April 8, 2007 At Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK
Acts 10:343-43 + 1 Corinthians 5: 6-8 + John 20: 1-9
With some amusement I was entertained this past winter with news reports that an ancient ossuary had been found with inscriptions that led some to speculate that it contained the bones of Jesus of Nazareth. My amusement at the enthusiasm of the reporters and the speculation of many was short-lived when I began to realize how poorly we have communicated our faith and our experience: the purpose of our assembly here today.
The faith of Christians does not rest upon an empty tomb, nor upon the absence of a body or bones. Our faith rests upon the continuing experience of the Risen One: upon our experience of Christ living among us. Somehow we have failed to make that clear, failed to realize and make it obvious that Resurrection Faith is more than curiosity about an empty tomb. It is a summons to return to the words and deeds of Jesus. When we get that right, a box of bones isn’t going to make any difference.
If we fail to get that right, fail to remember that the Resurrection is about experience, then faith degenerates into intellectual assent, dogmas, and tenets of faith over which people can and do argue, debate, accuse, blame and criticize and to our shame, sometimes even go to war! Those who address the Resurrection as though it were an idea become world-weary, and the cynicism of prosperity leaves them with no way to resist much less recognize death here and now. They are left with a pitiable hope for the next world as f death were an enemy awaiting us at the end of this life; something off in the future.
But it isn’t. Death is not something yet to come, private and personal. Death is everywhere every day. It is a power here and now that strangles the life out of people. There is economic death of those we allow to die of famine. There is political death for the countless who live under oppression. There is social death for the handicapped, gay people, the lonely, abused, and any who seem to be “different.” There is the noisy death that comes from bombs and missiles, torture and violence. There is the quiet death of the apathetic and those who decide to remain ignorant and live in denial. There is plenty of death, and you don’t have to wait for it to come later. Whatever threatens to diminish or destroy life is near at hand.
Catholics today are summoned to live, proclaim, and celebrate the victory of life by resisting every form of death and violence that saturates our culture. It is our privilege first, and then our duty to bring faith to bear upon death and revolt and protest against it while preserving every form of life.
The raising of Jesus is God’s protest against death and against all who work for death. We are here to affirm and recognize God’s passion for life and for all those threatened and burdened by death. It means rising above apathy and misery and climbing out of cynicism and denial.
We have to get it straight about what went into that tomb before we can understand what was left and what came out. More went into that tomb than a dead body. Hatred went in there. Envy and Lies were put in that tomb. Power, Violence, Abuse, Betrayal, and Jealousy: that is what was buried in that tomb along with the body of one victim of all those things.
There was also something else. Love was buried in there, a love that knew no limits or boundaries; a love that embraced and included everyone. Forgiveness was buried in there: forgiveness for those who asked for it, and for those who didn’t. Mercy was in there; the kind of mercy that tempers judgment and condemnation. What came out? Does love die? I don’t think so. The love of my parents isn’t dead. Anyone of you who have buried a loved one knows that love does not die even when a body is buried. Does Forgiveness die? I don’t think so. The forgiveness to which Jesus bore witness lives on every time we embrace another with understanding patience. So what are we doing here? What’s this all about? All of this is not about a box with or without bones. It is about Life. It is about Love. It is about Mercy and Forgiveness, and it is about our faith, and our duty celebrate, live, and rejoice in what came out of that tomb and what God has chosen to leave buried in there.