It is good to remember that the Resurrection is such a major even and foundation stone for our faith, that it cannot be celebrated adequately in one day. This week called the Octave of Easter, is considered as an extension of Easter Sunday...8 days treated as one and the same. And, to boot, the Easter Season continues for 50 days, till Pentecost. We can't dwell on it enough nor exhaust its significance.
In today's gospel selection (Mt 28: 8-15), we read of the encounter with the risen Jesus by Mary Magdalene and "the other Mary", most probably, the wife of Clopas. They fell at his feet, embraced them and did them homage, similar to the woman a few weeks before who washed his feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. A beautiful act of love.
In contrast to this act of love and adoration, the gospel continues with the chief priests bribing the soldiers who guarded the tomb to say that while they slept. people came, rolled back the stone and stole the body, in a sense verifying its mysterious disappearance which believers understand as the resurrection, predicted by Jesus, and preached with solid conviction by Peter, Paul and the other disciples. As Paul said, if Jesus had not risen, vain would be our faith. (cf. 1 Cor 15).We do not believe in a dead man, nor a symbol, but a real person come back from the dead and fully alive. With joy we too can embrace the feet of the Living God, the Living Jesus.
Bro. Rene
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