises Jesus to life – and all of us with him! Am I preoccupied by my sinfulness? Do I think that they put an obstacle between me and God? But look at how Jesus has loved me to the point of death! He has borne those very sins that preoccupy me! In his resurrection he has transformed those dark aspects of me into light! If I am inclined to think that sin and death have ultimate finality, then let me contemplate the empty tomb. The emptiness of this tomb shows that sin and death have disappeared. The love of God has the final say and it is an eternal one.

We go to Mass on Sunday to hear about the resurrection but instead we are told about an empty tomb!

What a gift to us is this liturgy of the feast of the Resurrection, the central feast of our faith! This is an incredibly joyful celebration and every word has an immense profundity that should find a reflection in our lives. The Gospel reading for Sunday morning, however, leaves us with our mouths open. People come to Mass to encounter the risen Lord but what they hear about is the empty tomb! Mary Magdalen finds the stone of the tomb rolled back. She tells Peter who comes with John to the tomb. They enter and believe. Why does the Church choose this reading for us on Easter Sunday?

The resurrection shouldn’t be thought of as something that conflicts with the condition of man. God is not opposed to us. He is not interested in victory over us, sinful though we may be. God accepts our sinfulness to the point of being crucified by it. His response is to raise Jesus – and all of us – to life.

In the first reading from the tenth chapter of Acts, Peter announces the faith to the household of Cornelius. “You have heard of Jesus of Nazareth, how he went about doing good and healing the sick. We can witness to the things he did, and to the fact that they killed him by hanging him on a tree. Yet three days afterwards God raised him to life.” The word “yet” appears in the translation, but in the original text it is not present. A better translation would say: “ . . . they killed him by hanging him on a tree. The same Jesus was raised to life by God three days later.” This seems like a small point, but it is very important! If we say “Jesus was killed by us, yet God raised him to life,” it makes it sound as if God’s action is opposed to our action. But that is not exactly the sentiment contained in Peter’s words if we read the original text carefully. Similarly in St Mark’s Gospel, when Jesus makes the third prophesy of his passion and resurrection, he says “the Son of Man will be scourged, spat upon and killed, and he will rise three days later.” Jesus doesn’t say “ . .but he will rise three days later.” It is important to recognize that the salvation wrought by God is not something that is opposed to humanity, or that involves vanquishing humanity. There is not simply an opposition between the evil of humanity and the salvific action of God. Instead God takes the evil of humanity and draws salvation from it. God is not opposed to us! The resurrection does not stand in opposition to the condition of man; in fact it is the last chapter in the process by which God comes closer to us, by which God loves us.

The resurrection is the ultimate statement of God’s love for us. As such, it stands in perfect continuity with the crucifixion.

This is one of the reasons why the Church this Sunday underlines the emptiness of the tomb. We are presented with a surprise, an empty tomb. Death has not had the final word! The story continues! Death seemed once a full-stop but now has been reduced by Jesus to a comma. Life from this point forward will never again be brought to an end by death. Life will never again be brought to a definitive conclusion by evil. God has the last word, and the last word is an eternal one. The love of God is stronger than the sinfulness of man.

Are we preoccupied by our sinfulness? It is that sinfulness which has crucified Jesus. But we need not be preoccupied by it. Jesus allowed himself to be crucified by us because he loved us. And his response to our sin is the resurrection, the ultimate statement of love for us. We killed him by our sin – his response is to raise us to life!

The empty tomb confronting Mary, Peter and John is a sign that they must continue to contemplate how God has responded to sin. Sin is not an ultimate thing, something that stands in opposition to the action of God. From the perspective of the resurrection, sin is no longer the primary thing in the condition of man. The emphasis now shifts to the way that God has responded to sin. That is why the point made at the beginning of this reflection was not a pedantic one. Instead of saying: “We sinned but Jesus loved us,” it is better to say: “We sinned and Jesus loved us.” This Sunday we can say confidently that for everything anguished and negative we have done, there is a word from God that is more powerful still. The love of God for us transforms all these things into light. This is what allows him to be crucified by us and risen for us. He assumes onto himself our human nature and transforms it so that we can become children of God.