Easter Sunday: April 20, 2014: “ I have seen the Lord”!

Easter Sunday: 

April 20, 2014:

 “ I have seen the Lord”!

Joseph of Arimathea was approached by a fellow Jew who says: 

“That was a beautiful hand-hewn tomb, why did you give it up for Jesus”. 

Joseph said, “Well He needed it only for a weekend.”

                   

                        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dT7dGcsrPkQ

Alleluia Jesus is risen. Resurrection is central to my faith, not the incarnation, not the beatitudes, not all the stories of Jesus. If Christ has not been risen from the dead our faith will be ruined says Paul. Resurrection restores our trust in the Lord. It definitely restored Jesus’ faith and trust in God the Father for he knew not what was in store for him when he surrendered himself to the will of the Father in Gethsemane and then breathed his last on the cross.

Cross we have a few. There is no resurrection without the cross. But there is Resurrection after the Good Friday and that is Good News. 

We don’t have to look for our crosses. Life will give that to us.

If you say you don’t have one just wait it will show up. Jesus did not look for the cross it came to him. Jesus’ story tells us that we are invited by God to accept our crosses. 

James Martin SJ tells the story of an elderly nun who was on a wheel chair for many years and she was complaining of her pain. Her mother superior told her, “think of Jesus on the cross”. Then the nun on the wheelchair said, “he was only on the cross for three hours”. 

Well accepting the cross means after the shock, frustration, rage and sadness we must accept that some things cannot be changed. James Martin in his book Jesus the Pilgrimage says, “In every cross, there is an invitation to new life in some way, and often in a mysterious way”. So we must wait for the resurrection. 

The Cross is often where we meet God because our vulnerability can make us more open to God’s grace. Thomas Merton writes,       “In tribulation, God teaches us. The most unfortunate people in the world are those who know no tribulations”.

Resurrection, God’s gift to the vulnerable, broken, beaten, the lost, the least and the last is often not what we expect. It does not even come when we expect it. 

For Mary Magdalene it was a total surprise and shock. She couldn’t believe it nor could she recognize Jesus for she thought He was the gardener. Then she heard: Mary, and she said, "Rabboni!" 

“She knew that distinctive voice with the Nazorean accent- the voice that called her into wholeness when it expelled whatever demons troubled her, the voice that welcomed her into his cycle of friends, the voice that told her she was valued in the eyes of God, the voice that answered her questions, the voice that laughed over the meal, the voice that counseled her near the end of his earthly life, the voice that cried out in pain from the cross”. 

Mary recognized that voice of love. Sometimes seeing is not believing but loving is. Mary heard that voice of Jesus, the risen one, because in the words of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the voice of God is uplifting, consoling and encouraging. 

It is the voice that called Peter from the shore, Mathew from the tax collector’s booth, Mary of Magdala from the pit of sin.

Jesus met Mary in her fear, shock and unbelief.

Jesus met the disciples inside the locked doors for fear of Jews. 

They had deserted him, betrayed him, denied him and was living in despair. 

Jesus meets them where they were. My dear friends the risen Jesus meets us where were are in our lives at this moment. The risen one understands us where we are and will meet us and take us into a new life, new way of living, new way of being in the world. There is nothing impossible to God.

Resurrection is all about new possibilities, new beginnings, or say God-possibilities.

When we are surprised by God, encountered by God in our pain, suffering, cross, sin, despair, when we recognize his tender voice calling us to come forth, do not cling to that experience. 

Mary was told, “do not cling to me, go and tell the disciples”.

Go tell the good news. Go how much God has loved you, forgiven you. Be an apostle to the apostle as Mary was sent. We are sent to share the resurrection experience.

Resurrection is about seeing our world in a new way. 

Early that Easter morning, Mary did not find what she was looking for, the dead body of Jesus. But she found something better than she could have imagined: the Risen Jesus. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Klrc0YuikM

Sometimes, the things we think we want most are not granted to us. 

What we get instead is an experience of God’s new ways of working in the world. 

That’s the power of the Resurrection.

When those moments come, we must spread the news--just as Mary did: We have seen the Lord!

God Bless you always!

Sincerely Yours,
Rev. Fr. Cyriac Chandy Mattathilanickal, MS

Wishing you and yours A Holy Lent!

Rev. Fr. Tom Puthusseril, M.S.
Shrine Director

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dT7dGcsrPkQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CeppQy9-gA

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