We are still in Easter season and the mystery of Christ Jesus resurrection is still central in the liturgy as well in our private prayer and meditation. I have been spending a lot of time on the ‘Last Discourse’ of Jesus in the Gospel of John as well as the account of the Resurrection. Our whole faith rest on this reality, for as St. Paul stated, “if Christ Jesus is not raised, then our faith is in vain”.
Lately I have been struck by the image of Jesus tightly wrapped in his burial shroud, his body lying in a cold dark tomb. Alone, in the dark and thought to be gone forever, for that is the way of death. We die, are buried, and then slowly forgotten. In the time of Jesus there were many men who came to prominence. Some of them were religious figures, others were rebels. Yet when they died their movement was disbanded.
So it was with the Apostles, they were in hiding for fear of being arrested themselves. They were waiting until things ‘cooled down’ before they would again venture without fear into public life. It was over, Jesus was dead and buried. The High Priest won, Jesus died a failure. Perhaps all of his talk seemed to some of his followers that on looking back that he was in fact out of his mind just like his family thought when they came to get him and bring him home.
So there he was his body confined in his tightly wrapped shroud. When Mary Magdalene came to the tomb she did not expect anything unusual. She only wanted to finish the Jewish rituals that were done for the body soon after death. She came in sadness, in deep mourning and no doubt a deep level of despair.
Yet the tomb was empty, the guards gone and the stone rolled away. When Peter and the other apostle (most likely John himself) went to the tomb, they found only his burial cloth, laid out on the shelf where his body was placed. Something happened that was unexpected, and the apostles even after they had seen Jesus, still struggled with doubt. Mary Magdalene saw him first one can only imagine the fear, incredulity, joy and overwhelming happiness that must have existed at the same time in her heart.
The cowardly apostles suddenly became bold and began to teach the reality of the Risen Lord, this is the only reason the Christian faith took root, because of the reality of the Resurrection as experienced by many. They saw him, touched him and ate with him after his resurrection. I think like with Mary Magdalene, the experience was both a fearful one with some incredulity, as well as an experience filled with wonder and joy.
Saul a devout Jew, a Pharisee, a man who loved God, sought to destroy the new movement based on some absurd story of Jesus Resurrection. While the Jews did believe in a general Resurrection at the end of time, they did not hope for such thing as a single individual resurrecting before the time for all to rise had arrived. So he struck out against the faith. Being present at Stephens’s murder by stoning and giving his approval over his cruel death… for to his way of thinking, this new off shoot was an abomination. He also went after others and was responsible most like for many imprisonments and deaths of the early followers of the ‘Way’. Yet he himself had an unexpected impossible experience of the Risen Lord. It changed him in an instant, so powerful was the experience. It was so deep his conversion that he became another man, so he was given the name Paul by the Lord. In fact many Christians at the time never really came to trust him. He was never that popular during his life, though he did have great influence.
There are many theories out there seeking to discredit the Christian faith, but because of the Risen Christ, who is the Groom of the Church, it will not die. It will fail in many ways due to human sinfulness and weakness. It will also take some wrong turns which is easily found in the study of the history of our faith….yet the Risen Lord has promised that the gates of hell shall not prevail.
In the end, all will bow their knee to Jesus, those who love and adore him as well as those who reject and hate. All who seek will find and all who knock the door will be opened to them. Those who do not seek or knock will get what they desire as well, their own kingdom where they are their own masters, over and against all others who are there with them.
Christ Jesus is the ‘Word’, the Infinite Other, who has revealed to us the Father, out of love. We are not saved from God, but from ourselves. Just has Jesus was freed from the bonds of death, so he wished to free us as well. Come Lord Jesus into the hearts of all.
Br. Mark Dohle, OCSO
Holy Spirit Monastery
