CONSEQUENCES OF THE RESURRECTION

EASTER SATURDAY   

Acts 4:13-21; Ps 118:1,14-21; Mk 16:9-15  

The Mission to Proclaim the Good News

The disciples found it difficult to believe the story of the resurrection from those who first encountered the Risen Lord because the news was unbelievable. They were not paying attention to the scriptures, just as we do not in our daily lives. They were just following the daily happenings or events. They all experienced his passion and death as a shock to the hope of deliverance. Thus, the news of the resurrection of the Lord was totally a new thing from the ordinary or known events ever. If one accepts the news as true, it changes everything: our understanding and perception of life, our daily lives, our religion and religious activities, our understanding of events, and our purposes in life. The effects would be too heavy to bear, and their consequences would be too revolutionary. This is why it was unbelievable. The news of the resurrection of the Son of Man is comparable to the discovery of quantum mechanics in science, which changed our understanding of the material universe. The resurrection of the Lord has consequences both for the living and the dead. As we noted yesterday, Judaism stood on a shaky foundation if it is admitted that the religious leaders rejected the Messiah and killed him, which is the end for which the religion was instituted in the first place. Mere human nature or strength would be too feeble to carry or cushion the consequences of the Lord’s resurrection.

The poor and weak disciples of Jesus Christ, who were still under the effects of the events of the last few days, his passion and crucifixion, remained in shock. They were still unable to redirect their lives in view of what happened and their expectations of salvation in physical terms. Saint Mark paints this picture summarily and clearly for us. “Having risen in the morning on the first day of the week, Jesus appeared first to Mary of Magdala, from whom he had cast out seven devils. She then went to those who had been his companions, and who were mourning and in tears, and told them. But they did not believe her when they heard her say that he was alive and that she had seen him.” The Risen Lord just happened to Mary Magdalene, for she was not searching for a living, but the dead body of Jesus. The sight of the body of her Master and the act of anointing it would console her in her loss of hope and disillusionment at his death. We must imagine the great hope the Son of Man brought to her life by freeing her from the stranglehold of seven demons. He first appeared to her because her desolation was more than that of others. Cleopas and his companion, leaving Jerusalem for good, expressed their desolation openly and shared with the stranger, who happened to be the Risen Lord. “Lastly, he showed himself to the Eleven themselves while they were at table. He reproached them for their incredulity and obstinacy, because they had refused to believe those who had seen him after he had risen.” We all share the incredulity of the disciples, for none of us has really carefully worked the news of the resurrection into the fabric of our daily lives.  

The fact is that we cannot really achieve this integration and rebuilding without divine aid. But the foundation of the new building is our assent of faith in the resurrection of our Lord. With the assent of faith, the Risen Lord opens our minds and hearts to the foundation of the resurrection in the Scriptures. With this encounter of the Risen Lord in the Scriptures and in the Sacraments of the Church, we gradually penetrate the hidden purposes of God for our lives and the whole world at large. Saints Peter and John, after receiving the Holy Spirit, had their minds opened to the divine reality and plan of salvation. They presented God to the people in a way better than the Jewish religious leaders could ever understand. “The rulers, elders and scribes were astonished at the assurance shown by Peter and John, considering they were uneducated laymen; and they recognised them as associates of Jesus; but when they saw the man who has been cured standing by their side, they could find no answer.” Their religion had lost its relevance before the new religion of Jesus Christ. The Lord commissioned the disciples to go preach it to everyone. “And he said to them, ‘Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good News to all creation.’” This is the command of God; As Peter countered the order of the elders, we must listen to God and not to men.

Let us pray: O God, who by the abundance of your grace give increase to the people who believe in you, look with favour on those you have chosen and clothe with blessed immortality those reborn through the Sacrament of Baptism. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.