Pentecost 2022

John 20:19 - 23

It’s hard thinking about the Holy Spirit. It’s even hard when you read what Jesus said about the Spirit. When we picture the Father, we usually come up with an image of a vigorous elderly male with a long white beard. When we picture the Son, each of us has our own favorite, I’m sure, but the well trimmed beard and northern European features are usually there. But try to visualize the Spirit. Nothing we imagine seems to be someone we can form a relationship with. A dove? A tongue of flame? Jesus himself on more than one occasion even compares the Spirit to water.

Jesus also tells us that the Spirit is the Advocate, or the Helper, who will speak for us. He says that the Spirit gives life. The Spirit will teach us everything we need to know. He is the Spirit of Truth. And of course we conclude from the Scriptures that the Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Trinity, co-equal to the Son and the Father, in everything except relationship. Are you confused yet?

To complicate matters further, there are several references in the Old Testament to the Spirit of God, and yet, we read in the New Testament that the Spirit had not been given to anyone, because Christ had not achieved his glory. And I think that is a way into this mystery.

God formed the Blessed Mother to be the vessel by which the Son would take on our humanity. He made her free from original sin for this purpose. We conclude that because the angel addressed her as “most favorite daughter” or as we say in the Hail Mary, “full of grace”. You can’t be full of grace if you have original sin. Then the angel tells her that she will conceive of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit will form Jesus Christ, who is both God and Man, within her. Mary is responsible for Jesus’ humanity, but she and Joseph do more than see that the body is intact. It is in that family, that human family, that Jesus’ mature humanity is formed. It’s teaching of the Church that Mary was free from original sin. The Church hasn’t said that about Joseph, but maybe he also was formed for that purpose. Scripture calls him “righteous” and unlike patriarchs and prophets in the Old Testament, and even Zachariah, the father of John, Joseph never balks or questions the Lord. A dream happens and off he goes to do what God tells him to do. So the holy couple form Jesus human personality, something that has to develop over time, because Jesus is like us in everything but sin. His divinity is there from his conception.

Moving ahead to the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles, we find the first Christian community made up of the apostles, some women, the Mother of Jesus, and his brothers. We have already met those brothers in the gospels -- most likely close relatives who were followers of Jesus but not members of the Apostolic band. We know little about them except that one was a leader of the early Church. But this is the group to whom the Holy Spirit is given on that first Pentecost -- the rushing wind, the tongues of flame -- and Mary herself receives the Holy Spirit at that time. And what does the Spirit do? He begins the process of conceiving Jesus Christ in each of them. And that’s what he does with the Saints, with us. Because we are only saved through Jesus Christ, and that means in some way we have to look like Jesus to the Father; and the Holy Spirit does this by entering into our humanity and giving us a share in the divinity of Jesus, or as the Eastern Church puts it, we are divinized -- made divine. Even Mary was divinized by the Holy Spirit at that first Pentecost. We don’t read anything more about her, but we do see the results among the apostles, who Luke takes pains to tell us that they are doing what Christ had been doing -- healing the sick, raising the dead, and preaching the good news. And down through history, that’s the story of the saints.

But wait, there’s more. I ran across a cute analogy. If the spirit is water, you and I are coffee grounds. The product depends on the quality of the beans, how well ground they are, the temperature of the water, and so forth. God is providing the water, the Holy Spirit. All we can do is make sure that there are good beans, ground just right, with the water heated to the right temperature. How do we know we are on the right track? Jesus tells us. “He who believes in me, as the Scriptures foretold, from him will flow living water.” If we believe in Jesus, if we are making an effort to hear his commandments and get to know him and do what he tells us, the more we let the Spirit work in us forming Jesus in us, the more we will be conduits for this living water for others.

So if you want to see what the Holy Spirit looks like, check out your fellow parishioners. The resemblance may not be perfect, but it is getting there. And check out your mirror; the Spirit is forming you if you cooperate, into another Jesus Christ.

Seventh Sunday of Easter, cycle C

John 17:20 - 26

When we look out our back window we see a birdfeeder, which if I remember, is usually full of birdseed.  Identical little brown birds swarm over the feeder, pushing aside the ones that are there, who immediately push the first aside; and it goes on all day long, they never take a break.  I’m sure they must spend more energy fighting over their perch than they get from the seeds they managed to eat.  I think my wife likes to watch them because it reminds her of when the kids were young at the supper table.  

Humans are like those birds, more sophisticated, perhaps, because we can control ourselves a little better than the birds.  But left to ourselves, our priorities are, in this order:  me, my family, my tribe, and down the line.  For humans, our priorities never extend to the whole human race, or to even the rest of our countrymen.  The larger the group, the more abstract our sense of belonging.  And added to this is the fear of the stranger – the tribe we don’t belong to we withhold trust, we view suspiciously.  And we may go to war with it over nothing.  If the birds learned to take turns at the feeder, they would all get a lot more food with a lot less effort.  Same for us humans.

Now Jesus’ prayer seems a little complicated and abstract.  Like much of the second part of John’s gospel, you have to read the passages over and over to get something out of them.  But one thing is striking when you think about it.  Jesus is praying for us, his disciples.  He’s praying that his deepest desire for us be realized.  This Jesus, who has calmed the sea, cursed a fig tree, healed people right and left, and even raised the dead – is there anything he can’t do?  Apparently, there is.  He can’t make us become one as he and his father are one.  And Jesus, as a human being who is also the second person of the Trinity, prays to the Father, the Father who is God creating, God all powerful, God all loving, God all knowing – to bring about this unity.  Jesus has managed to bring about a little unity in his apostles – but that will shatter.  Judas will betray, Peter will deny, the rest will desert, and Jesus is out of time.  So he prays with deep humility, with a sense of powerlessness, for something that he knows is against human nature.  Because if we are free to say yes or no, and we are, we can’t be forced to be one, as Jesus is one with the Father.  

But the Father does what he can; he gives us the grace to become one.  Human nature fights against this and the devil, whose very name means “the divider” , is always conspiring against what Jesus longs for with all his heart.  

So what can we do to begin to respond to the grace offered by the Father?  It amounts to repentance, to conversion.  It means we change the way we see things.

First, we recognize our dependence,  Jesus said “The Son can do nothing by himself”.  Neither can you, neither can I.

Second, we try to do the Father’s work.  Jesus talked about the works that he does in his Father’s name.  We can either work for ourselves, or we can see that there is a way for everything I do to be done in my Father’s name, even cleaning up the dishes.

Third, we become familiar with the word of God. Jesus said, “I speak only what the Father has taught me”. The bible is scary if you’ve never really tried to read and understand.  But if you start out small, reading and thinking, I think you might fall in love with God’s word.

Fourth, we recognize that we share God’s being with the Father, with Jesus, with one another, through the Holy Spirit.  It’s a mystery, but the Spirit is God drawing everything into himself, and you and I and Jesus share this Spirit

Fifth, and perhaps most important, is love.  Jesus said, “You have loved them as you have loved me.”  Think about those words.  God loves you and I just as much as he loved Jesus.  If God loves me and loves you just as much as he loved Jesus, then you and I better love each other, not in some abstract feeling kind of way, but by putting ourselves at the service of each other.  I may not be called to die on a cross for you, but how am I putting myself at your service?  If I show you agape love, self giving love, that’s what Jesus is praying for.

In the prayer we heard Jesus say today, we realize he’s done all he can; he’s hit the wall in his efforts to become one with us, to unite us to the Father, to forge a bond of love  between his disciples so that the Father will receive the glory due him, so that the world may believe that the Father sent Jesus to redeem it.  

And Jesus is still watching, still waiting, still living among us praying for us to enter into the unity that he offers.  And it starts with you and me.  

Sixth Sunday of Easter, cycle C

John 14:23 - 29

In the reading from the Acts of the Apostles we hear about the controversy over circumcision and by extension, how Jewish you had to be in order to be a Christian?  It was a serious debate because the early Christians were mostly Jewish converts, and there was no question in their minds that God had given the Jews a lot of commandments.  If you were Jewish, you just accepted that this was the way you lived.  But as the Church began to reach out to gentiles,it had to begin the difficult task of looking at what had been given to Jews and asking what was essential, what of Jewish law applied to the new converts to Christianity.  And as it did so, the Church could not allow these questions to divide it.  The apostles valued unity among the assembly so highly that they sought to speak with one voice.  That’s why Paul consulted with Peter; that’s why in the early church there were ecumenical councils. Unity meant peace, and Jesus, after he rose from the dead, told the apostles “Peace be with you”. 

In a few minutes Father will offer us the peace of the Lord.  I will then ask you to offer a sign of peace to each other.  Some of us will wave, some bow, some studiously look straight ahead and not move at all.  And there will be the wavers and a few people who just have to shake hands because they can’t imagine the sign of peace without actually touching.  And after a couple of minutes we will be back to ignoring each other as we prepare for communion.  There have been some liturgical authorities that think we should do away with this little ritual, or maybe have it at the beginning of mass, so that we could all say hello to each other before we get down to the serious business of why we are here.  And being really old, I remember the Mass before Vatican II.  The Priest would be saying Mass in Latin with his back to the people.  You couldn’t hear what he was saying because he was speaking very softly.  And then he would abruptly turn around and say in a louder voice, “Pax vobiscum”.  And the altar server, me, would answer for the congregation, “et cum spiritu tuo.”  

But there is an interesting document from the third century which has come down to us in Syriac and Greek, and we have several copies or fragments of copies.  It was called in Latin, the Didacalis Apostolorum.  Some people of that time thought it had been written by the apostles, but we doubt that today.  It was kind of an encyclopedia about how to carry out the liturgy, who could administer sacraments, who could marry who, and so on and so forth.  But the part that has something to do with today’s gospel is a description of the kiss of peace.  Once the priest or bishop had finished the Eucharistic prayer and consecrated the Bread and Wine, he would kiss the deacons (I want you to know I am not saying we should go back to the old way).  The deacon would then kiss a few members of the congregation, who would in turn kiss more members, until everyone had exchanged the kiss of peace.  The celebrant was instructed to stop the liturgy if the kiss of peace was refused by someone, or not given by someone.  The celebrant was instructed to intercede until the two individuals had their differences smoothed over; and if they could not, they were to be expelled from the congregation before the Eucharist was given.  It was considered absolutely necessary for everyone to share the peace of Christ before receiving the Body and Blood of Christ.  

Jesus contrasts the peace he gives with that given by the world.  When he mentions the peace the world gives, what undoubtedly came to the minds of his hearers was the Pax Romana.  The Peace of Rome was attributed to the Roman state, which built roads and cities, controlled the shipping lanes, and in general maintained an effective civilization -- at the cost of suppressing dissent by the use of its huge standing army.  The Romans were very proud of the peace they had brought about.  But it was fragile;  there were rebellions, invasions from the north and east of the empire; and sometimes nature would step in to shake up the peace with an earthquake or a plague or a volcano..  

Jesus’ peace is different.  It is based on the giving of the Holy Spirit, who God promises will stand beside us and speak for us and through us -- that’s what an advocate does.  In another place Jesus promises that we don’t need to prepare what we are to say in our defense before the authorities -- the Spirit will provide the words.  Jesus' peace also comes from knowing that he is with the Father and has promised that if we keep his word the Father will love us and Jesus and the Father will make their dwelling in us.  With these kinds of promises it is no wonder that the early Christians did not fear the powers of the state and went to their martyrdoms singing.

So you can see how, every time the liturgy was celebrated, the congregation would exchange the kiss of peace which reminded them that they had been given the peace of Jesus Christ, and that if we accept it, our hearts cannot be troubled or afraid.  Remember that today as well when we exchange the sign of peace, that in this community, in our unity, the peace of Christ truly lives.

Fifth Sunday of Easter, cycle C

 John 13:31 -35

In today’s gospel Jesus gives his disciples a new commandment  But what is new about it?  The old testament is full of admonitions to love your neighbor.  The writings of Moses insisted that the strangers and foreigners in the midst of the Israelites should be treated not only with respect but with love.  So what is this commandment of Jesus’ all about? Why is it new?

Jesus is at the last supper.  Judas has gone of to betray him.  He’s alone with the other eleven disciples.  Notice that he says, “Love one another as I have loved you”.  He hasn’t been crucified yet, he hasn’t given up his life for his people, he hasn’t even started his church.  But he gives them a new commandment, to love one another as He has loved them.  So before Jesus went to his death, he must have loved his disciples in  new ways.  And what do we know about that?  

So how did he love his disciples in a way that they could imitate?  I think you have to look at the whole time that Jesus was with his disciples.  The first thing that happened was that he called them to share in his ministry.  You remember when he called Peter, who fell to his knees and asked Jesus to leave him because he was a sinful man.  And Jesus invited Peter to become a fisher of men.  And as Jesus gathered his twelve apostles, the story was always the same; he called and they answered, and he promised that they would make a difference, that they would be there to judge the world, that they would be able to work miracles like he worked.  But first they would have be be disciples, first they would have to learn from him how to see the world in a new way.  And the disciples did. When you look at the gospel stories and the Acts of the Apostles, you can’t help but notice how Jesus took a band of illiterate fisherman and tradespeople and turned them into evangelists, into missionaries.  The first way Jesus Loved his disciples was to allow them to share in his mission.

The second way Jesus loved his disciples was by serving them.  He demonstrated this by the washing of their feet, which took place just before this gospel story.  It must have been pretty obvious to the disciples that Jesus expected them to serve each other; the greatest among them would be the servant of all.  Peter took this to heart, as shown in the Acts of the Apostles.  He served the early Christian community by being someone who settled disputes, who sought out the Holy spirit in prayer and in consultation, who served the community in humility -- when he was called out by Paul for treating the gentile Christians differently than the Jewish ones, he accepted the correction..  Peter lived for the Church, he put the needs of the Church first.  And we see that among the other early leaders of the Church.  When you read the scriptures you see this, and it's so familiar to us that we don’t see the uniqueness any more.  Before and after Jesus, most leaders chose to be leaders out of self serving motives, and often gained those positions by violence..  But Jesus turns the attention of his disciples to humble service.  This is loving  leadership.

The third way Jesus loved his disciples was by forgiving them.  We think about the betrayal of Peter and how Jesus forgave him there on the shores of the sea of Galilee after the resurrection.  But there were plenty of other times Jesus forgave his followers.  Maybe their offenses weren’t as serious as Peter’s, like when James and John wanted to call down fire upon the Samaritan village that had rejected them, or when they couldn’t see the point he was making with a parable and he had to patiently explain what he meant.  And perhaps that’s the kind of forgiveness we need to imitate.  It’s one thing to forgive an enemy, but when someone does us serious harm we tend to avoid that person in the future, forgiven or not.  It’s another thing to deal with what we see as shortcomings in people -- our children, our spouse, our friends -- and rather than “put up” with them, learn to love those shortcomings, knowing we have them as well.  When Peter proclaimed that Jesus was the Messiah, the Christ, Jesus gave him a nickname -- Peter which means “Rock”.  And that nickname would be prophetic, because Peter would eventually become the rock upon which the Church would be built, but he would also be very un-rock like in the courtyard of the high priest the night before Jesus was crucified.  And Jesus called James and John “Sons of Thunder” when they wanted to destroy the Samaritan village.  And I think when the disciples returned from the mission on which he had sent them and told of all the things that had happened, Jesus observed that he had seen Satan falling from heaven.  In other words, as I read the gospels, Jesus loves the things about us that make us unique, and doesn’t just put up with them.  

So the new commandment of Jesus is to love as he did -- to invite others into a common ministry; to serve each other without expecting thanks or recognition; and to forgive each other, especially of the little things we don’t even recognize as worthy of forgiveness.  

And we are all called to this kind of love.  And how do we know when we are living that way?  When people see it and know we are Jesus’ disciples.  

Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time, cycle C

John 10:27 - 30

The 10th chapter of John’s gospel is all about Jesus as the good shepherd.  There are many images in there that do not resonate with us because, unlike Jesus’ audience, we don't have much to do with shepherds these days.  But to the Israelites, the image of the shepherd was very prominent.  When you think about it, a lot of the big names in Jewish history were shepherds --- Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the twelve patriarchs were all shepherds.  Moses was a shepherd during his exile, when he tended the flocks of his father in law.  King David was a shepherd, and the author of the Psalm that starts out “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want”.  And we could go on.  In the New testament we see that the first people to hear about the birth of Jesus are shepherds.  

If we had heard a few verses before today’s gospel, we would have heard Jesus call himself the Good Shepherd.  Today’s gospel is why he can claim that title.  Sheep follow the shepherd.  They are herd animals like cows, horses, and human beings, if you want to be honest.  Herd animals feel more secure when they are part of the herd, when they have a leader to follow.  When the leader is in dispute, there is trouble.  In the wild, flocks of sheep follow a single leader until that individual begins to show some sort of weakness.  Then rivals try to take over; they either replace the leader or end up splitting the flock.  Domestic sheep look to the shepherd as the leader, and he outlives all of them; sooner or later if you're a sheep you end up being mutton.  And that’s why Jesus is the Good Shepherd; he gives his sheep eternal life.

So what is eternal life and why do I want it?  If you were to talk to a devout Buddhist, he would look at you blankly -- why would anyone want to keep living, to keep reincarnating, over and over again, with all the pain and suffering that comes into even the richest and 

wealthiest life?  Vlaidimir Putin a few years ago rode around on a horse with his shirt off -- easily the image of a very strong, powerful and rich man.  And we hear that he’s got cancer, and may have to go through surgery soon.  No one is immune, and to the Buddhist, the best thing is to get off the train -- to rid yourself of all desire so that you won’t keep coming back in a new body.  And I think we tend to see eternal life this way as well -- It’s all well and good to never die again, but being human beings, we know that deep down sooner or later we’d get bored.  And to talk about enjoying the beatific vision is abstract; I look forward to that because I’m told that this is what awaits the saints.  But is that going to be an everlasting subscription to Netflix?  I hope not.  

But listen to Jesus’ words:  “I give them eternal life”.  He doesn’t say, “I will give them eternal life”.  IF you are one of his sheep, if you know him, if you hear his voice, you already have eternal life.  Eternal life doesn’t just mean living forever -- although that’s implied.  But we haven’t got the faintest idea about how things would be if we did not experience time passing.  It just can’t be put into words.  But eternal life has already started for us.  So what is it?  Jesus defined it.  He said, “And this is eternal life, that they might know you, the eternal God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”  So eternal life is knowing God.  Kind of disappointing.

But knowing God is not the same as knowing about him, that he exists, that he is Trinity, that he is all powerful, all knowing, and so forth.  Knowing God is really on the order of responding to his offer of friendship, of a relationship of intimacy.  This relationship is life-changing; just read the life of any saint.  And I think most of us have known people that we knew had a deep and strong relationship with God.  But I suspect that God lets us sense that in some people, but not all.  More importantly, you and I already have this relationship, but it’s like any human friendship; it can grow, or diminish.  If I want a friendship to grow I have to hang out with my friend; I have to learn about what gives him joy, where his interests are.  To grow a friendship requires conversation with that friend, which is why God became a human being, so that we could relate to him.  

You and I already have eternal life -- Jesus gave it to us.  We can reject the gift of course.  But most of us probably won’t.  But what Jesus offers is an eternity of increasing intimacy with him, with God, which will completely satisfy us.  No one can really put it into words, we can only experience hints of it during this life -- some more than others.  And I suspect that what we call purgatory is that state in which our loving God will continue to call us out of unselfishness, our self-centeredness, until we finally give up resisting.  Because we do resist.  You would think intimacy with God would be something we would want so badly that nothing would stand in our way.  Saint Jane Francis de Chantal had a mystical experience of this and described it as a drip of water falling into an ocean.  You stop being the drop and become the ocean -- or perhaps you lose yourself and become God.  But most of us really don’t want to lose ourselves.  But our Shepherd keeps after us, and sooner or later, will achieve what he wants.  So listen to his voice, and be confident that nothing can snatch us out of his hands.     

Third Sunday of Easter, cycle C

John 21:1 - 19

Our gospel reading tells us that this is the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples.  We will hear about the second time, according to John, this Sunday, when Jesus appears to the apostles along with Thomas, who missed the first time eight days before.  The first time of course, was Easter Sunday -- but before he appeared to them on Easter Sunday, he appeared to Mary Magdalene.  

It’s too bad we hear John’s account in fragments and not even in order.  John is telling us something important if we listen.  Consider the apostles in this particular story.  Why are they in Galilee?  It’s not clear from John’s gospel.  We hear in the gospel of Matthew that Jesus told the women to tell his brothers, the apostles, to go to Galilee, where they would see him.  We don’t see that in John;  the first and second appearances seem to take place in Jerusalem, both times in a locked room; and then we are whisked off to Galilee. Geographically, it would take four days to walk that distance.  You have to wonder what was going on.  

There is a hint, perhaps in that Peter tells the others that he is going fishing.  The others, at least some of whom are also fishermen, volunteer to come with him.  We can imagine what might be going on.  Maybe the apostles left Jerusalem because they feared for their lives if they hung around, and went back to familiar territory.  And perhaps they had run out of funds and prudence dictated that they make a little money.  But they had seen the Lord twice, and from John’s gospel we don’t see any consequences.  He doesn’t commission them, he doesn’t tell them what to do next -- it’s all a blank.  And in the context of the earth shattering miracle they just witnessed, they return to their ordinary lives, their comfortable surroundings.  

And were we to read further in chapter 21 of John’s gospel, we finally get around to the actual commissioning, when he tells Peter, in the presence of the others, to feed his lambs and tend to his sheep.  

During the Easter season, we see proclaimed everywhere including the daily newspaper, the words, “He is risen”.  Father Richard Vera, who wrote a wonderful book called “The word made flesh” points out that once God took on human flesh, once God became incarnate, he did not discard that body after he ascended into heaven.  He is still with us, still incarnate, still around to be discovered.  You and I are like the apostles.  We believe, on faith, that Jesus truly died and truly rose again.  We believe that somehow this set of facts changed everything, making it possible for us to live good lives and participate in the sacraments and to eventually find our way to heaven, to the eternal presence of God, to be finally filled up with the only thing that can satisfy us forever -- God himself.  But like the apostles, we need to eat, we need to work, we need to live our lives.  

But like the apostles, we have to bear in mind that he is still with us, and it’s important for you and I to be tuned in enough to see him.  Peter and the other disciples notice the man on the seashore who asks them to cast the net on the other side of the boat.  That certainly resembles the miracle recorded in Luke, after which Peter is called to become a fisher of men.  But it isn’t Peter who recognizes Jesus, it’s the disciple Jesus loved -- that’s you, that’s me.  And the disciple recognizes Jesus because he is doing what he did before.  And that’s how we are to recognize Jesus.  Wherever his work is being done, wherever his word is being preached, he’s there, and we can recognize him with the eyes of faith.  He is truly risen -- present tense.  He is still God in the flesh.  And if we keep alert and indeed if we also do the things Jesus did, he will be incarnate in us and we will see him all the better.  

I think that’s what John may be showing us; if we are sons and daughters of the Father, and if we are doing the work given to us with devotion and attention, we’ll meet Jesus right here in this life, and over time his presence will become more and more clear so that at the end of our lives we can say with Saint Stephen, “I see the heavens open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God”

Easter Sunday, 2022

The four gospels all tell us about the Resurrection of Jesus, but the stories are all a little different.  This is in contrast to the way they handle the passion and death of Jesus -- pretty much the same from evangelist to evangelist.  Needless to say, scholars have spent a lot of time discussing the discrepancies.  But there are some common threads.  The first is that the Resurrection begins with an empty tomb.  The second is that the people who discover the empty tomb are women; not as significant now as it was then.  In that society women were not considered reliable witnesses and their testimony meant a lot less than that of a man in a court of law.  But all the gospels insist on this fact.  The third is that those women who discovered the empty tomb met with some kind of supernatural being or beings -- men dressed in white, two angels, one angel, a young man -- but something supernatural explained that Jesus had risen from the dead, and this is the important part -- as he had promised. And the fourth is that when Jesus appeared to people, they at first did not recognize him.   

Sure, the scriptures tell us that Jesus appeared to his apostles, later on to more than 500 people, surely to Paul.  But when you think about it, you either believe those witnesses or you don’t.  It’s like so many things we hear about.  If I hear that the Blessed Mother is appearing to people in Medjugorje, I guess I neither believe nor disbelieve.  I figure if she wants to give me a special message, she knows where to find me.  It’s the same with the appearances of Jesus.  I’m sure they were momentous to the apostles and the first Christians.  The appearances of Jesus gave them the courage to preach the gospel and to suffer a martyr's death.  But in the long run, you either believe those witnesses or you don’t.  Or if you are like me you neither believe or disbelieve; that's just the way I am.

But the tomb was empty.  If you or I open a tomb, we would expect to find a body, probably in some state of deterioration.  Even the bodies of saints that have been preserved are not quite like living bodies; no matter what, you can tell that they are no longer alive.  But the astonishing thing about the tomb of Jesus is that you don’t encounter death there, you can’t help asking, just as the women did, “Who did this, who took the body away?”  

Not only don’t you encounter death in the tomb, but you encounter life.  You are reminded that he predicted this.  While he was living among you, he reminded you over and over again that this must happen, that the scriptures foretold this event, that the Son of Man must be tortured and put to death, and to rise again on the third day.  What the women encountered was a special insight from heaven, kind of like when Peter realized that Jesus was the Messiah of God.  

Now you have to ask, why women?  We could quibble over how many women were at the empty tomb;  we know one woman was there at least, and that was Mary Magdalene.  But remember, you certainly don’t have to believe women.  In the Gospel of Luke it says that the women returned to the apostles and kept telling them about what they had witnessed, but the apostles didn't believe them.  I like to picture the women who kept telling.  They didn’t say it once, they said it over and over.  But the apostles didn’t have to believe women.  

And maybe that’s the point.  Peter and John eventually go to the tomb and see for themselves that it’s empty -- but there is no angel to tell them why.  They go home wondering what it all means; they still don’t believe..  

Saint Paul tells us that if Christ did not rise from the dead, our faith is futile, and we are still in our sins.  If it is only for this life that we have hope in Christ, then we are to be pitied more than all men.  And that is the mystery.

There are scholars who have studied the scriptures and concluded that Jesus was a good man and a fine teacher, but that’s all.  There are others who talk about a mass hallucination that convinced those early Christians that Jesus had conquered death.  Some in fact think the hallucination came from God.  And there were a lot of theories among the enemies of Christianity -- in the Gospel of Matthew, the soldiers are told to say that someone came and stole the body while they were sleeping.  

In the end we are all in the position of Peter and John, of Thomas, of Mary Magdalene, of the two followers on the way to Emmaus.  If the Resurrection ofJesus is to mean anything to us, we must believe, we must have faith, we must totally commit to this as a fact, like the sun coming up in the morning, or the flowers that burst forth in the spring.  Because we all stand before the empty tomb that tells us death has been conquered for you and I if we believe that Jesus did what he promised to do.  As Jesus told Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen, but have come to believe.”