VISION OF THE RISEN LORD

EASTER TUESDAY   

Acts 2:36-41; Ps 33:4-5,18-20,22; Jn 20:11-18

Faith and The Risen Lord

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the emergence or appearance of a spiritual world that is accessible only through faith in the word of God. God, by raising Jesus Christ from the dead, has caused the spiritual light to shine for us mortal men. But only with the eyes of faith can we see the light and, through it, the heavenly realities. The ability to see spiritual light is not new to us, for God created us spiritual. We lost the ability through the original sin of Adam and Eve, which was a choice they made for us to walk in the darkness of sin and evil. The resurrection has caused the spiritual Sun that we lost when we chose to walk by ourselves and not by God’s light to rise in our land of exile. Thus, the gift of faith in the word of God is connatural to us, who are made in the image of God. As we have noted several times, our habitual living and walking by the senses would pose an initial problem for all of us who come to faith in Christ. Hence, the newly baptised face this problem; the Church, therefore, continually prays and guides them in their understanding of the truth of the Gospel this season of Easter. It is similar to the experience we had when we first learnt to read; we discovered, to our amazement, a new world of information that was inaccessible to us, now within our easy reach. Our coming to faith gives us a similar experience of spiritual realities now accessible to us.

We see an illustration of this in the Gospel narrative. Saint John uses Mary of Magdala to illustrate the difference between faith and ordinary life lived through the senses. This is a common theme in his Gospel. Mary’s desire to see the body of Jesus Christ kept her weeping around the tomb site, even when Peter and the beloved apostle had left the place. Here, we see the necessity of desire for Jesus Christ and its insufficiency. Her desire to see Jesus, though necessary, was not enough to grant her the vision of the Risen Lord. She needed faith to have an encounter with the Lord of mystery. She was first granted the vision of angels in the tomb, sitting where the body was laid. Next, she was given the vision of the Risen Lord, whom she could not recognise due to a lack of faith in the resurrection. “They said, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ ‘They have taken my Lord away’ she replied ‘and I don’t know where they have put him.’ As she said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, though she did not recognise him.” I can imagine how many times Jesus stood before us without our recognition of him due to our lack of faith or our self-interest. One without faith has a disfigured perception of our reality. Only when Jesus awakens our faith in him are we able to have a comprehensive view of our reality. “Jesus said, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said, ‘Sir, if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him.’ Jesus said, ‘Mary!’ She knew him then and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbuni!’—which means Master.” This exclamation is that of one who has found what she is looking for. Our Lord called her forth into the light of resurrection.

As Saint John does in his Gospel, we see a gradual ascent of Mary’s desire from the ordinary to the spiritual, driven by her desire for the Lord. This desire is innate in every one of us, for we are made in God’s image and for God. God raised Jesus Christ from the dead in order to satisfy this deepest desire of our hearts. The Risen Lord will cause the divine well in us to spring forth and give spiritual life to our whole being. This is the subject of Peter’s proclamation on Pentecost day. What prevents the deep well within us from producing the living water is sin. Our Lord Jesus Christ has taken care of our sins by his passion and death. Each of us must accept the fact that he died for our sins and believe also that he rose again to justify us before God. Saint Peter presents these requirements to the Jews as follows. “You must repent, and every one of you must be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise that was made is for you and your children, and for all those who are far away, for all those whom the Lord our God will call to himself.” Every human person has a vocation to Jesus Christ by the fact of bearing the image of God and is intended to be made into the likeness of God. Our habitual dwelling in the presence of the Risen Lord will transform us into him. When our spiritual eyes are opened, we will say with the psalmist: “The word of the Lord is faithful and all his works to be trusted. The Lord loves justice and right and fills the earth with his love.” Jesus is our universal Master; with Mary, we call him: Rabbuni!

Let us pray: O God, who have bestowed on us paschal remedies, endow your people with heavenly gifts, so that, possessed of perfect freedom, they may rejoice in heaven over what gladdens them now on earth. 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.