Second Sunday of Easter

Saturday April 2, 2005

Back Through The Years

I assume you have in your home as I have in mine, a box of photographs that never seem to make it into the family album. I was saving them for a ‘snow day’ or a ‘rainy day’ but despite the prevalence of both, the photos continue to pile up. Photo albums reawaken precious memories and precious memories revive priceless stories that sustain us in the pursuit of life’s goals. Each time the story is told, we gain new insights into our family heritage and personal history.

This is no less true as we watch kaleidoscopic vignettes of the life of John Paul II during these days of mourning for his loss.

It’s astounding to me that despite the passing of time and the repetition of the texts describing the first Easter event, new insights continue to emerge from a careful reading of our Judeo-Christian history as recorded in the Sacred Scriptures.

During this season many Christians, Catholics among them, continue to search for Jesus in an empty tomb; searching not for a dead body but for the risen Christ. No, they are not literally heading for an empty tomb to find him but they are searching the texts to prove that Jesus’ resurrection was not a hoax. Did not St. Paul tell us that if Jesus did not rise from the dead, then our faith is in vain? However, in my view, this search is indicative of a ‘Disney World’ view of a mystery that defies human explanation. Archeologists may locate the place of burial but may never find evidence for the mystery.

If only we could read the texts this weekend with a fresh mind, almost as if we had never been exposed to a catechism or to doctrinal studies, we might arrive at the core of the mystery described by the biblical writers each in a different way.

The Easter Event is not about the resuscitation of Jesus but about his new identity in the community of believers. As one biblical scholar, Richard Cassidy, put it: “In his new identity, Jesus is no longer subject to the constraints of time and space.” Indeed!

The biblical writers through a wide use of metaphors are attempting to convince us of the reality of Jesus’ presence in the emerging faith of the early witnesses. Please note that the term ‘witnesses’ does not necessarily mean ‘eye witnesses’ but rather those who have actually experienced the living Christ. The graphic description of Thomas’ doubt and his instant conversion to belief is an attempt to connect the risen Christ to the physical historical Christ. It is not an attempt to establish proof for his resuscitation. This is a very subtle but important distinction.

The message is really not complex but its utter simplicity may push us to doubt and/or to fear taking it to heart. If Jesus is truly risen and living in his body, the community of believers, then ought we not find proof of his resurrection not so much in an empty tomb as in the life and mission of the Church? And if so, might we not want to search for those qualities within our community that testify to the reality of the risen Christ among us? What is our personal and communal witness and to what are our energies directed? When ‘outsiders’ come into our community do they leave saying such things as “ Wow! We have seen the living Christ among them?” This is what brings outsiders in; not inflexible dogmas or rigid definitions. It is the mystery of Christ living within the faithful despite the disillusionment of terrorist attacks from without and the frailty of leadership from within.

As member s of Assumption Parish we are called to be animators of the word of God. Do we empower people to goodness? Are we ready as were the early believers ready to face the sword in defense of justice? For whom or for what are we ready to die? Or should I not ask, for whom or for what are we willing to live?

A couple of issues come to mind under the title of justice. One is the continuing pursuit of an economy that works for all people, one that will guarantee at least a modest living for the poorest members of our society. This is not achieved by give-away programs or even by charity alone. It requires a commitment to build inclusive and equitable systems that provide a place at our global table for the world’s poor. The political system is a means to the end; not an end in itself.

Another is the continuing pursuit of justice within our own Church. This requires a commitment to change what needs to be changed to keep us faithful to the teachings of Jesus and the core of the Gospel. It means the willingness to shed titles and honors. Indeed, it means the willingness to become as powerless as the master who, in the words of St. Paul to the Philippians, did not deem equality with God something to be clung to. Jesus emptied himself becoming like a slave so that all people might be free.

The loss of great leaders often results in our bringing them to life in a new way. In fact, many great leaders loomed larger than life while they were still alive. John Paul II was no doubt such a leader. Whatever one’s political or religious persuasion, there is little doubt that he was guided by faith in the risen Christ. This is not to suggest that he did not find himself in the midst of controversy from time to time. Those of a more conservative persuasion inside and outside the Church distanced themselves from what he believed to be an essential connection between the teachings of Jesus and welfare, war and capital punishment. Liberals on the other hand distanced themselves from his tenacious adherence to traditional discipline with respect to the role of women, clerical celibacy and marriage. We all willing to cite him in defense of our own cause and want to claim him as our hero on at least one issue. In time, history will evaluate in his accomplishments in human terms but God is the final judge of the great and small and John Paul cannot and will not exempt himself from either. Though he deferred to no earthly power in his kerygma, but he reverenced God even in those who were most distant from his chair.

A fuller commentary on the life of John Paul II will be published on this website later this weekend.

We read these texts every year during this holy season but each year they take on new meaning in the light of global and personal events.

I believe the same texts read again this year are saying much more to me than they did last year and I’m getting nervous about the implications. I hope you are too. Nevertheless, the peace that Jesus breathed into the disciples behind the locked doors of doubt and fear transformed them, animated them, and empowered them to go forth to live the fullness of the risen Christ.

Perhaps they will do the same for each of us and for all of us together.

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