This is the day the LORD has made;
let us be glad and rejoice in it.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
We have been waiting anxiously throughout Lent for the fateful days of Holy Thursday and Good Friday, for the silence and emptiness of Holy Saturday, and finally for the triumph of the transformation of the Risen Christ made known on Easter Sunday morning. The earthly limits Jesus had willingly taken on in the Incarnation are shattered as a new presence fully bodily and spiritual is revealed in the post-resurrection appearances. The risen Jesus walks through walls to meet his disciples in the Upper Room; he just appears from nowhere to the two disciples on their way to Emmaus; he is unrecognizable to Mary Magdalene in the Garden; he miraculously appears on the seashore to have breakfast with Peter and the other disciples.
The question for us is not so much how Jesus appears, but how we recognize him in his transformed presence and how we are changed by that encounter. Thomas in the Upper Room refuses to believe Jesus has risen unless he can put his hand in the nail marks and in his side; Thomas does so and then declares Jesus as his Lord and God. The two disciples on the way to Emmaus are so preoccupied with their disappointment in how Jesus’ ministry ended, they cannot see his true identity until he explains the scriptures and breaks the bread with them. The Risen Jesus then disappears from their sight, and they literally run back to Jerusalem to share the wondrous news. Mary Magdalene thinks he is the gardener until he calls her name. She is so overwhelmed that she flings herself on Jesus and tries to hold onto him. But Jesus says, “you cannot relate to me as you did before my transformation, but go and tell the disciples I am going ahead of them to Galilee”. She literally becomes the Apostle to the Apostles. Finally, Jesus appears at the seashore cooking breakfast, but the disciples don’t recognize him until they are confronted with an enormous catch of fish. Now they really see him, and their lives are never the same. No longer just students of the Master, they now become apostles ready to go out to all the world to share the Good News no matter what the cost. The Risen Christ changes those who have the eyes to see.
And what about us? Are we ready to recognize the Risen Christ in the graces we have been given through one another’s lives? Are we ready to be transformed to become a “living word” to a troubled world?
Fr. Gailhac told the early community and tells us today that “Jesus Christ has chosen you to be the continuation of his existence to accomplish the great Work of Redemption.”
That is the message of the Resurrection: we are transformed in the Risen Christ and sent out to tell the Good News that all are destined for fullness of life.
This is the day the LORD has made;
let us be glad and rejoice in it.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Sr. Catherine Vincie
Photo: Unsplash
