Gospel according to Saint John 20:1-9:
On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.”
So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first; he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in. When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed. For they did not yet understand the scripture that he had to rise from the dead.
Resurrection = forgiveness + vocation + inspiration
Luis CASASUS President of the Idente Missionaries
Rome, March 24, 2024 | The Resurrection of the Lord
Acts 10: 34a.37-43; Col 3: 1-4; Jn 20: 1-9
Life, death and resurrection. Who can fully explain and take advantage of the meaning of life? And of death? Of my life and of my death, of the life and death of my loved ones… If for each of us and for all cultures and religions this is a formidable task, what can we say about the Resurrection we celebrate today?
Life, death and resurrection are three awesome realities, so that, for many, the only thing to do is to immerse oneself blindly in the world, to live a present that does not look at death and even less at resurrection; or not to think or talk about it. The comedian Groucho Marx resorted to irony: I intend to live forever, or die trying.
But all people and cultures with spiritual sensitivity make a noble and humble effort to be consistent and try to grow before the realities of life and the certainty of death, often intuiting what resurrection, which some traditions call “immortality”, could mean.
A revered old spiritual master, when he was very close to death, asked to be transferred to the hall where he delivered his discourses. Soon I will go to Heaven, he said to his followers, but I leave you all my writings and, along with them, my spirit.
When his grandson heard these words, he burst into tears. His grandfather, weak from illness, turned to him and said, somewhat cryptically: Only emotions? No; also intellect. From that moment on, the boy only thought and consoled himself with the life of his grandfather’s soul, without dwelling on the death of his body.
In the face of Christ’s death and resurrection, at Easter 2009 Pope Benedict XVI pointed out how we should celebrate today: Jesus is risen not because his memory remains alive in the hearts of his disciples, but because he himself lives in us and in him we can already taste the joy of eternal life. It is worth meditating on these words, because we ALL have some experience of authentic conversion.
Moreover, the Resurrection of Christ responds to the essential difficulty of human existence: how can true love have an end? Indeed, it does not, that “eternal life” is a reality, it is something that reaches beyond death, even if we cannot know the details that our insatiable curiosity would like to know. We would all like to penetrate into the meaning of the words that Christ pronounced in his intercessory prayer: And the way to have eternal life is to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent to earth (Jn 17: 3). In the face of some insistent questions, he had already responded by clarifying misunderstandings: In the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels of God in heaven (Mt 22: 30).
Of course, all forms of pain will disappear and will be replaced by the joy of being continually under the divine light, serving him in ways we cannot imagine:
And there shall be no any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be there, and his servants shall serve him. They shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads. And there will be no more night, and they will no need the light of the lamp, neither of the sun; for the Lord God shall give them light, and they will reign for ever and ever (Rev 22: 3-5).
Our Father Founder has paid much attention to what is our death and resurrection and also to what eternal life means, maintaining that in reality there is no “annihilation” when we speak of our body, but rather an authentic and complete transfiguration, the activation of all the elements that were passive in what he calls our constant genetic key.
It is told of St. Teresa of Avila that, on one occasion, the devil appeared to her, disguised as Christ. But she identified him instantly and rejected him immediately. The devil, before withdrawing, asked her: How did you guess it? How did you know that I was not Christ? The saint’s answer: You do not have any wounds. Christ does. Surely, those wounds, which allowed St. Thomas to identify the risen Christ, will have a transfigured form in eternal life, as will all the good works that each of the acts of mercy of the blessed, which will be part of their heavenly personality. Yes; God will forget our sins, but the good deeds are for eternity.
Only good works remain and form that treasure, stored up in heaven, where thieves do not dig it up or steal it, because where your treasure is, there is your heart (Mt 6: 20-21).
If only I remembered that every little gesture of love is literally immortal, eternal…and I can’t imagine how many I haven’t allowed to be born!
—ooOoo—
Yes, the life we celebrate today, the life that Christ has conquered for us through His death and resurrection, is more than mere survival, or a life free of problems, pains, ailments or failures. This is eternal life. It is a life worth living in this world and then dying for. This is our hope and it is what gives us courage to face the uncertainties of the future and the dark shadows of the past.
Where does the Beatitude of people faithful to the Gospel come from? First, from the impression of being always accompanied, with the forgiveness of the Father, the friendship of Christ and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. But, secondly, from living the certainty that NOTHING we do for Him is useless or sterile, in spite of appearances. These two realities are confirmed by the Resurrection we celebrate today.
This is not something that everyone can enjoy. We all perceive that we live in an era where discouragement and depression pervade everything. Not simply that we encounter some difficulty in our way, but that, at times, the whole of life seems to fall apart. The examples are varied and innumerable:
* The person who begins a married and family life, until relationship difficulties, behavioral, economic or health changes make it practically impossible to go on.
* The young person who begins to understand clearly that all his or her life he or she has been exploited, abused, deceived and used by adults and perhaps by his or her own friends and family.
* The man or woman who has been abandoned in his or her old age, having given his or her life to his or her spouse and children.
* Who has committed and continues to commit offenses against God and neighbor and desperately seeks justifications to hide, not to confess, to minimize his or her actions.
For the vast majority of people, who do not enjoy an authentic intimacy with the Divine Persons, it is impossible to even think that Beatitude can exist. We, on the contrary, are witnesses of the daily works of God in our lives, above all: forgiveness, vocation and inspiration, that is why in the first two Readings we are invited today to announce with words and deeds what we are living. It is not necessary to see the Risen Christ with our eyes; we are also witnesses of his victory over death.
As if that were not enough, we know how Providence acts against all foresight and beyond sin, human logic and justice. To cite a few examples from the Old Testament:
* If Joseph had not been betrayed by his brothers and sold into slavery, he would not have been their savior, when the land was stricken by famine.
* If Moses had not fled from Egypt in an act of cowardice, he would not have been chosen by God to lead his people to freedom.
* If David had not committed manslaughter in the degree of intellectual author and adultery with Uriah’s wife, Solomon would not have been born.
The Resurrection scene and our experience teach us that faith is based on seeing, as happened to the disciples who saw the empty tomb. It is really ridiculous to say that faith means “believing without seeing,” for it would be a kind of cruelty on the part of a god playing hide-and-seek to test men.
Whoever has faith has seen, in some way. Also with the eyes of the face. As St. John Paul II said to young people in 1998:
To believe is to see things as God sees them, to participate in God’s vision of the world and of man, according to the words of the Psalm: “Your light makes us see the light” (Ps 36: 10). This “light of faith” in us is a ray of the light of the Holy Spirit.
There are people who do not want to look at the signs of the Resurrection “in the world and in man” and others who have not had the grace of anyone to show them.
Instead of enjoying Christian freedom and anticipating a home in heaven, those who reject the resurrection are slaves to the present, without real hope or meaning in life. This explains why so many are trapped in the pit of despair and hopelessness in our societies today. When man no longer believes in resurrection after death, in redemption after sin, he descends into the pit of meaninglessness.
Career, family and good works may offer brief pleasure, but not the kind of joy that comes from knowing that we are working to fulfill the divine will. That is why belief in the resurrection is not a point of theological debate. Either we believe that Christ rose from the dead and ascended to heaven, or we do not. If we reject his victory over the grave, we deny ourselves a place in eternity. But if we accept the truth, Paul assures us that we are saved.
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In the Sacred Hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
Luis CASASUS
President
