It is very appropriate at this time to reflect on the passage in
There is a feeling of emptiness, of helplessness, of sorrow, of having lost everything in the minds of the apostles after the crucifixion and death of Jesus. Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb to pay her final respects, to embalm the body of Jesus, if needed, and to see that He lies securely in his eternal sleep. There is not much thought about the Resurrection. The apostles also do not think that Jesus would arise. They just take the words of Jesus very casually. If Jesus were God, they might have thought, he would have stopped the Jewish leaders, Pilate and the soldiers from their cruel actions and would not have allowed Himself to die so shamefully. So they begin to get engaged in their usual tasks, but try to keep the company of one another for the time being. It is into this world of emptiness that Mary Magdalene appears at daybreak. She looks into the tomb .Jesus is not there. She feels that the body of Jesus has been snatched away by the followers of the leaders who were responsible for His crucifixion. He is gone. She rushes to the apostles and conveys the sad news of insult and injury. She does not say that He is risen but that they have taken Him away. They run to the tomb for another meeting with failure and disaster. But when they come they see the empty tomb, the clothes all neatly folded away. It strikes them all of a sudden that He is risen and not taken away. All the words of Jesus about His resurrection come alive in their minds. They now believe what was unbelievable, a few minutes ago, that Jesus is risen, that He is the Lord of life and death and that nothing can defeat Him. It comes into their consciousness very starkly that Jesus who walked with them and who died and is God.
Mary continues to stand there, crying and looking for Jesus. Then, Jesus appears and calls her by her name. That was enough for her to recognize Jesus. The same voice, the same love and the same tone. Oh, she could not stand the ground any more. Feelings of joy begin gushing out of her mouth: “ Rabbi.”
She carries the news whose stunning echo continues to reverberate across the Universe to the apostles:“I have seen the Lord.”
The empty tomb has become the womb of faith, the powerhouse of hope and energy, of renewal and vitality. The forces of death have lost their power before the empty tomb. Failures and tragedies can no more drag man into the abyss of despair. There is light at the end of the tunnel, there is joy in pain and there is life after death.
It is in emptiness, loneliness, and in suffering that we experience the Lord.
Our failures and our sufferings are the events that open the door of life to Jesus.
Through our failures, tragedies, painful and agonizing events and through situations when things turn bad for us, when others insult us, when we are not appreciated, and when we think that we are worthless and do not have talents, Jesus makes His appearance in our lives and calls us by our names. Failures do not matter any more. Sin has no power over us. We are the children of the Light. A new chance is always there.
As Daniel O’Leary points out in the “ Passion for the Possible,“The darkening sky over my head is a sacrament of the Lord’s protection…and the small birds flying home give me perfect delight.” He adds further that the Lord is telling him: “You are the rhythm of my breathing; the apple of my eyes. You are the lines of the palm of my hands. My love for you knows no bounds. There is nothing I will not do for you” He adds : “Wherever you go, and as long as life will last, there will always be a sudden moment in the middle of your busy life, when from the heart of everything in creation , from the tiniest insect to the epicenter of unexplored space, for a precious moment of wonder-filled pause,” the Lord will make His appearance and will call you by name and protect you.(P.34)
Easter is all that for us, a time of hope and of a renewed awareness of the constant protection of the Lord in our lives.
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