by Fr. Jose “Joesum” Sumampong, Jr.
April 4, 2021
Easter Sunday (Year B)
Acts 10:34, 37-43 / Psalm 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23
Col 3:1-4 or 1 Cor 5:6-8 / Jn 20:1-9 or Lk 24:13-35(Evening Masses)
WHEN THE TOMB IS EMPTY LIFE BECOMES FULL
Word: The four gospels agree on this historical point: that the Resurrection happened on the day after the great Sabbath of the Jewish Pasch. John, so sensitive to symbols, sees in this “first day” a new word beginning – a new creation, a new week of Genesis.
Suffering and death are the main arguments against the existence of God: How could God have created a world in which there is so much unhappiness? The question cannot be answered if we refuse to believe in the Resurrection.
The ancient Fathers of the Church, and all those who meditate deeply on the Scriptures, think that God would not have worked the “first creation” which is our present mortal condition if he had not foreseen from all eternity this “second creation” wherein “death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away” (Rev 21:4).
Evidently this gospel narrative by St. John was written for us to realize that the empty tomb is not proof by itself capable of leading us to faith. However, this famous “empty tomb” is a challenge, against which many fumble. The word “tomb” is repeated seven times in this single passage. There must be more meaning to it.
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Order: “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen” (Lk 24:5-6). The first element we encounter in the framework of the Easter events is the empty tomb. In itself it is not a direct proof of Resurrection; the absence of Christ’s body from the tomb could be explained otherwise. Nonetheless the empty tomb was still an essential sign for all. Its discovery by the disciples was the first step towards recognizing the very fact of the Resurrection (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 640).
The empty tomb challenges our faith. Faith has something in common with the deepest human realities. We never see the love of those who love us. We only have signs of their love! But these signs reveal their significance only to those who know how to decipher them. A gesture, a word, a gift—all these are ambivalent and fragile signs. They need to be interpreted, not without risk of error. We may ask: “What did he or she want to tell me?” or “How am I to understand this gesture?”
This is why a real human encounter is always moving it obliges the partners to remain always open and attentive to each other. We have all made, some time or other, the painful experience of making a sign that is misunderstood, of pronouncing a word which is not welcomed, of making a gesture which is misinterpreted. Boundless love is need for two people to perceive in all their significance they message they exchange.
Do I understand the meaning of the empty tomb in my own personal life? Has my relationship with the Jesus and my fellowmen deepened because of the Resurrection?
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Realities: 1.The news of Wellington’s victory at Waterloo was brought by sailing ship to the south coast of England. From there by semaphore it was wigwagged over land toward London. Finally the message reached the roof of Winchester cathedral: “Wellington defeated.”
A heavy fog covered the landscape and the signals from view. The sad news was relayed to London, plunging the citizens into a deep gloom.
In a short time, the fog lifted and the remainder of the message came through: “Wellington defeated the enemy.” Quickly the news raced on .. .lifting gloomy hearts from sadness to joy.
Similarly, that is a picture “Of Good Friday’s … “Christ defeated” … to Easter’s more complete: “Christ defeated the enemy.” (Tonne, EASTER)
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2. 584. EASTER
It was Wednesday of Holy Week in the last year of the Second World War. I saw her kneeling before Our Lady’s statue, tears running down her face. I whispered, “What’s the trouble?” She sniffled, plunged her hand into her black pocketbook and pulled out a crumpled telegram. Then she really sobbed, “I got this only two hours ago.” It read, “The War Department re~rets to inform you that your son is missing in action.” What could I do but mumble a stumbling word of consolation and promise some really earnest prayers? The next morning, Holy Thursday, I saw that mother kneeling before the decorated altar, her face now sadder than ever. She seemed to have grown old overnight. She was, like Our Lord, in a garden of agony …
On Good Friday I noticed her seated in a front bench, staring fixedly at the blank altar with its unveiled crucifix, She was like Mary standing beneath the cr6SS. It was Good Friday in her soul.
Then on Easter Saturday night before we started the Easter vigil ceremonies, she came to tell methe good news. This was not the same woman. This was a new woman with a new telegram. Her son was safe, a prisoner of war. She did not teH me; she could not talk; she simply thrust the telegram
into my hands. She was crying again – but her tears now made a rainbow of joy. When she left, I called out, “Happy Easter! ” … but from the radiant smile on her motherly face, I knew I was wasting my breath. She knew what Easter meant much better than I did. Was it not the resurrection of her son? (Father Manton, EASTER)
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2. 585. EASTER LAUGH1ER
In the Middle Ages during the Easter week liturgies there was the custom of the laughter liturgies. During this time the preacher was expected to crack jokes during the sermon, or tell funny stories or fables so that the ” congregation would burst out into joyful laughter – it was laughter time, Resurrection time, alleluia time. (Father Manton, EASTER LAUGHTER)
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3. 901. LIFE AFTER DEATH
More than a thousand people who have been clinically dead and been brought back to life, have told us what it was like during those missing minutes. A person is clinically dead when there is no longer any sign oflife in the body. The heart has stopped beating, the lungs have stopped breathing. The only thing left alive are some cells in the brain which still have enough oxygen to live. A person can remain in this state up to five minutes. And many have been brought to life by special injections and special machines.
Some years ago some doctors who had themselves gone through this experience began to compare notes and they found a remarkable similarity in what they had seen and felt. So, some American and German doctors began to contact other people who had been clinically dead and had been brought back to life. Theyasked these people to describe what their experiences had been. These doctors gathered information from 1370 such men and women. These people came from various countries. They had never
met one another and yet, the stories they told are very similar. None of them found this “life after death” unpleasant. On the contrary, they said that they felt as if they never left their bodies. Most of them said that they came to a place that was just filled with bright light. Some heard soft music; they felt very happy and free and peaceful. Some said that they were watching the doctors and nurses working over their earthly body and trying to bring it back to life. It was as if they stood afar off and wa tched … They said they felt no more pain. They were not at all afraid. Many said they met relatives and friends and acquiantances who had died before. One thing on which they agreed was that they did not want to come back to life on earth. (Willie Hoffsuemmer, LIFE AFTER DEATH)
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4. It was October 23, 1990, in Room 223 of the St. Paul Community Hospital in San Pablo City. Delba de Chavez was speechless and trembling. A nurse had just done an intravenous push on her six-month-old baby girl, Marcie, when minutes later Delba felt her little girl grow limp in her arms. Her head drooped to one side. Her face ashen. Delba felt for her pulse and heartbeat; there was not even the slightest flutter. Marcie was allergic to the medicine she was administered.
It seemed like ages before the doctor arrived. Meanwhile Delba and her friends prayed over the child. In tears, she poured her heart to God: “Father, if it is your will that Marcie will live, then let her live to witness for you. Do as you see fit, dear Lord. Help me to understand the message you want to convey.” It did not take long for God to show a miracle. Marcie started to breath again.
When Marcie was discharged five days later. The doctor who helped revive Marcie walked over to shake Delba’s hands. He seemed to think for a moment. She held her breath as she thought, “What’s he going to tell us this time? That Marcie will not develop into a normal child? That her brain had suffered from lack of oxygen?” Then he uttered these words that Melba won’t ever forget. He said, “I can’t believe what happened. I’ve had other cases similar to your daughter’s but this was the only time I’ve seen someone come back to life. It was a miracle!” Deep inside her, Delba said, “It really was!”
Marcie’s miraculous revival have inspired many sermons in their church. People have told Delba how their faith had been strengthened because of her daughter’s “re-birth”(A Testimony. CATHOLIC CHARISMATIC MEETING)
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Direction : Lord, it is rather uncomfortable to believe that you have really risen from death. After all, to limit myself to knowing that God exists is less compromising; it eliminates doubts, compensates for some tensions, grants a passport for the beyond. To believe in you in such fashion gives us also the right to be unhappy if you don’t provide for our well-being, if you don’t grant our requests. Today, Lord, I have an appointment with your resurrection. To believe you have risen is to accept passing with you from death to life, from time to infinity, from selfishness to love. And I do die every day in my routine things, in my routine contacts, in my every situation. To believe you have risen is to spring out and live, free: because we are, and feel that we are, children of God, able to love with your love; because we are responding to you; because we are sharing in others and with others, with our brothers, this liberation. Lord, to have risen is to become new in you, to experience and express the deep joy of your coming in love among us. (Appointment with the Resurrection, by Anna Teresa Ciccolini)