AN EMPTY
TOMB.
EASTER SUNDAY. YEAR B.
April 16, 2006.
(First reading: Acts 10:34, 37-43) (Psalm 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23)
(Second reading: Colossians 3:1-4) (Gospel reading: John 20:1-9)
AN EMPTY TOMB.
To believe in the resurrection implies to believe that a death has occurred
first, that there is a tomb which, by
virtue of the resurrection, is now empty, that the one
who was dead now lives.
The death of the Lord Jesus, therefore sets the groundwork for his resurrection.
In the tomb the Lord Jesus is the victim killed
by the injustices, the wrongs and evils of the world; in the tomb he
denounces the actions of a world which rejects life, a world which cannot
accept the life he came to bring to mankind, a world intent on destroying
the goodness, justice and peace which belong to all mankind.
By coming out of the tomb, the Lord Jesus restores
life, goodness, justice and peace for all human beings; thus he demonstrates
that the power of his life is greater that the power of death, he demonstrates
that he does not belong in the tomb.
Our world today appears, however,
determined to remain in the tomb. Our world foments
death over life, our world promotes selfishness and oppression; our
world promotes the glorification of the powerful and the subjugation
of the weak; our world rewards the accumulation of wealth in the hands
of a few; our world fosters conflicts at the individual level (conflicts
between individuals) and at the collective level (between nations);
our world has lost sight that peace must be universal, for all human
beings. These are the reasons why we say that our world is determined
to remain in the tomb.
The world's false illusion of
"life". Deep from inside its tomb of injustice
and oppression, indifference and sin, our world pretends to give the
appearance of life. In order to do so our world portrays death as life,
injustice as a "normal" state of collective life, indifference
as a necessary means to ignore the horrors of oppression, false religion
as a sedative to bring "tranquility" to the oppressor's conscience.
In the gospel today the Lord Jesus thwarts the attempts of death at
disguising itself as life: He comes out of the tomb! for only death
belongs in the tomb.
The Lord Jesus takes humanity
out of the tomb. If human beings insist on remaining
in the tomb, they will not share in the victory of Jesus' resurrection,
they will not be freed from the chains of death.
The gospel tells us that the first words of Mary of Magdala upon seeing
that the stone had been removed from the tomb were: "They
have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we do not know where they have
put him". Mary said this because she was under the
impression that Jesus was indeed to remain in the tomb and, therefore,
"they" (the world of
injustice and oppression) had power over Jesus, power to do whatever
"they" wanted with him.
Later on, Mary, Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved were able to
see and came to believe that Jesus was no longer dead, that he had truly
come out of the tomb, that "they"
(the world) had no more power over him. From the tomb, Jesus entered
into his kingdom of life, life of which we all human beings can participate.
How do we participate in the life of the risen
Lord?
We participate in the life of the risen Lord by continuing the works
he did while on earth. The Book of the Acts of the Apostles (First reading)
describes these works: "Jesus of Nazareth...
went about doing good and healing all those oppressed by the devil".
In the same way, those who want to participate in the life of the risen
Lord are to continue his works, "doing
good and healing all those oppressed by the devil",
that is to say, liberating all those oppressed by injustice, self-serving
interests, deprivation, dispossession.
As Psalm 118 declares, he who participates in the works of the Lord
can say: "I shall not die but live and
declare the deeds of the Lord".
We all now can rejoice in the Easter experience that the
tomb is truly empty.
