April 24, 2011

The real heroes of the Resurrection: the women who courageously went to the tomb and were first to hear the wonderful news!


April 24 - Easter Sunday


The Resurrection of the Lord



The "us" and "them" attitude is written into our human nature - we all like to feel part of the"gang." There's safety in number and the "gang " is probably right anyway. That was how Peter saw things - and with him 90% (at least) of the former Jews, not Christians. This great new religion is the divine development of God's plan ... for us Chosen People - praise the Lord! But then came the incident in today's First Reading - very unusual and indeed shocking. Peter, waiting for a meal, has a vision of "unclean" foods he is strongly invited to eat (Acts 10,9 ff). While he is still trying to work out the meaning of this incident he is called to the house of Corneilius and there in unusual circumstances he makes his profession of faith - but of a greatly-extended faith: "all who believe in Jesus will have their sins forgiven through his name." ALL - not just ex-Jews.


One requirement for being an Apostle was to have been a witness to the Resurrection and Peter underlines this: "... we who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead." Nothing could be more important. There are many great religions but only one claims that its Founder truly died and then - amazingly - rose from the tomb and was seen over a good stretch of time by hundreds. The Resurrection was the major plank of the early apostolic preaching and, not surprisingly, it is still being contested and contradicted. Nor is it just historical. Resurrection has to be a daily event if we are to look forward to living with the Lord forever: every moment of the day we want to "die" to ourselves, to our sinfulness, to our too-human nature. Every moment we should rise again and continue on at a higher level. Unfortunately this does not happen in too many cases and it is distressing to think of the number of "dead men and women) walking " abroad in today's world without any apparent understanding of the danger of their situation and the immense waste of the potential of their humanlives.


The Responsorial Psalm is a shout of joy in different keys - so to speak - a great "day" - the Lord's powerful " right hand" - the "rejected stone" which has become the foundation of a new and more glorious building. We have so little to rejoice in these days, we should do some rejoicing this Sunday - after all, we are talking of a joy that nobody can take from us. St. Paul, in the Second Reading, repeats our initial thought: we have "died" (the reference is to catechumens being plunged into the baptismal waters almost to drown if they did not emerge) and now our daily life " is hidden with Christ in God,' and so when Christ is revealed, and especially in the revelation at the end of time, we want to be there very visibly with him.


The Alternative Reading goes back to the Jewish custom of throwing out the old yeast and beginning again a new batch of bread - the thought is always the same: old to new in the Resurrection.


There is a choice of Gospel for this great Sunday. John gives some details not found elsewhere but perhaps the most important sentence is the last one: " Till that moment they had failed to understand the teaching of scripture , that he must rise from the dead." The Beloved Disciple makes no attempt to hide his blindness and the blindness of the others. How often these men had heard Jesus saying that the Son of Man would be mocked and scourged and crucified . . . but that then he would rise from the dead! Somehow they missed that final sentence and so were simply not ready for the Lord's wonders.


The place of women in the Resurrection is highlighted. Only they had the courage to go to the tomb to anoint the body of their loving hero - if they apostles had ventured out they would doubtless have been arrested and crucified! The women went. . . they saw . . . and they brought the Good News to the men! Perhaps we don't fully appreciate exactly what happened on that first Easter Sunday and in all the story of the Lord's encounters with woman. His mother was a woman. A woman anointed his feet and dried them with her hair. Apart from John, only women had the courage to stand by him on Calvary. It was to a woman - Mary Magdalen - he is first recorded as appearing and, not surprisingly, it was women who announced that he had done what he said: HE HAD RISEN!


(Continued)


~

Concord April 2011