Cycle B Easter Sunday

A preschool teacher once overheard a very lively conversation among her students. Little Maria
asked her classmates: “Who loves God?” And each one of them, almost simultaneously, wanting to be
heard, shouted, “I do! I do! I do!” But one of her classmates, Little Billy, caught her attention because he
was shouting, “I love Jesus! I love Jesus! I love Jesus!” And so Little Maria tells him, “But Jesus died!”
To this, Little Billy responded, “I know right? But every Easter He rises from the dead!”
Of course, we know that Jesus died once and for all—one death in exchange for the sins of all
peoples. And after his death he also rose from the dead once. Three days after offering himself to be
nailed to a cross as a sacrifice for our sins, Jesus conquers death and sin by rising from the grave. And
what does he accomplish? He was able to restore the possibility of relating with God once again and to
be united with him forever.
Yes, this is what we profess. However, is this what our circumstances and realities tell us?
We live in very difficult times. Many people have stopped reading or watching the news as if doing
so will make our world better. Many of us perhaps wonder that, if indeed Christ has risen from the dead
and is Lord of the Universe, then why is his presence not very evident in our part of the Universe. There
is just too much violence hatred all over the world: people being killed because of religion, race, beliefs
or ideology. People believed to be drug addicts, commmunists, enemies of the state because they fight
for justice, one by one being executed. And in this pandemic, when we say we need to heal as one, many
public servants act out of self-interest and thrive in corruption that has been socially accepted, leaving
thousands of people to die and thousands more are pushed closer to their grave because they are just too
poor to cope with the economic and psycho-emotional demands of pandemic life.
So where is the Resurrected Christ? Who gets to see him?

The Gospels tell us that after Jesus rose from the dead, He was seen by some, but not by others. Some
understood the events that followed his passion and death, while others did not. And for those who got
the meaning of events, some allowed it to change their lives, while others remained indifferent to him,
and still others hardened their hearts and even rejected the significance of the Resurrection in their lives.
What accounts for the difference? What makes some see the resurrection while others do not? What
lets some understand the mystery and embrace it, while others remain indifferent or averse to it?
Victor Hugo says: “All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love.” In other
words, whenever we behold anything or anyone from the perspective of love, then we see correctly and
understand.
We see this in how John describes the events of Easter Sunday in his gospel. Because the Lover seeks
out the Beloved, Mary of Magdala goes out in search of Jesus, wanting at least to embalm his dead
body. But the grave was empty. And so she runs and seeks out Peter and the beloved disciple and tells
them about the open grave and missing body. The two then race towards the tomb, but the disciple
whom Jesus loved out-runs Peter and gets to the tomb first, but he doesn’t enter, he waits for Peter to go
in first. 
Peter enters the empty tomb, sees the pieces of cloth that were used to cover the body of Jesus, but
Peter does not understand. Then the beloved disciple enters. He sees and he does understand.
 The disciple who loved Jesus, the disciple beloved by Jesus, understood because Love allows
him to see and understand the mystery of the resurrection. The other evangelists report that Mary
of Magdala eventually see Jesus. The other apostles, including Thomas who originally doubted the
resurrection eventually saw Jesus in the flesh. They were able to see Jesus because they were able
to behold Him with love and in love. And this is why, after the resurrection, some saw Jesus but others
did not. Some understood the resurrection while others did not. We can only see and understand the
mystery of the resurrection from the perspective of love. The mystery is there. Whether we see it or
don’t, whether we understand it or don’t, depends on what is going on inside out hearts.
And this brings us to our second point: How do we get to see and understand the resurrection?
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Again, the gospels tell us that, on the morning of the resurrection, the women-followers of Jesus set
out for the tomb of Jesus, carrying spices, expecting to anoint and embalm Jesus’ body. But they come
upon an empty tomb. They did not see the body but an angel instead, who tells them: “Why are you
looking for the living among the dead? Go instead into Galilee and you will find him there!”
Go instead into Galilee. Why Galilee? What’s in Galilee? And how do we get there?
Galilee is a place close to the heart of Jesus for it is the place where he called his first disciples and
where he created memories with them that they eventually ended up being his closest friends. Galilee is
where they dreamed and actually worked for the Kingdom of God, it is the place and time when their
hearts most burned with hope and enthusiasm. And now, after the crucifixion, just when they feel that
the dream is dead, that their faith is only fantasy, they are told to go back to the place where it all began:
“Go back to Galilee. He will meet you there!”
Ultimately that’s what the resurrection asks us to do: To go back to Galilee, to return to the
dream, hope, his teachings, and most importantly, the love and friendship Jesus shared with us, the
things that made our hearts burn but has somehow been lost through disillusionment.
And this is one of the essential messages of Easter: Whenever we are discouraged in our faith,
whenever our hopes seem to be crucified, we need to go back to Galilee and Jerusalem, that is,
back to the dream and the road of discipleship that we had embarked upon before things went
wrong. Go back to the original inspiration.

“When I despair, I remember that all through history, the way of truth and love has always won.
There have been murderers and tyrants, and for a time they seem invincible. But in the end they always
fall. Think of it, always.” These words of Gandhi can be helpful in times of difficulty. They remind us
that when the world seems to mock our faith because evil seems to have the final word in our lives, we
behold the mystery of the resurrection with love, we go back to the time spent with Jesus, we go back to
the moments when we have undeniably felt his love and friendship and allow the Resurrected Christ to
once again ignite the dream and the desire to make sure that goodness triumphs in this world, hoping
and believing that goodness will have the last word, because he has said so.

“What I see is not what I am looking at but what I am looking with. And so my first and principal duty...is to find
my eyes of love.” - Dan Jones (journalist)

“God looks at the world through the eyes of love. If we, therefore, as human beings made in the image of God,
also want to see reality rationally, that is, as it truly is, then we, too, must learn to look at what we see with love.”
- Roberta Bondi (theologian)