Reflection

 

(Reading from the Gospel of St. John)

 

 

     'On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb (...) and saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she (...) went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple (...) and told them, "They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don't know where thy put him". So Peter and the other disciple went out (...) to the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first; he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in.

     When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there (...). Then the other disciple also went in (...) and he saw and believed. For they did not yet understand the Scripture that He had to rise from the dead'.

 

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Discovering the Empty Tomb

 

     "Why do we seek the living among the dead? He's not here, but He has raised". (Lk 24:5-6)

     The discovery of the empty tomb was the first sign in the unfolding of the incredulous events of Easter morning, the first step toward recognizing the very fact of the Resurrection.

     Mary Magdalene and the holy women came to the tomb at early dawn to finish anointing the body of Jesus and were the first to encounter the Risen Lord. The Apostles followed soon after. For immediately after Peter and John learned that Jesus' body was no longer in the tomb, they went in haste to see for themselves what they had heard.

     Saint John paints a vivid picture of how the two disciples approached the empty tomb, adding a few unusual details in revealing that 'Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first... and he saw and believed' (Jn 20:3-4,8).

     As witnesses of the Risen One, the Apostles remain "the foundation stones of the Chruch... the primary 'witness to (Jesus') Resurrection'" (CCC 642).

 

Light Overcomes Darkness

 

     On reaching the empty tomb, Peter, on the left, with a pensive bearded face, looks down with a somber gaze, his hands tightly clasped across his chest. John's inquiring face and chest glow in the warm, radiant light that illumines the canvas.

     Tanner (the painter) contrast golden, ethereal light and deep shadows to evoke the transcendent presence of the Risen Jesus who, by the power of his Resurrection, overcomes the darkness of sin and death. Against the darkened tomb entrance and the stone, now rolled away, a heavenly light emanates from the tomb. Light spreads the radiance of Jesus' Resurrection on the two disciples and all who, like them, journey in faith to the empty tomb.

     Seeing the empty tomb, the disciples realize that the absence of Jesus' body was not human doing. Jesus had not simply returned to earthly life, as Lazarus had done. "In His risen body", notes the Catechism, "He passes from the state of death to another life beyond time and space. At Jesus' Resurrection, His body is filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, He shares the divine life in His glorious state..." (CCC 646)*

 

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     Dearest Jesus, teach us to be generous, to serve you as you deserve, to give but not to count the cost, to fight and not to hit the wound, to labor and not to seek for any reward, except to know that we're doing your holy will. Amen.

 

 

 

* Jem Sullivan. From Holy Week, Magnificat,Vol.19, No1. 2017