Easter Sunday, YR C: Acts 10:34a, 37-43; Col 3:1-4; Jn 20:1-9
For us, as for the people in this Gospel, isn’t knowledge of the Resurrection posited by indirect evidence? The Risen Jesus has yet to appear to them. In all four Gospels, he will come to them, though he is often not recognized at first. Does this suggest that even if his disciples remembered his predictions of being raised from the dead, their concept of resurrection could not anticipate the reality?
But these texts imply that direct experience of the risen Lord is not necessary for faith in the resurrection. Why do I say this?
The fact that any of these people can receive the Risen Lord may only be possible because they desire him so much, dead or alive. Might it be sheer instinct that they seek him at the tomb? Not just because that was the last place he had been taken, but because they must revisit that loss. In last night’s gospel the three women at the tomb were greeted by two men in dazzling garments who admonished them not to be stuck at the death of Jesus. Yes, embrace the loss, but don’t stay there. Why? Because we would be blinded to that unimaginable reality that comes next. I could be stuck in my own limited vision and fears.
What gets Peter to move? The word of Mary. Doesn’t that mean that he trusts what she has to say? Trusts her enough to invest the energy to see for himself? I can’t work this out on my own! Perhaps, like me, you too know how much faith depends on faithful people, other people whose transparency makes their words reliable testimony.
Isn’t that why we are here together to celebrate Easter, rather than a home brooding on our pre-occupations and fears?
May that personal love that binds us together bring the unimaginable possibility of resurrection to its joyful realization in our lives.