One of the noteworthy details about this year’s Easter gospel is that the disciples do not seem to understand what the empty tomb means. Mary Magdalene runs to tell the Apostles not that Jesus is alive, but that “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him” (Jn. 20:2). Peter and John run to the tomb, which they discover to be empty, and they “believe.” But what do they believe? That Jesus is alive? Or that Mary was telling the truth about Jesus’ body being absent? If the former, they do not appear to have let Mary in on the secret, since the next several verses have her weeping, because Jesus’ body has been moved and she knows not where. Whatever it was that the Apostles believed, their response is somewhat underwhelming: “the two disciples went back to their homes” (Jn. 20:10). It is only the appearance of the risen Lord that causes the disciples to truly recognize what has happened—and in Mary Magdalene’s case, even that is not enough in itself.
Not much has changed. The world on the whole has failed to recognize the evidence of Jesus Christ’s resurrection and has not understood its meaning for human history. Thus it is that war rages on in Ukraine and elsewhere, while in many other places, people seek to accumulate wealth and live as pleasurable and painless a life as possible or give up in despair at the trials and misery they face.
Are we Christians much better? Do we genuinely understand that Jesus has risen from the dead? Do we understand that we have risen from the dead in baptism? Or do we, like Peter and John, go back to our homes unchanged after celebrating the Lord’s resurrection? Do we give evidence for the resurrection in the way we live our lives, so that the world might believe in the risen Christ?
We should not become discouraged, however, at the blindness of the world or at the shallowness of our own belief. The same disciples who went home from the empty tomb later went out and preached the good news to the whole world, giving witness to the Lord’s resurrection by their very lives. In one of the options for Easter Sunday’s second reading, St. Paul tells us that “our life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Col. 4:3–4). Although neither we nor the world might fully appreciate the reality of Jesus Christ’s glorious resurrection from the dead or our own lesser resurrection from sin, in the fullness of time, neither resurrection will remain hidden, but will instead shine forth in the full splendour of Christ’s glory. Until then, let us nourish the life of the risen Lord in the secret of our inmost being.
Andrew Sheedy – St. Joseph Seminary, Edmonton, Alberta