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I don’t run much anymore. Ten years of football and fifteen years of rugby have left me with a bit of stenosis which makes running or jogging an iffy proposition. But I could not help noticing that there are a lot of people running around the resurrection account we read today. Mary runs from the tomb to the disciples! Peter and John run back to the tomb! So much activity. The casual observer could not help but wonder what it was all about.
No doubt it is about a lot of things. Mary is running because she is afraid that the body of Jesus has been moved by some unknown persons, perhaps the Jewish authorities or the Romans. Peter and John probably have the same concerns. They need to investigate things immediately, and so off they go at full tilt.
But as John enters the tomb after Peter, it starts to become about something else. “…he saw and believed.”
The thing is, we’re not quite sure what he believed. It’s unclear because in the very next line we are told that “they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.” (Jn 20, 8-9)
Actually, I take a lot of comfort from the belief of Peter and John in the midst of perplexity. The modern, analytic worldview wants to understand everything before it will believe anything. But Peter and John show us that is not the way it works. The resurrection and our faith in it is first and foremost about relationships; and relationships do not lend themselves to scientific analysis.
Don’t believe me? Try this little experiment. Walk up to your spouse or girlfriend, etc., and say to them. “At last I finally understand you. I know all of your likes and dislikes, your values and aspirations. I know all there is to know about you. Now I can trust you.” Let me know how that works out for you. Or instead you can say this, “You know, after all these years you still amaze me!”
Because the resurrection of Jesus is about his relationship with the Father and with us, it cannot be analyzed scientifically. Instead, we talk about it in terms of ‘sacred mystery,’ a relationship or set of relationships that is larger than us, of which we are a part, and which is part of us. In this sense, we can see how it works for all relationship. You don’t solve your family. You are part of your family and genetically, psychologically, sociologically your family is a part of you. Likewise you don’t solve your Body of Christ. You are part of the Body of Christ, and through the sacred mysteries we celebrate, Body of Christ is part of you. Now let’s bump it up a notch to our God who is relationship itself. We are told by John in no uncertain terms that when one dwells in God, God dwells in him or her through indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which is the very relationship between the Father and Son. Through the Body of Christ, the Church, we are invited into that very relationship. We belong.
In this context it becomes clear that belonging precedes believing and believing precedes understanding. So it perfectly reasonable that John could believe without understanding because of his relationship with Christ. In due time, he will come to understand and the fruits of his reflections permeate his writings.
I would go one step farther. Because of my relationship with Christ and the Body of Christ, his Church, I think that the resurrection of Christ is not just a reasonable proposition, but indeed and IMPERATIVE one for the sake of all humanity!
What do I mean by this? Simply put, in the light of the corona virus and COVID -19, never before in my life or in the memory of any of my contemporaries, have we ever seen the human race so paralyzed with fear on such a global scale. Our societies, our economies, our personal relations…all are paralyzed with a very justifiable fear of death by hypoxia brought on by this little microscopic monster.
Never before in our modern, analytic, scientific world have we seen such immediate and pervasive fear. Fear paralyzes us. And in the shadow of such a spectre, we have learned firsthand as a global society that the opposite of love is not hate, but fear.
It can be simple fear,
fear of solitude, fear of embarrassment, fear of the unknown
Or it can be profound fear,
Fear of infection, fear of pain, fear of death.
How do we confront and overcome such fear?
For modern, analytic world that wants to understand everything, the answer is elusive,
But for the Christian, comfortable of living within the wonderous mystery of simple and sacred relationship, the answer is obvious.
Because the Christian knows that death is not the worst thing that can happen to you.
The Christian knows and proclaims to a fearful world that by his Passion and Death, Christ won for us the forgiveness of sins and therefore overcame the result of sin, which is death.
And that by his rising from the dead, he has shown us the destiny of a humanity now healed, where our relationship with God and with one another is now reconciled and as it should be.
In the coming weeks, listen to the subtle change in the words of the resurrected Christ as he greets his apostles. You will recall that whether it was when he calmed the sea, or healed the publican’s daughter he would say, “The first words out of his mouth were, ‘Do not be afraid.”
But now, in the wake of the resurrection, his greeting is very different, “Peace be with you.”
How odd, how very paradoxical, how very fitting that in the Good News of Easter joy and the peace should come in the midst of the most fearful time in recent human history.
But we Christians have always been a people of paradox: fearless in the face of death, triumphant in the midst of suffering.
And thus it has always been.
Especially in these most uncertain fearful times, the Christian stands as a beacon of hope
In our neighbors, in our towns, in our cities, in our world
For we are people of the resurrection. We know that death is not the worst thing that can happen to us.
For Christ is risen from the dead
and we the Body of Christ rise with him.
Echoing the words of the great Pope St. John Paul II,
“We are Easter people! and ‘alleluia!’ is our cry!”
Happy Easter.