Witnesses are big business these days - Judge Judy and CSI and all the crime shows on Television and in books rely on them. Who saw what? Are you sure you know what you saw? Easter, it seems is about witnesses too. The descriptions of the resurrection are remarkable in that no one seems to have seen Jesus rise. The guards - asleep, the disciples - hiding. The empty tomb is all that we are given today. There is no appearance in the upper room or at the seaside.
What the disciples first experienced is how we experience the joy of Easter. There is nothing but faith, and yet faith is everything for us. Jesus has risen and we know it in our hearts. And because we know it, as the second option for the second reading tells us, we are leavened; we are changed forever.
The appearance of Christ, as the first option for this reading proclaims, will be at the time of our own glorification, a time when our lives will have a meaning beyond anything we could ever know. That is why we rejoice, why we sing a sequence before the Gospel, and why we will never be the same this Easter or any other day God grants us.
This day is named after the Gospel readings that we will hear. The account of the entry into Jerusalem and the Palms the people waved is put against the account of the passion of Christ, his death for us told in excruciating detail. What are we to make of this contrast? How are we to apply this to our own lives?
The reading from Isaiah with the responsorial psalm and the famous Philippians hymn that is our second reading interpret these Gospels for us. God sees us as all the actors in the passion. We are the ones who wave the palms, the ones who drive the nails and the spear into the body of Christ, we are Mary and Peter and the apostles; but above all we are to be Christ for others, we are to lay down our life for the love of neighbor.
And because of this call to accept the life of Christ with all its joy and pain, the glory and the suffering, we can expect to share in the lifting up of the Philippians hymn, sharing in the Lordship of Christ to the glory of the Father forever.
Raising a man from the dead had not been done. Claiming to be THE resurrection and the life…that was new. In the dregs of sin and death, depression and spiritual and/or physical sickness, Jesus calls us to new life, to ‘be free’ and know his abundant power.
The Elect are constantly hearing and seeing examples of the Lord’s power in the life of the faith community, and whether it is easy for her, or a challenge for him, asks for the same action in the life of the Elect. They are ‘sacraments’ of conversion for the community, so much so that, should people opine, “more is required of them than of ‘us’,’ the pastoral minister should challenge that person to fully live the gospel of Jesus.
A full embrace of Christ and his victory over sin and death will be anything but easy, and the Elect may actually make your community more committed to entering into and living the paschal mystery.
The election of David as the anointed one of God together with
the good shepherd psalm may at first seem like a strange reading
to pair with the account of the man born blind. But the election
of David has the prophet learning that the vision of God is not
our vision, and God chooses people not by sight but by what it
is in their hearts. In the account of the man born blind, Jesus
affirms that this person was chosen for the same purposes that
David was chosen, to be a surprising choice and to reveal God's
glory.
God, it seems, has a purpose in selecting the unexpected; in
doing things that surprise us, we can be shaken from our
ordinary life, from our ordinary expectations and so see things
in a new light. The message of the second reading makes this
abundantly clear. We can no longer sleep! We must awaken to the
light of Christ. This applies not only to those who are coming
to the faith in the RCIA but even to those who have been
followers of Jesus for a lifetime. The alarm is sounding, wake
up and see what God is doing even now!
