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Easter
Sunday, Cycle ABC
Triduum
Retreat at Retreat and Conference Center at Bon Secours
March
27, 2016
What
will it take for us to have Easter change our lives?
By
(Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
Christmas
Versus Easter
Easter is different from Christmas. Christmas is an event
that took place once and for all.
Easter ends with two men and a woman standing before an
empty tomb.
In a nutshell, Easter stands in stark witness to the
meaning of what it is to go on despite death, to go on in the face of death, to
go on because of death.
I am suggesting that for us to celebrate Easter means to
stand in the light of the empty tomb and decide what to do next with our lives.
There are two men and a woman who were touched deeply,
people whose lives were transformed by standing before the empty tomb and who
they were before the tomb is different from who they are after it.
Their transformation can show us the effect the empty
tomb of Easter can have on us, as we stand there as well.
Mary
Magdalene: from Clinging Believer to Proclaiming Woman
The first person to look at is Mary of Magdala. Mary is
the one who has followed Jesus all her life; she’s never doubted him; she’s
with him all the way to the cross.
She is a woman with great insight and a great commitment,
but she is more of a believer than a proclaimer.
Mary sees the tomb open, but she doesn’t go in. She is
afraid or perhaps she knows that whatever is going on in that tomb is going to
demand even more than she’s already given. Perhaps the idea of doing more or
doing it differently is what stops her where she stands.
Mary comes to the place where it was clear that failure
lays; Jesus evidently failed in his mission and his life has ended in disgrace.
She comes in the faith, of course, that what had come to life in her because of
Jesus would not die. Not in her. Faith would be enough for her.
She is the part of us that takes pride in our being
“Catholic.” We’re faithful to Mass attendance; we join committees; we support our
church by giving regularly. Like Mary Magdalene we cling to Jesus and his
church.
But clinging to him is precisely what Jesus doesn’t want
of us. He wants us to speak out about him, to witness to his presence among the
ill and the needy, the frail elderly, and the physically and mentally
challenged.
He wants us to speak out against -isms of sexism, racism,
and wherever we find it. To give voice to those who have little of no voice.
He wants more than passive belief. He wants her and us to
be his living voice, risen from the grave.
Peter:
from Realist to Risk-Taker
Peter is also at the empty tomb. Remember, he is one who
makes great promises and then breaks them. His words to Jesus are, “I will never betray you” and then
proceeds to do so three times later that same day.
He is the one who’s great with statements and actions
that preserve his own status, like slipping away when others begin associating
him with Jesus.
Peter is the part of us that knows how to be a Catholic
without a cross. He loves everything Jesus stands for, as long as the crowds
love what Jesus stands for.
However, when the crowd’s mood changes, so too, does
Peter. Clearly Peter values what people think of him more than he values his
integrity, more than he values his own truth.
The Peter in us is such a realist. We don’t want to rock
the boat.
No need to speak out against abuses where we find them.
No reason to mix work and religion. No gain to be had by upsetting the
gathering of friends or the family get-together with delicate subjects like
physician assisted suicide, the common good or immigration reform.
At the empty tomb, Peter learns that he is going to have
to stand publicly with those who believe what Jesus believed and risk our own
reputation to bring it about.
John
from Contemplation to Action
Finally, John, “the
one whom Jesus loved,” also stands before the empty tomb.
Scripture tells us he outruns the other two disciples,
but stops at the entrance. We’re told he did it out of deference to Peter so he
could go in first. Of course, he may have stopped for reasons of his own.
Why would John, who has been there every step of the way
with Jesus right to the cross, stoop down, peer in and not go all the way in?
Perhaps it was for the same reason you and I don’t go all
the way in to anything that has to do with our faith life or religious
practice.
Maybe he knew it was one thing to reflect on the scene
and another thing to act. To go into the tomb, John must have known would be to
challenge his stance of being a safe observer.
If there is a temptation in the spiritual life it is to
use prayer as an excuse for not doing anything. It helps us float above the
fray of life. That is not prayer.
Real prayer breaks open the heart of the world in the
very center of our own lives. To really pray is to hear the cry of the poor,
respond to the call of the oppressed, do the will of God in my world.
If Jesus is risen from the tomb, we have to keep looking
for him in the faces of those who oppose us, in our enemies, in our neighbor,
in those in need.
Conclusion
Today we all come to the empty tomb and must leave to
return to our living life in community, at work, and at play.
Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb as a clinging believer;
she leaves a woman ready to proclaim good news to anyone who will listen to
her.
Peter comes as a realist; he leaves as a risk-taker and
in the end he is martyred for his faith.
John comes as a contemplative; he leaves knowing it could
all end right here, but he chooses to act out of his prayer to bring others to
faith.
And you? How have you come and, facing a seeming tragedy,
how do you leave?
Easter demands as much of us today, as it did of the
disciples then.
