You Were Raised with Christ

Gospel Reflection for Easter Sunday, March 31, 2024 - John 20:1-9

And on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalen cometh early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre; and she saw the stone taken away from the sepulchre.

She ran, therefore, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and saith to them: They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him.

Peter therefore went out, and that other disciple, and they came to the sepulchre.

And they both ran together, and that other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre.

And when he stooped down, he saw the linen cloths lying; but yet he went not in.

Then cometh Simon Peter, following him, and went into the sepulchre, and saw the linen cloths lying,

And the napkin that had been about his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but apart, wrapped up into one place.

Then that other disciple also went in, who came first to the sepulchre: and he saw, and believed.

For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. (John 20:1-9 DRA)

Happy Easter! Christ is risen, indeed He is risen!

Today we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ Our Lord, who returned from His three days in the tomb, during which He defeated Satan, rescued the souls of the just from death and opened the gates of Heaven for the elect to enter, in the new creation of His glorified body. In this particular resurrection narrative, on which I reflected for Easter last year, it is intriguing that there is no direct appearance of Christ; only the empty tomb is discovered by Mary Magdalene and the disciples. I wrote last year that this is a sign of the condition of the Church Militant, which now live as Christians in faith, believing even without seeing, and called like Mary to go and “to preach to the people, and to testify that it is he who was appointed by God, to be judge of the living and of the dead”, (Acts 10:42) as St. Peter said in the first reading.

This year, I would like to focus on another aspects of Easter, the central theme of the Epistle from St. Paul, who taught: “Therefore, if you be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above; where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God: Mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth. For you are dead; and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ shall appear, who is your life, then you also shall appear with him in glory.” (Colossians 3:1-4)

For many of us, like other Sundays throughout the year, Easter will become just another day. We may take comfort and inspiration from the liturgy itself, refreshing our faith in the truths revealed in Scripture and looking forward in hope to our participation in them when Christ returns which is made accessible already in the Eucharist – only to leave, go home and return to our normal way of life, like the disciples soon after discovering the empty tomb and not comprehending its meaning. (Jn 20:10) But this is not what we are called to do as Christians, according to St. Paul’s words. Easter, the greatest mystery and feast day of the Faith, should shape all that we do, the way we think about everything and the choices we make on a daily basis. Part of this involves detaching our mind and heart from worldly things - not the good that God has created (except in fasting) but the corruptions that result from sin, as St. Paul makes clear immediately after this reading: “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, lust, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is the service of idols… But now put you also all away: anger, indignation, malice, blasphemy, filthy speech out of your mouth.” (Col 3:5, 8)

St. John teaches that these evils are derived from worldliness, from the state of original sin to which Creation has become subject under the dominion of Satan: “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the concupiscence thereof: but he that doth the will of God, abideth for ever.” (1 Jn 2:15-17)

According to these teachings, if we leave Easter Mass and fall back into our habitual sins, conforming to the world so that no one can tell that we even are Christians, the power of Easter has had no effect on us and we will be unable to “appear with him in glory” when Christ returns and everyone is resurrected, either to life or to death. If we objectify and depersonalize others through lust or envy, if we respond to evil with evil rather than with the patient charity of Christ, if we attribute the blessings of our lives to our own effort alone rather than to the gratuitous grace of God, if we only think about the needs of the body or the opinions of others rather than the mysteries of God, we belong to the world, not to God, since “No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Mt 6:24)

However, if we strive to live virtuously, to pray for our neighbors, to contemplate the mysteries of the Faith, to imitate the saints, to live out our baptismal promises through the grace of Christ received through the Church and to remain “holy and unspotted in his sight in charity” (Eph 1:4) in preparation for the coming of the Bridegroom, we will belong to Him forever. For this reason, St. John went on to write, “And now, little children, abide in him, that when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be confounded by him at his coming. If you know, that he is just, know ye, that every one also, who doth justice, is born of him.” (1 Jn 2:28-29)

Christ did not suffer crucifixion and rise again so that we could continue to live as though nothing had changed. Rather, we are called to be images of Christ to the world, to show the world that sin does not have the last word, that death is not definitive and that our actions really do have eternal consequences, whether for good or evil. St. Thomas Aquinas thus wrote: “By dying in the body to the likeness of sin, that is, to its penalty, He set for us the example of dying to sin spiritually.”

What seems powerful in the eyes of the world is truly weak, whereas the weakness which Christ displayed on the Cross is the ultimate sign of the omnipotence of God, leading to the perfect fulfillment of salvation history and the satisfaction of all human longing in the Resurrection. Without Christ, there is no hope – with Christ, hope is certain. As J.R.R. Tolkien wrote,

The Birth of Christ is the eucatastrophe of Man's history. The Resurrection is the eucatastrophe of the story of the Incarnation. This story begins and ends in joy. It has pre-eminently the “inner consistency of reality.” There is no tale ever told that men would rather find was true, and none which so many sceptical men have accepted as true on its own merits. For the Art of it has the supremely convincing tone of Primary Art, that is, of Creation. To reject it leads either to sadness or to wrath. (On Fairy-Stories)

Thank you to Missio Dei and all of our great readers for all the blessings you have given me. I pray that you and your family will have a joyous Easter season! God bless!

(Cover image source: By Sailko - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49793308)